Current Event: How Can We Control Food Waste?

I very much dislike wasting food for two main reasons: I see it the same as wasting money. I love eating food.
I am sure that there are many other Americans that feel the same way as I do. But even with this so-called food-waste-contentiousness do we REALLY know how much food waste we have? According to Mary Hoff in her article Everybody hates wasting food- so why do we do it and how can we stop?, the average American family of four throws away $1,500 worth of food in a year and the average American individual throws away $369 worth of food in a year (that's two months worth of car loan payments for me!!). Furthermore, more than twice as much food is wasted at the consumer level than at the retail level. Why do we this? How does this happen? Hoff says that it is due to the lack of awareness of food waste as well as the unawareness to the societal and personal costs we incur that leads us to the amounts of food waste over time. Consider this: from an environmental perspective, food waste results in the literal throwing out of our natural resources. According to a 2009 study from the journal PLOS ONE, fully one quarter of the water used in the U.S. goes to produce food nobody eats!
How can we control this large area of waste in our society? Hoff says we first must start with awareness, but that awareness will not solve all of the problems. Practical solutions need to be offered as well, such as cookery classes, putting leftovers to use, budgeting and planning support, knowing when food is bad, storage information on packaging, etc. Even something as simple as checking what you have in the pantry before you go grocery shopping can make a big difference.
I hope to continue to increase my food-waste-contentiousness as I only buy what is really necessary and encourage others to do the same!