Have you eaten your Christmas leftovers?
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
By Megan Sweas
Comments (4)
In America, we waste 40 percent of our entire food supply or 1,400 calories per person per day, according to a new study.
That number is just shocking, and I think it needs to make us re-evaluate our conversation about hunger, farming, and our policies around food.
The argument often is that we need the efficient methods of big ag, dependent as it is on oil, fertilizers, and monocrops, to keep food cheap and feed the world. But if we're just throwing out all that food anyway, perhaps we need a better system of distributing the food. We have more than enough food; we just need to get it in the hands of those without.
How about changing our policies to encourage more local food production and distribution so that we can eliminate waste?
Something to think about as you finish that leftover turkey and cookies from your holiday meals. (For more, read Greener Pastures on Catholic farmers.)
60 Minutes had a story on water scarcity in California. Despite the governor's optimism that we can have it all, we're going to need to change the way we live--especially the way we grow our food and consume it.
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Food wasting really has been
By Anonymous (not verified) on Tuesday, November 2, 2010Food wasting really has been a big problem in this country for a long time. We are a very wasteful nation in several aspects of our lives. We use up more energy, food, fossil fuels, etc. than most other countries. We are a gluttoness nation and we need to reel in our usage quite a bit. In my family, we have been making a concerted effort to only eat what we need and if we have any extra food we either save it to eat at a later date or one of us will take it to give to homeless on our way to work or we find some way to use it rather than just throwing it away to spoil.
I invite you to read Thomas Sowell...
By Jerry (not verified) on Sunday, January 3, 2010...before writing another post about centralized planning. Market based economies have produced an abundance of food. It has nothing to do with the shortage of food run in countries run by Marxists advocating centralized planning in North Korea or Zimbabwe.
Centralized planning causes unintended consequences when we are so arrogant as to think we can figure out the billions or transactions made by millions or people far away better than they can.
Centralized policies to limit food waste will have unintended consequences despite good intentions. In another post you said that global warming polices shouldn't stop a family from going camping. However, despite your good intentions, when you advocate raising taxes on energy and minivans, it wil have the unintended consequence of stopping some people from enjoying a simple family vacation.
Perhaps we should never eat out since food waste is probably greatest at restaurants. Perhaps we can ask the server what is about to rot and order that item. we can also become "freegans." If you can laugh at the left a little, check out the Goode Family Freegan episode.
Sort of agreed on food policy
By Megan Sweas on Tuesday, January 5, 2010I think we'd actually agree on this issue, Jerry. When I argue for policies that would help create a more channels for local, sustainable produce, I mean doing away with the government's reach into the acgricultural industry in the form of subsidies awarded to those who grow corn, wheat, and rice. Level the playing field a bit and make fruits and vegetables more competitive with high fructose corn syrup. Some grants to local food projects aren't going to do much damage to the ag industry.
Since it's mostly up to the free market, I think the food thing has to be about personally convincing people that local produce is not only good for you and for the environment, but also delicious (see my other post on this).
Funny, I had a friend who "dumpster dived." I would never do that, but he's a bit crazy and didn't have much money at the time. He said that the food we though out is perfectly good. Eww! Still, we could just not throw it out. I worked with a cool organization in college, Campus Kitchens, that took leftover food from the dining halls and delivered it to homebound people and a soup kitchen (within safety regulations).
Nobody watches 60 Minutes anymore and.............
By Steve in AZ (not verified) on Wednesday, December 30, 2009...........nobody is swallowing the "we (Americans) need to change our ways" story line. It's so........2008. It's almost 2010. Times have changed!
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