Reducing Food Waste
Reducing Food Waste
Food is discarded by the ton every day in the United States. . . 80 billion pounds a year. Not only is this morally unconscionable when more than 50 million Americans are food insecure, but it is also an environmental catastrophe. There are things each of us can do to help reverse this growing problem.
D. S. Mitchell
Huge Loss
As a Sierra Club member I receive the organizations quarterly magazine. ‘Sierra’ The Magazine of the Sierra Club (Winter/2021) published a short article by Paul Rauber on the topic of food waste. The article was eye opening for me. After all, I try to do my part; I carefully separate my recycling, buy local, refuse excess packaging, advocate for organic, yet I am guilty of wasting food. Apparently, I am a small part of the problem, but when multiplied by millions, we have a huge problem of food waste in this country.
At the Supermarket
In my youth I worked as a checker at a major west coast grocery chain. I remember the waste was high. We contributed large amounts of product to local food pantries, slashed prices on expiring produce, dehydrated some items for bulk sales, but we also filled the dumpster out back with a large amount of food waste. Statistics in Rauber’s article indicate that grocery stores alone throw away 3.5 million tons of food each year, mostly dairy and produce. But it isn’t just grocery stores filling the dumpsters that are causing the problem.
Environmental Impact
In 2020, farmers plowed under millions of tons of vegetables and ranchers killed thousands of heads of livestock because restaurants closed during the COVID-19 pandemic and there was no market for the food. Whether its the asparagus you let die in the crisper or the broccoli your toddler refuses to eat; it all ends up in the landfill. Of course, as already noted, there is a moral failure when there is hunger in a country as rich as the United States, but it is also an environmental catastrophe. Rauber states in his article, “Discarded food is the single largest component of U.S landfills. There it becomes the country’s third largest source of methane.” Methane is a greenhouse gas that develops as our wasted, uneaten food rots in the landfill.
Reducing Grocery Store Waste
Don’t be misled. Just because the label says, “sell by” or “use before” does not mean the food is poisonous the day past the date on the package. This label speaks to “peak quality.” Use common sense. If it looks good, smells fine, and tastes ok, use it. Don’t throw it away, just use it as soon as possible.
The Grotesque
The twisted and ugly make up 40% of fruits and vegetables. These items are often discarded because they fail to meet the exacting cosmetic standards of the marketplace. Both Walmart and Whole Foods experimented with selling the “odd” looking produce at drastically reduced prices, but have abandoned the effort. Full Harvest, a non-profit, channels these oddities to canners and juice makers, while websites like misfitsmarket.com sell subscriptions for home delivery of food that might otherwise end up in the landfill.
Zero Waste Goal
Perishables are lost by supermarkets for a variety of reasons. Deli prepared foods don’t last, produce displays are ridiculously oversized, managers over estimate customer demand, each cause resulting in waste. Most of the grocery chains are large donors to food banks and that helps reduce waste. However, the goal is zero waste and we are not even close to that goal. According to the Center for Biological Diversity only Kroger, Walmart, and ADUSA, have committed to zero waste by 2030. For more information on ending grocery store waste go to grocerywaste.com.
Cutting Waste at Home
The recent Sierra article advised consumers to buy a new refrigerator, especially if you have an older model, say 15 years or older. New models offer many new features, shallow shelves, double doors. Sierra offered these ideas about storing foods. 1.) Designate a “use first shelf” for items that need to be used ASAP. 2.) Segregate your produce. Certain fruits and vegetables; apples, melons, avocados, tomatoes produce ethylene (a gas that hastens ripening). It is important to separate these items from ethylene-sensitive produce like broccoli, asparagus, carrots and lettuce. 3.) Label left overs. I use blue painter’s tape to date and describe contents. 4.) Organize sections in your fridge for like items-cheese, sauces, condiments. 5.) Use air tight storage containers to preserve food for twice as long as standard containers.
Five Steps to Zero Waste
REDUCE: The place to start ending food waste is to stop buying more food than you can use. Maybe that membership to the big box store isn’t such a good deal if you throw away half of that 10 pound box of frozen French fries. Plan your menus a week in advance, shop for those menus only. Remember, don’t buy from the end bases and never ever shop hungry. It is possible that you will notice several hundred to even thousands in annual savings.
FEED YOUR PEOPLE: You bought it, eat it. Experiment with new recipes, Paul Rauber says, “abundance is an opportunity to exercise your culinary imagination.” Don’t be the person who throws away good food because you are are bored with it and can’t think up a new way to cook it.
FEED OTHER PEOPLE: Share. Too much food means you are obligated to share the bounty. Your tomato plants provided an abundant crop, distribute to your gardenless neighbors. I have spent years sharing bumper crops of zucchini squash with friends and neighbors, and even a stranger or two. I can only make and freeze so much zucchini bread. Make a few calls. Many non-profit organizations will send volunteers to your home to pick fresh fruit from your trees or harvest vegetables from your garden on behalf of local food banks. It breaks my heart to see apples rotting around the base of trees. A phone call, could have made a difference.
FEED ANIMALS: If you live in a rural area this is an easy one. If you live in an urban area contact your local agricultural extension office for opportunities to donate food scraps to farm animals. A clutch of chickens are great recyclers of leftovers. The pet dog or cat are also co-0perative recyclers. However human food fed to pets on a regular basis can lead to obesity.
COMPOST: Excess food can be effectively recycled in a back yard compost pile. When composted, the nutrients from that food waste can be recycled into the soil. Composting also precludes the production of methane from rotting food. **Caution: if not cared for assiduously, food scraps in conventional compost piles may attract rodents and other critters. Sierra suggests using a worm box if most of your composting is food waste.
Education brings change. Let’s stop wasting food.
