Half of All Food Produced Worldwide is Wasted

re: Half of All Food Produced Worldwide is Wasted

skip smyth — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 02:25:17 GMT

Had a Grandfather, an old Scot from Aberdeen. He always carried a 'healthy chunk' of cheddar cheese wrapped in his pocket. No matter how green, he peeled with his trusty jack knife and consumed. Lived to age of 76. I, being a single male and residing in a large city's core, shop for groceries at either Safeway, or Co-op. Romaine lettuce and kale are only sold in large head, or bunch. Have piled it upon my sardine, or salmon sandwich to the max. making bites extremely awkward, if not sloppy. Squeeze as much air from the bag as is humanly possible prior to returning to rear of refridgerator. Goes black and slimey before I can consume. Usually throw about half in garbage. I am frugal, hey there is Scot here (Bah! Humbug!) and hate wasting that for which I have paid. Why do they not have half heads, or bunches, especially in core stores where singles compose considerable percentage of population?

re: Half of All Food Produced Worldwide is Wasted

Heather Marsh — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 15:48:54 GMT

started losing track, here!

For vegetables like carrot, cauliflower and broccoli, freezing can be successful if they are at first 'blanched'.

My mother used to do this by setting a large pot of salted water to boil, then using a colander to dunk the cut vegetables in the water for a very short time. Then rinsed with cold water,drained and placed in freezer bags or containers.

Very handy for the junior cook (me)

re: Half of All Food Produced Worldwide is Wasted

Islander — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 14:15:58 GMT

You've heard about vegans, but what about freegans?

Use your Google skills for more info. Here's an excerpt from one dumpster diver's site:

"The first day I dived for food, I had just been IN the store buying marked down 1/2 gallons of orange juice for $0.50. While I was doing the rest of my shopping, someone came with a cart and loaded up all the orange juice into a shopping cart.

"So, I hung around to see what happened to it. They wheeled the cart out and threw scores of gallons and 1/2 gallons of orange juice away...that were still 2 days from their due date. They were pasteurized. They were still cold.

It was winter, so it was cool. I went to the dumpster and grabbed as many as I could carry. This experience was life changing for me.

"Where would you draw the line? Would you not buy the marked down OJ? Would you take it out of the guy's cart if he were a few feet from the dumpster and asked you if you wanted it for free? Would you take it out of the dumpster?

"We food divers tap into the sad fact that we're throwing away 96 BILLION pounds of perfectly good food into land fills each year in this country. By EPA estimates, we're spending $4.8 BILLION a year disposing of that perfectly good food.

"You can read more about food waste here:,Food Recovery and Gleaning - USDA

I'm working on a separate page for food diving. Check back later."

Source: members.aol.com/.../thedumpsterlady.htm

re: Half of All Food Produced Worldwide is Wasted

swdhj — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 14:07:13 GMT

Distribution energy costs are reduced when production is close to end users. When energy prices rise, producers will want to adjust by shifting to a more distributed food production system.

re: Half of All Food Produced Worldwide is Wasted

curious7 — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 12:26:03 GMT

They who control food, control the world. We have too many people who want to fiddle with the way food is grown, (GMO) and with how it is used, (Ethenol). Ethenol is no great savior when it comes to the cost of fueling our cars, and trucks. To get the same amount of output from ethenol, as gas gasoline, we would have to use more ethenol. A boom for Monsanto. Indeed if we were really serious about fueling vehicles with ethenol, we would allow "hemp" to be grown in this country. Oh no someone would start using it to get high. Truthfully it would take a "joint" the size of a utility pole to get high from hemp.

There are various organization around the world who want to set world food standards, and believe me they do not want healthy food on the market. This in turn aids BIG PHARMA in it's quest to have everyone on earth on some kind of prescription drug in the not too distant future. subject CODEX ALIMENTARIUS. This is a round about move to control world population growth. As our government continues to be in bed with other nations whose unlying aim continues to be world domination, under the illusion of world peace. To accomplish this they seek control of our natural resources, food and the like. These people have found that open bloodshed is not the solution.

