Food Waste - It's Time To Think About How Much We're Producing
Categories: Diet & Weight Loss, Alternative & Green Health, Nutrition & Supplements
Wasting food is a pretty common occurrence these days -- and for those of us trying to shed a few pounds, we tend to think that the extra food is better off in our garbage cans than our bellies. But wasted food has a disastrous effect on the environment, and according to the New York Times, America wastes enough food to fill Madison Square Garden ... each day!
When I was a kid, I went to an eco-friendly summer camp that policed food waste carefully. After every meal, those at each table had to dump wasted food into a bucket and weigh it, and the results would be reported to a guy called the 'food waste buster', who would reward and shame the best and worst teams. Guess what? It worked. We were careful to take only what we could eat, and we made sure we ate every last bite. Even today, I'm conscious of what I leave on my plate.
Weighing your family's food waste might not be the most practical solution, but you can -- and should -- take steps to eliminate the amount you waste. Here are some suggestions:
- Plan your meals ahead of time, and buy only what you need.
- Serve smaller portions. People can always go back for more.
- Save your leftovers, and eat them. Not going to have a chance to? Freeze them for an easy meal later on.
- Shop more often for fresh, perishable items. If you only buy these once a week, you risk them spoiling in your fridge.
- Freeze your produce if it might spoil before you can eat it.
- Look into composting organic items in your garden.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
u262f 11-29-2008 @ 9:01PM
I suspect the bulk of the statistics are due to restaurants, offices, and food that gets shared. I think people try as much as they can to cut down on their own wastes, but we have very strange rituals about considering others. Some cultures are taught to show hospitality by offering guests something when they visit, even if they decline at first. Some guests are taught that it's polite to take a little something when offered to show trust even if they're not hungry.
On the commercial side, the customers of average restaurants are unhappy if they don't get enough food when they eat out, so restaurants have to err on the side of giving portions that are too large rather than too small. Restaurant customers also don't think highly of a restaurant if it runs out of food, so it's better for business in the long term to order too much rather than too little.
This goes for offices and shared food gatherings. The basic problem is that we have a huge food-sharing culture, and when food is shared, it's very difficult to estimate demand. Even when the culture asks for information ahead of time, in my experience, people are horrible about RSVPs these days, so it's hard to estimate how much food to prepare, and even when they do RSVP, they don't know in advance how hungry they'll be. It also socially looks better and more generous to offer/give too much than too little, so people tend to estimate on the high side.
I don't have any suggestions about how to fix the culture, but I do think that people already try their best not to waste food whenever they're in control. Unfortunately, there are just too many situations in which food is wasted because we just don't have enough control over what we're served (such as in restaurants) or what will be eaten (when we're sharing food with others). I think that's where the vast majority of the waste comes from, not from individuals wasting food by themselves.
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