Sanitation Worker Challenges Whole Foods and Walmart to Stop Trashing Produce

Bay Area resident Jordan Figueiredo is asking the companies to put imperfect fruits and veggies on store shelves

A bunch of gnarled carrots or an apple that’s not perfectly round and rosy are just as nutritious as produce that isn’t misshapen, but that doesn’t stop the nation’s grocery stores from consigning so-called ugly fruits and veggies to the trash. And perhaps no one sees the magnitude of wasted food more than someone who deals with garbage for a living.

That’s why Jordan Figueiredo, a 36-year-old solid waste specialist for the Castro Valley Sanitary District in California, is challenging Walmart and Whole Foods to start carrying imperfect produce in their stores. He’s teamed up with Stefanie Sacks, a New York–based culinary nutritionist and author of the book What the Fork Are You Eating?, on a Change.org petition that calls for both retailers to start selling ugly fruits and vegetables.

“I work with the community to reduce waste, and upon learning more about the massive impacts of food waste I was compelled to do much more than just encourage people to compost—what most local programs focus on,” says Figueiredo.

Because the American public has been trained to turn up its collective nose at produce with lumps, bumps, and other imperfections, the petition is asking Walmart and Whole Foods to launch a campaign promoting “uglies,” similar to what French supermarket chain Intermarché did in 2014.

Read more here.

Campaign against food waste

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

A “Bread Happy Hour” against food waste? While this may sound rather funny at first is being offered by a Berlin commercial bakery during the “Wertwochen Lebensmittel” (food value weeks) in the German capital.

An hour before close of business bread will be sold at reduced prices before it has to be thrown out. From September 25 to October 6 will the department for consumer protection of the Berlin Senate mobilize against food waste. The twelve-day long campaign is headed under the banner of “Into the saucepan rather than into the trashcan”.

“We want to create consciousness and education,” said Senator Thomas Heilmann (CDU) at the launch of the initiative in which more than 40 institutions, associations and companies will participate with over 60 events. Some restaurants are, for instance, offering “rest menus” at reduced prices. Lectures shall also raise further awareness as regards to the issue.

Based is this initiative on the countrywide campaign “Zu gut für die Tonne” (“too good for the trashcan). However, it is not the aim to raise a finger but to show how many good things one can make from food, said Sabine Toepfer-Kataw, Secretary of State of the Protection of the Consumer.

Background to this initiative are figures according to statistically ever consumer in Germany per years throws away 82 kilograms of food in the value of 235 Euros. Senator Heilmann estimates that the entire project will cost around 50,000 to 100,000 Euro. “Rather an economical action: a small budget and hopefully a big result”, he said.

“We are very happy with the response”, said Heilmann, and he does not exclude a repetition of this event next year.

The problem with food waste that is so often not addressed and also not in this case is the food waste that does not even reach the shops. That is to say food that is discarded because it is misshapen and thus does not fit into the buying criteria of the stores, especially the big supermarkets who do not seem to be prepared to educate consumers to the fact that misshapen vegetables are natural and are as good for us as are the perfectly shaped ones.

On the other hand the waste from the stores at the end of the day is a tragedy that could be addressed as it used to be in the old days in that stores would either sell stuff off cheap or give it away to people who wanted it.

Today in most cases the food is chuckled into dumpsters and anyone taking from there, theoretically, is committing an act of theft. In addition to that in most cases, and it is thus in Britain in most places, the food thrown into the trash has bleach or other nasty chemicals thrown over it so as to render it definitely inedible to anyone even considering taking it out of the bins.

If we really want to reduce food waste we must allow people to take what is being thrown away or for shops to be allowed to either sell it off at a very low price or simple stick it outside on a “Help Yourself” display. It is not rocket science.

© 2013

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

World wastes at least a billion tons of food a year

By Michael Smith (Veshengro)

UN HQ, May 2011: The United Nations said recently that about 1.3 billion tons of food is lost or wasted every year, which amounts to roughly one third of all the food produced for human consumption.

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization commissioned a report on food loss and waste, as rising prices and diminished production worldwide have contributed to an increase in food insecurity.

"The issue of food losses is of high importance in the efforts to combat hunger, raise income and improve food security in the world's poorest countries," the report states. "Food losses have an impact on food security for poor people, on food quality and safety, on economic development and on the environment."

According to the report, food losses occur as a result of inefficiencies in food production and processing operations that diminish supplies. Food waste, by contrast, is when retailers and consumers throw edible food in the trash.

Consumers in rich nations waste a combined 222 million tons a year, according to the report. That's almost as much as all the food produced in sub-Saharan Africa. The report puts much

of the blame on retailers in rich nations that throw out food simply because it looks unappealing, and the food industry's 'all-you-can-eat' marketing tactics, which encourage consumers to buy more than they need.

