We’re all guilty of it. We head to the grocery store, buy something we want on a whim, and forget about it until we find ourselves thinking: “What’s that smell?”. You have good intentions I’m sure, but shit happens. That’s ok. I’m not here to chastise you for your honest mistakes. But instead of that being a “normal” thing, let’s try a little harder, and here’s why:
I’m here to tell you right now, you are NOT ALONE. According to the FAO of the UN, about 1.3 tons of the food produced in the world for human consumption gets lost or wasted. That’s roughly US$ 680 billion worth of food in industrialized countries. Besides the economic loss, it’s a huge waste of resources too: water, land, and energy. If your jaw is dropping right now, I’m with you there! That is a staggering and heart-breaking statistic. Have I contributed to this? Absolutely. Do I want to do better? Absolutely. Will I ever be perfect? Nope.
The big question is, what contributes to this waste? Is it the consumer? The producers? Restaurants?
The answer isn’t quite that simple: It’s a mixture of all of these plus the regulations surrounding the food industry and the culture around it, especially in industrialized countries. At the retail level, the majority of food waste is due to quality standards that are focused on appearance and the aesthetics of the food. As food production became more industrialized and people became more and more separated from the production process, a false quality standard was developed. Of course, we do need quality standard so we aren’t consuming bad produce but we took it a little too far. Somehow it became “the normal” that carrots HAD to be straight and perfectly orange. Anything other than that was “bad” and no one would buy it. Well, no one told the carrots. Some of them still think it’s cool to grow in a wave-like pattern or grow two bodies and intertwine them together. What’s wrong with those carrots? Absolutely nothing. But those carrots don’t make it to the shelf in the grocery store because no one will buy them. Instead, they’re tossed.
How do we solve this problem? Simple: Erase the stigma that food has to look perfect. You can do this my supporting local farmers or produce delivery companies that don’t judge an apple by its roundness or a cucumber by it’s straightness. Unfortunately, body shaming food isn’t the only problem though.
A huge majority of food wastes comes from restaurants. Although a good number of them try to offset this by donating left over food to food banks and non-profit organizations, they can’t do this with a half-eaten salad, burger, or already processed and cooked products.
But Jaky, food waste is compostable! It’ll just disappear in a landfill.
Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Composting is actually a pretty complicated chemical process that requires very specific conditions for the food to decompose into useful products. Landfills do not provide that sort of environment. Yes, it will eventually break down but at the MUCH slower rate of only 25-50% over 10-15 years depending on the type of food.
So how about this problem? How to do handle this?
Eat out less, order what you know you can eat in one sitting, or bring your trusty reusable container to pack away the things you don’t finish. I’m not here to tell you not to eat out. I LOVE eating out and trying new places. But let’s make it a treat rather than “the norm”. And if you do need to or want to eat out, try supporting restaurants that donate or compost their leftover food rather than putting it in the regular landfill waste bin.
Some cities and states are moving towards more sustainable waste management. These places require restaurants to have separate compost waste receptacles to encourage the food waste to actually make it to compost facilities rather than into landfills. This is a huge step in the right direction to handling this epidemic. I encourage you to support these changes by advocating for them. Write your local policy makers encouraging them to introduce systems like this and support legislation that addresses this issue.
Food waste is a topic I could probably write a novel on, but I’m sure you’re already getting tired of reading this. If you want to hear more about reducing food waste and the implications of food waste, let me know in the comments!
The bottom line is: We need to do better. And we CAN do better. It might take a little more effort like meal planning or going out of your way to make sure you compost things but ignoring this problem any further is irresponsible and extremely wasteful. This wasted food takes up space in landfills and it could have been used in so many different ways.
But all is not lost! Stay tuned for my next blog post which highlights easy and achievable steps you can take to reduce your food waste!
Sustainability is our responsibility.
Love,
The Sustainable Vet