food policy analyst an economist has pointed out that international reserves are actually the best away keeping food reserves is actually the best way to make markets work because it gives countries the confidence to know that there's enough food out there so they don't have to close off their borders ok ronald you want to respond to that before we move on to one of the and again you're right there is no international police force to keep those markets open largely because the world trade organization. food was excluded from free trade rules of the world trade organization the doha round which is unfortunately collapsed was aiming at exactly that problem of trying to open up free trade in food and to guarantee it through the world trade organization and i would hope that we would move in that direction and that the people on the panel here would be in favor of pushing forward those negotiations in the future because then you would have rules that would apply and would certainly help stabilize markets well i mean that's a good point david if i go to you i think many of the problems and y

food to the people that really need it all social luzzi policy analyst for the natural resources defense council joins us now he's also a contributor she excuse me is a contributor to the and our d.c. blog switchboard hi there syesha so alarming information you guys put out there america has always been known as a land of plenty but considering the economic times that we're in today you know people trying to do more with less what do you make of this statistic well that's right liz thanks so much for having me on so right now i mean imagine you go to the grocery store and you leave with three big bags of groceries and you just drop one in the parking lot and never bother to stop and pick it up it sounds pretty ridiculous but that's essentially what's happening in america today and that's taking a big toll in our economy it's costing americans one hundred sixty five billion dollars every year in food that just goes right into the garbage for the average american family that's more than two thousand two hundred dollars every year and so at a time when a lot of americans are watching their