by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
While I, personally, as many of my readers will have come to know, hate waste of any kind and would love to see everything that is considered waste re-purposed and reworked into something (else) useful, I abhor the waste of food and food waste above all.
I know that while some some waste, and this is also and especially true as regards to food, is unavoidable, for one reason or the other, the wholesale waste of food in our nations' kitchens is horrendous.
Having had a childhood where food was not always plentiful and in constant supply, to say the least, wasting food, especially unnecessarily, to me is just an anathema.
My Elders had clandestine “allotments” where we grew green vegetables and potatoes and such – much left to Nature to look after for most of the time – and we also made use of especially of Nature's bounty in general, including for meat and fish and as kids we knew how difficult it was to have enough.
Therefore, when I see how people in most of the “rich” countries, such as the UK, the USA, and such, just waste food makes me was to hit those people with abandon with something heavy.
In my primary line of work I some across needlessly wasted and discarded food of all kinds on a very regular basis. The value of unopened food thrown away from one largish picnic alone amounted to about US$100 (£50) and I am sure that daily we look at that amount ending up wasted in just one of Park here.
I do not even want to mention the food that is wasted in restaurants, hotels and such, and especially also in events catering, and also in the Houses of Parliament themselves. So, when Gordon Brown tried to tell the British people to stop wasting food I doubt he had a look at the kitchens and restaurants at the Palace of Westminster and other government institutions.
But, in one way he is right. We must stop wasting food.
© M Smith (Veshengro), July 2008
Food Waste
