SpliFF
Tips for reducing
Cutting food waste
Most people have been brought up not to waste food - I guess few of us haven't heard the "eat up, there
are children starving in X who would love that food" or "if you don't eat your vegetables, you can't have
dessert".
Even with these good intentioned exhortations and threats, food waste continues to be a massive problem.
When we had our bakery years ago, my father used to hate the amount of food he'd throw out each day.
He wasn't even allowed to give it to charities.
When I worked in the fast food industry some years later, things were a little better through the usage of
computer systems that would tell us how much of a product to cook at certain time of day. Still, there was
wastage - in that case it wasn't just food, but a waste of life - the chickens that were slaughtered, only to
be dumped in a bin.
Between agricultural, commercial production and domestic consumption, a criminal amount of food waste
occurs. According to a 2008 report from the Stockholm International Water Institute (PDF) global losses
and wastage may be in the order of 50 percent between field and fork.
In their report, SIWI states that as much as 30 percent of food, worth some US$48.3 billion at the time, is
discarded in the USA alone. A similar percentage is wasted in the UK.
More than food... water and emissions
But it's not just food we're wasting - it's water. Based on the USA's losses, again according to SIWI, it's the
equivalent of wasting 40 trillion liters of water, which is enough water for half a billion people. The energy
that goes into creating the food we waste also contributes to significantly to carbon dioxide emissions.
Food waste reduction tips
Aside from the moral, ethical and environmental issues, reducing food waste can save you a ton of money
each year! In countries such as the USA, Canada, Australia and the UK, food waste reduction can put a
thousand dollars or more back into your pocket every 12 months!
40 SmokinUnderground.com