1.3 billion tons of food are wasted globally every year

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Every year around the world at least 1.3 billion tons of food are being wasted. Much of that in our very homes though another great amount of that between field and store and then another great amount of that in the stores. The fact is that we waste more food than we would need to feed the entire Planet several times over.

Stores will look for having always “fresh” food (appearance counts here) food on display till the very end of the day, whether this is fruit and vegetables, bread and meat on the shelves to the very end of the day of business. And, and here comes the hammer, much of that bread and fruit and vegetables is then tipped into dumpsters simply because they would no longer be fresh enough the next day.

The problem, however, starts already at field level during harvest when much of the food, as in fruit and vegetables, has to be rejected by the farmer (or will be rejected by the supermarket buyer) as it does not meet the “standards” that consumers expect.

Thus misshapen fruit and veg, those with blemished, etc., are being thrown out and often are being destroyed. Some more of it perishes in transit as the distance from field to store is often way too long.

Then some, as said, the stores, and in the end come the consumers who, often, have no idea what to do with anything that looks a little less appetizing and especially not with any leftovers. Thus more than a billion plus of food ends up in the bin.

Aside from the fact that some people simply cannot cook from scratch properly and especially have no idea as to what to make from leftover vegetables, for instance, there come the fact that many are loathed to eat leftovers, especially many youngsters who have come to expect plenty and fresh all the time. They have, obviously, never had properly made “bubble and squeak”.

Furthermore, many people, as already mentioned, are almost incapable of cooking from scratch properly and thus too much gets made which then gets thrown away because no one wants leftovers. And because in the developed world we behave like this there is a supposed food shortage in the world.

There is no food shortage (in the same way that there is no housing crisis in the UK and the US, etc.). There is just too much wastage. And also there is the fact that foods are grown for our markets in the developing world that people in the countries where the produce is being grown do not eat (as staple), such as green beans grown in Kenya and then imported to the UK.

The system is cockeyed as is the way we deal with food.

© 2013