PrintWasted Food
When I was 11, I went on a weeklong school trip to a rustic retreat in the Catskills for some kind of environmental education and natural history program. One of the more memorable parts of the trip involved a gigantic pig, housed on the premises, who would eat the food left uneaten by all the kids on the program. I am not exaggerating when I say that this pig could be measured in meters and tons. One of the goals we had for the week we were there was to help this monstrous pig lose weight by reducing our food waste, and after every meal all the scraps from the hundreds of kids in the mess hall were combined, weighed, and charted on a big poster at the front of the room (before, of course, becoming pig dinner).
This simple exercise has stuck with me for twenty years, and forms the basis of my approach to eating, cooking, and enjoying food. I abhor food waste. Whenever friends of mine shudder at the mention of various kinds of offal, I always respond that if you're going to kill an animal to eat its delicious parts, you are obliged to honor its sacrifice by using as much of the rest of the animal as possible, whether for food, clothing, or something else. And don't even get me started on competitive eating.
According to Jonathan Bloom, blogger at Wasted Food and soon-to-be-author of a book on this very topic, Americans waste more than 40 percent of the food we produce, at a cost of over $100 billion per year. And of course there are still many in this country who don't have enough to eat. One of the more interesting sections of his website is The Produce Project, a chronicle of time spent working in the produce section of a supermarket that details how much food is wasted merely because it looks "ugly."
Aside from being more conscientious about our portions and how we store and use leftovers, what else can we do to curb food waste? In New York City, City Harvest works to collect food from "restaurants, manufacturers, wholesalers, greenmarkets, hotels, corporate cafeterias, grocery stores and farms" that would otherwise be thrown away. What about you? What things do you do to make sure the food you don't need doesn't go to waste?
About the author: Jamie Forrest publishes Curdnerds.com from his apartment in Brooklyn, New York, where he lives with his wife, his daughter, and his cheese.
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8 Comments:
I think that not letting perfectly good food go to waste is the reason why I started really learning to cook in the first place. I'd buy an ingredient for a recipe, only use half and then wouldn' t know what to do with the other half. So I'd look up a recipe and try something new. And that's how I cook (and still cook - got half a head of red cabbage right now in the fridge left over from fish tacos - think I'll just braise the other half tonite with a pork chop). Anyway, for the scraps that I definitely won't eat (peels, coffee grinds, etc) I have a compost.
ceforrester at 12:14PM on 09/17/07
Speaking of gigantic hogs: About fifteen minutes north of Duluth, Minnesota, is a low security penal institution now known as NERCC, (Northeast Regional Correctional Center), but which used to be the St Louis County Work Farm.
Back in the 60's and 70's several friends of mine spent time measured in 30-day units there for offenses generally involving over-exhuberant driving and/or possession and/or consumption of alcohol and other mind altering substances.
The work farm was a fully functioning agricultural facility that provided vegetables, (heavy on the potato and cabbage), and animals for slaughter not only for sustinence of it's own residents, but for the County's nursing homes and Juvenile Center. Fresh food was abundant, at least at certain times of the year, although not prepared with gourmet palates in mind. Thus a certain amount of waste was generated, which was recylcled back through the system either as composte or animal feed.
As a combination public relations move and possible criminal deterrent, Inmates were encouraged to give visitors tours of the grounds, which nearly always ended in a visit to the swine barn, hopefully around feeding time.
There, in a pen all his own, dwelled the Farm's legendary giant boar. He was about eight feet long and rumored to weigh well over one-half ton! When it was his turn for feeding the person in charge would dump his food over the pen fence and bang on the scrap bucket. Then, with a roar that would do a lion proud, the boar came charging out to devour his dinner with such gusto that you had little trouble understanding how the words "pig" and "hog" became associated with unmannerly eating!
When the Work Farm became the Correctional Center the animals were dispatched. No doubt the giant boar was too old, tough and fatty for even the County to pass off as fit for human consumption, so perhaps one could argue that his food actually was "wasted" in the long run?
But even thirty to forty years later many former miscreants wistfully recall the old pig as a key feature in their experience with the justice system, where they learned, if nothing else, why they didn't want careers in crime .... or farming.
srhcb at 2:14PM on 09/17/07
A friend receives a weekly CSA box and gets a fair amount of greens he wouldn't normally buy otherwise. So I've been getting panicked phone calls the day before each week's new delivery for recipes to "get rid" of the previous week's veg. He found himself face to face with a bunch of radish tops recently and decided to blend them. His verdict? "mooooooooo"
onedaylingers at 3:37PM on 09/17/07
I think this is an issue I really struggle with, I am normally only cooking for 2 at the most and more often just for myself so i'm always left with at least a container full of leftovers from the night before. But call me crazy, I really don't much care for leftovers unless they are of the cold pizza type so they usually fester in the fridge until either my roommate or girlfriend devour them as a late night snack or lunch at work the next day. I am constantly trying to figure out ways to deal with leftovers, but I just can't bring myself to eating the same thing more than once a week, it just never tastes the same the next day (except for chili and stews in which i prefer the reheated version)
kitchenlove at 4:19PM on 09/17/07
Kitchenlove: I agree completely! Luckily my guy loves leftovers for lunch, so all we have to worry about is his weight from too-big lunches. With him around, I am cooking more than ever because he likes everything, which makes it fun, but it is making me work harder at scaling back both quantities and expenses
Cary at 4:38PM on 09/17/07
I'm in the process of getting a worm composter - as long as you maintain it, it doesn't smell and the worms can take all of your organic waste and turn it into a serious commodity - worm castings, which are great fertilizer. I think that it will work for me, because I live in a third floor apartment and we can't have a traditional composter. Other than composting, I think it is best to be realistic about your habits. Don't buy produce or other items you won't be able to use. Sometimes you just don't have time to cook the whole CSA box.
Littlebluesiren at 11:19PM on 09/17/07
I agree with you CEFORRESTER. I always shop my frig before I make supper. My kids and dh get SOO mad when they ask "What's for dinner?" and I say I don't know yet.
coffeefrappe at 2:54PM on 09/18/07
Hey Jamie, thanks for the ink on Wasted Food.
I applaud coffeefrappe and ceforrester's "use-it-up" style of cooking, but I think we should note that not everyone has the kitchen acumen to cook that way. Some people are by-the-book cooks.
Cary and Kitchenlove, I'm curious why you folks don't like leftovers. There are plenty of people who share your opinion and I'm definitely not trying to judge your habits. I just don't understand it from a personal level (I really enjoy leftovers) and a food waste perspective. It seems that for Kitchenlove, it's the lack of variety and feeling that it won't taste as good the next day.
Finally, it's easier said than done on "being realistic about your habits." While that's a worthy goal we should all strive for, you should know that supermarkets spend lots of time and money trying to tempt you into buying items that might not be 'realistic.' Plus, as Brian Wansink writes in Mindless Eating, our perceived kitchen practices often differ than the reality.
Not shopping hungry, making a list (and sticking to it) and meal planning will all help you avoid fridge food waste.
JBloom at 5:07PM on 09/18/07