Food price hikes could push millions to poverty "Perhaps one of the most important reasons for food waste at the consumption level in rich countries is that people simply can afford to waste food," the report sates.

Food loss, on the other hand, is mainly a problem in the developing world, where nations lack the infrastructure and technology to efficiently produce food, according to the report.

"Given that many [small] farmers in developing countries live on the margins of food insecurity, a reduction in food losses could have an immediate and significant impact on their livelihood," the report states.

But food is not the only resource that is being wasted. By throwing away so much food, the world is squandering water, land, energy, labor and capital, the report found.

How much have your food bills gone up this year?

To reduce food loss, the report recommend increasing investment in the developing world to make food production more efficient.

In rich countries, the report recommends educating consumers about the extent and consequences of food waste. It also suggests that retailers should relax quality standards and sell produce that is grown closer to where it is sold.

The report says retailers should find ways to make better use of food that would otherwise be thrown out, such as donating it to charity.

Consumers should plan their food purchases more carefully, making sure to consume perishables before the expiration date, according to the report.

What also does not make any sense at all – and yes, I am back at one of my pet hates – is that int eh UK, for instance, we import “organic” green beans from Kenya. Those green beans are a vegetable crop that people there do not eat themselves and produce only for us on land that they could much better use growing food for Kenyans.

I have no problems with bringing in exotic foods and if there be a surplus of Kenyan specialities that we could import and thus give some income to the [poor] farmers in that East African country then that is fine. But what the UK and others do to have Kenyan farmers grow food stuff for us while taking away land and water resources from their own foods is unsustainable and cannot and must not be condoned.

On the other hand people in the developed world, such as the UK and the USA, for example, seem to have lost (one) the ability to cook from scratch and (two) understand the term “best before date” as “throw by date” or “throw just before day” and do not understand that much of that can still be used on the day or a day or so thereafter, maybe longer even depending on the product or produce. Thus, much food is, unnecessarily, thrown away.

In addition to that there are the leftovers which people today often have no idea what to do with. They may go and buy ready-made heat only “Bubble & Squeak” but that they could actually make that from leftover veggies they have no idea. Or, at least, so it would appear.

OK, we all do have stuff that goes off at times, and it happens to me as well, you bet. But knowing what to make from things that may be reaching the going off stage was something our grandparents knew and we must relearn those skills.

An apple that has a little spot of rot does not have to be thrown and neither a pear or a pepper. If a pepper is getting a little soft and maybe no longer good for a salad then use it in cooking. Then again, one would have to know how to cook and what to cook with a pepper now, would one not.

One of the greatest wasters of food, however, are stores and often all it needs is for them to find one veg with a spot on it of rot in order to throw out the entire box. And they not just throw it out; they also ensure that no one can salvage the thrown out box. In order to make sure no one will and can make use of the wasted veggies and such they will douse the boxes liberally in chlorine bleach. Not very environmentally friendly either.

When I was a child greengrocers would ply us with bags of stuff that was still good but needed a little sorting and cutting out a little spot here and there, whether apples, pears, peaches, tomatoes (my Gran made tomato sauce from such tomatoes for canning), and other stuff, for nothing, and the same was true with bread from the baker's at the end of the day. Today this, apparently, is illegal under British and EU laws. I think the law is an ass and it needs changing back not common sense.

© 2011

'Stop wasting food' says Gordon

British PM Gordon Brown urges the nation to stop wasting food.

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Britons must stop wasting food in an effort to help combat rising living costs, Gordon Brown, the United Kingdom's PM, has said at the G8 Summit in Japan where world leaders discuss rising prices.

The Prime Minister said that "unnecessary" purchases were contributing to price rises, and urged people to plan meals in advance and store food properly.

The biggest problem, as I have said before elsewhere, with people today is that most simply cannot cook meals from scratch properly anymore anyway and that they also do not plan meals. This is due to the way we, nowadays, work and live, and also to the fact that children are allowed to be way too finicky as far as food and meals are concerned. If those two things could be changed then we would be a long way towards reducing food waste.

However, I have seen the way food gets wasted, like during picnics in local parks when there are several garbage bags put next to the littler bins, so the foxes can rip them open, with often still unopened pork pies, sausage rolls, etc. What beats me is why people, who obviously had the means to bring in all the food, cannot take it back home with them for use the next day, as and where possible.

A government study says the United Kingdom wastes 4m tonnes of food every year, adding £420 to a family's shopping bills.

