Food Waste

I agree with taking up composting, this can make a huge difference alone. Thanks for the article and the recommendation of “The Scandal of Food Waste” looks interesting.

Wow I didn’t know the problem was this big. Those are some scary stats. I guess we live in a wasteful society. I try to recycle everything I can, but since I live in an apartment, composting is not a practical option. I do feel bad about all the food that ends up in the garbage.

Thanks for this great post. It’s an environmental problem that doesn’t seem to get enough attention. Like you say, planning is key! It’s easy to end up buying more food than you can use. @Laptop_Carrying_Case, more cities are starting to offer curbside composting…hopefully it will come to your area soon.

Those stats are mind boggling. I didn’t know it was that bad. Thanks for the information.

Food is thrown out partly to avoid liability. But, I think many shelters and food kitchens would be happy to be able to use their common sense and take left overs when they are still good.

One thing I do at restaurants sometimes is to ask for a to-go box at the start of my meal, divide the food in half and take it home. Most restaurants give far more food than most of us should eat at a time anyway.

I like your site. Thanks again.
Susan

Really a bad situation.. I terribly feel sorry when food gets wasted.. I try to avoid this situation. Ordering appropriately is the best solution when your eating outside. Many people try to order all the food at once.
I think one should order according to the food needed. If the ordered food is not enough you can always add your order.. atleast you’ll have an idea about the quantity.

Jeez! We don’t even know what it is like to be hungry…do we. In our developed countries, food comes off as more of a right than a privelige. Sad, considering over half the planet is absolutely starving as we waste all of this stuff.

I also had no idea that this problem was that bad. I always hear about restaurants throwing out a lot of food, but I didn’t know this problem exists across the country. I guess people are just too picky and want everything as fresh as possible. Other times it is just poor planning when shopping or when deciding how big a meal to prepare.

We’re a lucky we got a lot of foods compare with Africa and some Asia country But the problem it will come to us if we don’t plan wisely . I agreed with the author some of the ideas , especially buy only what we need …

Those are some surprising statistics, personally I think food waste is a serious problem, business’s for the most part try to be efficient with their money and budget, but in my opinion they also need to learn how to be efficient with their food, and not be as wasteful.

What about buffet’s? Think of how much food is wasted at those restaurants compared to others… perhaps a better solution for a buffet would be a weighted buffet, meaning you pay by the weight.

Till then,

Jean

it’s a terrible situation, millions of people r dying just for not having food, but on the other hand people waste food in a huge amount. Here in asia we can see this thing mostly in marriage ceremonies where people just want to show that they have never eat food or will never eat food after this, and after eating a small amount they waste all the remaining food 🙁 and sorry for my bad english, thanks.

Good article. It is always amazing to see statistics on how much we waste when there are so many people going hungry. I think if everyone did just one little thing differently we could save an amazing amount of resources on this earth.

We have been composting for a few years now, and i agree, it is important to be aware of what we are doing to our environment. It is amazing to consider how much we waste, when so many go hungry. What a world we live in!

Here in the Austin area, you can go volunteer on farms and get free/discounted produce. They also sell the “not so pretty” looking fruits and veggies at a cheaper price. I try to buy the cheaper stuff because a) I’m cheap =) and b) if it doesn’t get bought, it goes to waste.

Farms like this are everywhere, I just wish they would become more mainstream. They can be cheaper than a grocery store, and you can actually see where your food is coming from.

This is a huge problem! Society is extremely wasteful – Since we recently moved we now cook all our own meals and left over are either taken for lunch the next day or fed to the neighbors chickens. And their waste is used on our vege patch. We hate seeing our food go to waste!

^^ Sorry about the typos – embarrassing at best

it is simply amazing to realise how much we as human waste on food.

it is simply amazing to realise how much we as human waste on food.

I can never understand why people want fruit out of season. Here in the UK out of season apples taste terrible and have come a long way. English apples in season are great. The same applies to strawberries.

Shocking to see that 1/5 of our food becomes waste, I would not have guessed that amount. I believe that living green and awareness is the only answer. Raising your kids to care about tomorrow will change our future, as I know in the 70’s when I was raised, there was no talk of conservation…just consume, consume!

We can begin the green revolution from home by stop wasting food. As for the restaurants, it would be good practice if they distribute the left over to some feed the hungry kind of organization on a regular basis.

One thing that I do is try and go to the grocery store more frequently and only buying what I need when I need it. This involves living closer to a grocery store, but I chose where I live so that I could walk to more places. This not only helps with food waste, but with environmental waste in general.

I started doing this when I was in Europe and I didn’t have a car or a large refrigerator to put stuff in. Although my cupboard is relatively empty, I like being able to have the freshest food possible each day and deciding what I want at the time. Although it may take a while to get used to, I think the advantages are many.

Don’t show this to my grandma. She flips if anyone leaves anything on their plate. But because of her, I have always finished what I have set aside to eat.