Wasting Food!

[ScottishJohn]

I don't know if any of you caught 'Costing the Earth' BBC Radio 4 Thurday @ 9pm? (For those of you who didn't or who live outside the UK here is a link to where you can listen to the programme online!)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/costingtheearth.shtml

The programme was about the amount of food we in the west waste, and what it costs us to do so. It is not just the cost of the food we waste, but also the eneregy used to grow, transport, package, store, sell and dispose of the unused food. Disposal is especially difficult as much of it goes into landfill and released unused methane gas - one of the biggest contributors to Global warming. Bear in mind if we in the UK buy a mango it has probably been transported from the other side of the world just to go in a landfill when we forget to eat it and it goes rotten in our fruitbowl.

The figures are horrendous! In the UK each person wastes around £400 of food a year. ($756) This comes to over £20 billion a year, ($37 billion) which would cover our council tax! 30 - 40% of all food in the UK is wasted! In the US the figure is closer to 40 - 50% and the total cost to the US is over $100 billion a year - enough to fill the medicaid gap 2.5 times over!

What do you think? Is this something to be proud of? So what are we going to do about it?

 

[Indigo Butterfly]

That is interesting, but I do not buy food to see it go to waste. I do not buy more than we can eat... what little goes to waste because of bruising, etc., goes down the garbage disposal, not in the garbage. Freezer bags, canning, and such should be used for food to be stored until it can be eaten. We were raised frugally, and we continue to live frugally. With couples working, and such, guess there is a lot less time to take the time to store food so it doesn't go to waste, or to see to it that it is consumed. Some people grow fruits and vegetables in the garden, and what does go to waste goes into making compost. Then it is regenerated into the soil for fertilizing. We do need to make a more concerted effort to conserve our food supplies, and to make sure little as possible goes to waste.

 

[ScottishJohn]

That is interesting, but I do not buy food to see it go to waste. I do not buy more than we can eat... what little goes to waste because of bruising, etc., goes down the garbage disposal, not in the garbage. Freezer bags, canning, and such should be used for food to be stored until it can be eaten. We were raised frugally, and we continue to live frugally. With couples working, and such, guess there is a lot less time to take the time to store food so it doesn't go to waste, or to see to it that it is consumed. Some people grow fruits and vegetables in the garden, and what does go to waste goes into making compost. Then it is regenerated into the soil for fertilizing. We do need to make a more concerted effort to conserve our food supplies, and to make sure little as possible goes to waste.

These are all good points - although we must remember that organic waste flushed down the garbage disposal still enters the sewage system, and still has to be disposed of, still creates methane etc. Composting and home growing is an ideal solution if you have the space and the time. When almost half of the food in our countries is being wasted we should be trying not only to be better stewards of the food in our houses but also encourage others to do the same. Another way of preventing wastage is by always shopping locally from small shops (local butchers greengrocers and farm shops) - supermarkets tend to import in bulk and throw away what they cannot sell, both very wasteful practices. By eating food in season, and only eating produce grown locally, we not only buy better food and support our local economies, we also polute less by not buying food that has to be carried from the other side of the world.

 

[ahab]

Very Very good topic if I may say.

Whilst the vast majority of us in the UK can choose what we eat today from just about anything we desire, many people in the world even if they do eat today will have to eat whatever they can get.
Why are we so keen on cheaper food if we are wasting so much of it?

 

[ScottishJohn]

Very Very good topic if I may say.

Whilst the vast majority of us in the UK can choose what we eat today from just about anything we desire, many people in the world even if they do eat today will have to eat whatever they can get.
Why are we so keen on cheaper food if we are wasting so much of it?

Good question!

I have theory - I suppose it is kind of an idiot conspiracy theory But anyway - here it comes.
As far as I can see MOST politics boil down economics. Taxes - how much we are taxed - who gets the benefit of public services, pretty much all policies are based on this. Also the Economy as a whole - which most people don't understand, (most people definately includes me!), and rely on economists to advice our politicians well. I think at the most recent election many people found themselves in a situation where they didn't want to vote for Blair because of his conduct in the War on Terrorism, but they were scared to threaten the stability that Gordon Brown seems to have brought to the economy. (Whether this is anything to do with him I do not know, but on his watch things have been pretty good as compared with the previous conservative government, and that I suspect is about as sophisticated as most peoples economics get.) Opposition to Europe seems in the main tobe a concern about how monetary union would affect our economy, and how common policy has already affected our economy, (although there are some who have more 'patriotic') objections. All in all money seems to be the thread that connects all poitical issues. So I wonder if all our consumerism is a way of keeping the country satisfied - if they have lots of stuff - nice things nice food - they are not on the whole out campaigning on politics - they just let us get on with it. The more we have the better we think it all is. I don't think that there is some mastermind behind all this, just that the luxury we currently enjoy in comparisson to most countries makes us hesitant to rock the boat, or choose anyone too politicaly radical. Which ultimately has to be a bad thing - because we accept a Prime Minister for a third term who has obviously made some very bad descisions. Anyway too political now!