Here I would like to ask though as to whether this data is as doctored as that as to knife injuries that are reported as “knife crimes”, if would appear, in the statistics, and includes waste from restaurants, in the way that the “knife injuries” reported by hospitals and doctors to the authorities also includes accidental injuries with knives, though that info is taken in when briefing the media as to “knife statistics” in the effort to ban knives. But I digressed.

But, the question remains as to whether the data of wasted food includes the waste from hotels and restaurants, and such like? A lot of food is wasted in such places. Every conference and every event that is catered for anywhere, whether the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, the Hotels, or the Racecourses, there is food being thrown after every meal; food that has been prepared for the delegates and attendees but that has not been eaten.

The Cabinet Office report claims that up to 40% of food harvested in developing countries can be lost before it is consumed, due to the inadequacies of processing, storage and transport. But what is the excuse in the developed world? We have refrigeration and all that and still we waste tons and tons of food.

The food policy study also says the average UK household throws away £8 of leftovers a week, yet spends 9% of its income on food.

But there is a significant gap between the poorest tenth of the population, who spend 15% and the wealthiest, who pay out 7%.

Those on lower incomes also spend proportionally more on basics such as milk, eggs and bread - foods that have seen the biggest price rises in recent months.

But it is also exactly that poorest tenth of the population, those that are on low incomes or on benefits, that are those that are, today, incapable, of cooking meals from scratch, hence the waste, as they are also, therefore, incapable of reusing any leftovers.

According to the 10-month study, British families are throwing away a total of 4.1m tonnes of perfectly good food every year, costing each about £420 annually.

The UK's Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said that what the government is trying to get across to people is that there is this complex relationship between what we buy, the amount that we buy, the amount that we waste, the impact on climate change and the impact on our health."

But, as Peter Ainsworth, the Shadow Environment Secretary, said it is government departments that should set a better example.

"The amount of untouched food that ends up in our bins is staggering but also financially and environmentally wasteful," he said.

Not only should government departments set a better example, nay they indeed must, if they want to tell households what to do.

While the government is telling households to reduce food waste it has no idea, it would appear, as to how much food it is throwing away itself. This is yet again, as so often with this British government, the Nanny government of “New Labor”, a clear case of the government saying “don't do as we do... DO as we tell you to”. Well, surprise – NOT!

Sustain, an alliance of organisations working for better food and farming, urged supermarkets to stop promoting unnecessary purchases, which they say results in a lot of food "going to waste".

Steve Webb, the Lib Dem environment spokesman, said: "The problem of food waste has been made worse by the government's failure to get tough with supermarkets. Its cosy relationship with the big chains has stalled effective action.

"Supermarkets make it harder for householders to avoid food waste, while throwing away large quantities of edible food through poor stock management.

"They refuse to stock small portions, which are essential for the growing number of one-person households, and offer too many buy-one-get-one-free deals on perishable goods."

But is this not a call for government to be nanny in another field? To me it is. It is the consumer that must ask for change. It is not going to work from above, neither with supermarkets nor with people. Change as regards to the environment and green living and ethical living can only be brought about from the bottom up; it cannot be imposed from on high.

Britain's most wasted foods are potatoes (why, I would like to know?). A whacking 359,000 tons are wasted annually. This is closely followed by bread slices with 328,000 tons, and then by 190,000 of apples.

This waste, such as that with apples, I am sure is still exasperated by farmers being ordered to destroy apples by the thousands of tons during a glut, in the same way as the law is an ass in regards to stores not being permitted to give away food to those that cannot afford it or those that are happy to take it off their hands, such as fruit and vegetables that are coming to the end of their display time.

During my childhood the costermongers selling fruit and vegetable on the markets, instead of being forced to throw fruit and vegetables that were in need to be used immediately gave those away. Oranges, apples, bananas, spuds, and whatever else was given to us kids to take home for our mothers to make meals from and such and none of us ever got ill from the stuff. In fact, I think, that amount of fruit and veg that came that way for free kept us healthy. Nowadays they are forced to throw it away. They are not allowed to even give it away.

Such food, such fruit and veg that today must be thrown away, by law, also and especially adds to the mountain of waste.

While it is unavoidable, at times, as I mentioned in a previous article, for some foods to go off – we may have forgotten that it is there or such – it should, ideally, not happen, however. But... change cannot be imposed from above. People can be and must be admonished, as they were during the years of austerity in the Second World War, and they will definitely stop wasting food as soon as it bites them in the pocketbook.

I know that during World War II is was even a criminal offense to waste food I do not think that we could or should reintroduce such measures but some good campaigns on radio, TV and the Internet might be a good idea, and posters too on the transit systems and on billboards.

© M Smith (Veshengro), July 2008