Sadly though too many of us are asleep.

re: Half of All Food Produced Worldwide is Wasted

fingurl — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 12:13:51 GMT

I gave up cans 3+ years ago. Do we really know what is in there? I seriously doubt it. For my fresh veggies, the only ones that I will freeze have a very low water content. I have found that the more water is in the vegetable, the more likely it will turn to mush when it is dethawed.

Living in Florida, I have seen those "containers of emergency food" that have a shelf life of ten years. I have yet to read a label from one of them unless I am close to a rest-room in case I would become sick to my stomach. The fact that people actually buy them is in of itself a sad situation. People are so brainwashed these days they believe anything.

Remember the days when the grocery store consisted of fruits, veggies, dairy, meats, and cleaning products? I do. There was very little if nothing with processed containers of food ready to eat.

And to think that I got tired of my parents saying, "remember the good ole' days?"

re: Half of All Food Produced Worldwide is Wasted

GrnSmoothy — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 11:48:07 GMT

All the cooked food left over in a restaurant kitchen after closing is thrown away. Restaurants waste an absolutely unbelievable amount of food, enough to feed the homeless in every city. However they are not allowed to give it away. Furthermore, a homeless person could sue a restaurant if they were to get food poisoning from free food.

re: Half of All Food Produced Worldwide is Wasted

Islander — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:46:49 GMT

The amount of food wasted by restaurants, stores, hospitals, schools, and in home kitchens is staggering. Someone told me yesterday that a local food bank has to discard fresh produce - 20# bags of potatoes, fresh winter squash, etc. - because it is not taken, and I suspect that's because people either do not know how to prepare fresh food, or are unwilling to spend the time cooking it.

But there is a darker side to this. We often hear statements like, "Food wasted at (fill in the blank) could feed 50,000 people in Darfur." In fact, massive donations of food sent to Darfur are sold by the government and never get to the hungry. Another example: in Sweden during World War II, people went hungry and food was rationed. Why? Sweden was growing more than enough to feed its own people, but it was more profitable to export it.

Those who know me at all well will tell you how much I abhor waste. But for "the rest of the story," follow the money....

re: Half of All Food Produced Worldwide is Wasted

Rogway — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 01:15:11 GMT

And the day shall come when ye shall say--give me food for I am hungry, and give me drink for I am thirsty.

And I shall say--I have given thee all that thy can eat and all that thy can drink. I have given thee means of growing and purifying. I have given the the ways of communucation and travel and clean air, but thou hast used up everything unwisely.

Yes, thou hast used everything I have given thee---except---thou common sense...now what shall ye do?

re: Half of All Food Produced Worldwide is Wasted

_No_Name_ — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 16:16:06 GMT

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re: Half of All Food Produced Worldwide is Wasted

avagothen — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 15:22:41 GMT

The results of a food wastage survey were reported recently here in the UK. The findings estimated that 1.3 million pots of yoghurt were thrown in the trash, unopened, every day! Not to mention thousands of whole chickens, millions of apples, potatoes, eggs and countless other foods - about 1/3 of all the food bought. Go to http://www.wrap.org.uk/retail/food_waste/research/the_food_we_waste.html for more details.

I'm sure I'm not alone here in being staggered by this. I was brought up to never throw food away. I either eat or compost everything. Part of the problem is greed and thoughtlessness whilst in the supermarkets, but it's also down to the fear that's been driven into people that anything past it's 'best before' date will make you ill, when these dates are really only there to cover the manufacturers liabilities.

Whenever I hear friends/family/colleagues complain about the recent and impending increases in food prices, I politely suggest that if they reduced the amount they wasted then the increases could be nullified or even reversed. Strangely, nobody seems to think that they are the wasteful ones... throwing away out-of-date food is considered acceptable behaviour; the idea of buying less to start with takes some effort to get into heads.

I hope that someday people will learn to choose for themselves what they believe. Good on you, Dr M, for helping us to do that.