Wastage
We throw away half our food
Up to half of all food wasted due to overly strict sell-by dates and refusal of supermarkets to sell produce which doesn’t look perfect.
One sign of a sick society is the wastage. Seen by some as a sign of “First Worldliness”, it is in fact a sign of a dysfunctioning of the spirit. Small example – other species kill for the necessity but humankind kills indiscriminately for sport and recreation and fornicates indiscriminately for the same reason.
Indiscriminately is the operative word.
There’s surely a happy medium. I was invited to stay overnight at some friends and in the cupboard in my room were TVs, old toys, other technica, basketball hoops, bats and so on and so on.
On the other hand, too austere was a mate who had a small room with nothing but a rug and a desk. In the desk were redeemable certificates for his wealth. His bed was a foldout which lived in the understairs cupboard. That idea appealed but it did seem a bit bleak compared to the average family home in the First World.
I’m seeing my neighbour today to give him half my fish and beef. The cheapest deals on good fish and meat unfortunately mean buying more for less cost but I don’t actually want more fish and meat – I want what I can eat. To take half the fish would have meant a cost only 50p lower. I’ll pay for better quality but this was the same quality, subject to a weird pricing policy.
As far as I can see, the trick is to buy only what is going to cover hunger and a bit more, buying less more often so that when the use by date is reached, very little remains. With judicious shopping around, the weekly bill can be reduced enormously.
The spin-off is that one still eats quality but less of it, which keeps obesity within bounds.
Filed under: Politics & economics
Brussels has been nagging Britain to put VAT on food for years, to bring us into line with the continent. I think it will be fatty food first, ostensibly for health reasons (like ciggies).
Officially-sponsored complaints about obesity and waste are just cover, even though these are genuine issues.
Which rather makes a nonsense of the food crisis claimed by the boss of Waitrose earlier this week saying that prices will have to go up due to shortages blamed on the weather. For every crop that fails there are others that have done better than expected. Artificially creating a shortage is a well known method by the corporates to increase their margins particularly when people are trading down the ‘food chain’.
The other report about food wastage in the home turned out to be mostly nonsense too as they had included things like vegetable peelings. Only about 10% was actual food that could have been eaten. That was the level of wastage I used to try to achieve when I had my bakery and deli.
Both fair comment and Chuckles is most scathing about it too in some articles he’s sent.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2259883/We-throw-away-HALF-food-Supermarket-deals-confusing-sell-dates-mean-families-waste-480-year-groceries-eat.html
As Raedwald says:
“Both seem to make the mistake I’ve commented on previously, assuming (for the purpose of a headline-grabbing figure) that food waste is worth the same as food. It isn’t. Half a pint of rancid milk isn’t worth half the cost of a fresh pint; potato peelings aren’t worth the same as whole spuds, nor beef bones the same as a whole rib roast. Most of the food waste we produce is inedible, by-products of preparation such as peel or carrot tops or chicken carcasses, or stuff that’s too old.
In fact the IME acknowledge that only a tenth of the £480 ‘worth’ of food thrown away by each family is edible. That makes £48 a year. Or about a pound a week. But I guess the headline “British families throw away £1 a week each of edible food” isn’t what they’re after.”
With food, does it not come down to the presence of a freezer in the house or not?
I don’t have and so the choices have to be more accurate. With refrigeration, leftovers can still be used two days later. I can only allow them next day stored as they are jars in near freezing water.
It does affect what one buys and how much of it.
We don’t waste food and I don’t know anyone who does. A few fish skins are discarded, stale crusts go out for the birds and peelings in the composter.
The ubiquitous ‘up to’, again. Marketers use this farcical ‘amount’ to draw the punters in so as to flog things to them. So presumably this means from zero in some cases( most?: probably) to half in some very rare instances.