John Oliver Tears Apart How Much Food Americans Waste

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John Oliver is coming for your all-you-can-eat, all-you-can-waste food culture, and for good reason.

During a nearly 18-minute segment on Sunday's "Last Week Tonight," Oliver unleashed a sobering look at America's food waste, and like the HBO host, we should be horrified. The statistics alone will make you feel like garbage, with reports indicating we waste 40% percent of our food every year, or over $165 billion. Oliver also dives into the festering landfill of our food standards, from the absurdity of monster cheeseburger commercials to "produce body-shaming" to the arbitrary "best by" and "use by" dates printed on our food.

We're all guilty, but hopefully we'll think twice about pitching a half a loaf of bread because of the printed date now because, as Oliver points out, "When we dump food into a landfill, we’re essentially throwing a trash blanket over a flatulent food man and Dutch-ovening the entire planet."

Tony Merevick is Cities News Editor at Thrillist and really needs to stop paying so much attention to those stupid "best by" or "use by" or whatever dates. Send news tips to news@thrillist.com and follow him on Twitter @tonymerevick.