Watch part two

Filmmaker: Patrick Woodward

The US is a land of plenty. It is one of the world's major producers of food. But every year an incredible 36 billion kilos of food is wasted, thrown away before it ever reaches anyones dinner table.

Many excuses are made for throwing food away, ranging from consumer health and safety to budgeted wastage in commercial agriculture.

But in one of the world's richest societies some find it morally offensive to see perfectly good food being thrown away when there are hungry people who need it.

Now, Americans like Jonathan Meuser have taken it upon themselves to rescue food from the rubbish heap and to challenge the whole system of food distribution using very unconventional methods.

When they are checking out the trash behind supermarkets for discarded but eatable food they are fighting an ideological battle, but some people are fighting simply to survive. 

Patrick Woodward went with his camera to follow people scavenging for food in the land of plenty.