Part 3: What Can We Do About Food Wastage

For a majority of us, we find it hard to believe that by changing our habits or lifestyle, we are able to make a difference. Somewhere at the back of our mind, there's a voice continually whispering that although we may buy less or waste less, someone else would buy the extra bit we forgo and waste it anyway. Furthermore, what can your little contribution do to affect anything?

I would like to posit that in our current situation, our "teamwork" to waste food is going remarkably well. In fact, we are doing such a fantastic job wasting millions of tonnes of food every year, we literally rob food of the hands of the hungry. I think we would be hard pressed to outdo ourselves at the pace we are currently going.

To my readers, we should realise that teamwork is not an issue here. We know we are good at that. The one million dollar question is, are you on the right team? Are you on board with those who live in profligation with no consideration whatsoever on how their actions effect others (Team Zero), or are you on the other side which at least try to attempt and reduce their negative impact on others (Team Hero)? This perspective is important because it implies that if you're in Team Hero,you do not kowtow to the massive horde of Team Zero. It means that you may be the only member in your town, city, etc, a minority...or singularity...in your society. It also means that you have the potential to show others that by wasting less, we take into consideration not only of others, but for our future generations as well.

So, what can we actually do?

Be Considerate Consumers

Buy what you need! No more, no less. How many times have we gone to the frozen section in the supermarket, saw a 20 piece drumstick pack on discount because its close to the expiry date, bought it because it was perceived as a good deal, and only to waste half of it because it went bad?

I don't know about you, but I rather buy 2-3 pieces at a fraction of the cost, eat it to my belly's content, and knowing that I did not spend my money on food that I will waste anyway. Of course, we are not perfect. Upon writing this, there's a tub of 7 months old margarine, a bag of mushy brown Coles apples, a milk carton filled with a yogurt looking substance and other things I dare not mention in my tortured fridge. How many of us have similar buying habits of spending hard earned money to buy food, only to discard it later?

We also should start considering buying what is perceived to be less than perfect food. It is time we reject the notion that only perfect leaved vegetable, round smooth potatoes, carrots which can substitute rulers and whatnot to be normal. In nature, there is no such thing as a range of plants or animal that looks exactly the same. Just like you and I, there is variety in nature and these products are perfectly fine. Whether its a potato that resemble Quasimodo, a banana that looks like a boomerang, or lettuce filled with holes, they are nutritious, delicious, and perfect for human consumption. Please do not let them go to waste. By doing so, we are telling the producers and retailers that their fear of customers wanting generic, standardised produce is unfounded. We are also encouraging the reduction of importing food destined for the landfill and therefore freeing up food in the global market.

Eating Leftovers

Do we know someone who refuses to eat leftovers? No matter how hard you try to convince them that its perfectly safe, they will insist that its not suitable to eat. Is that someone you? Although we should avoid having leftovers in the first place, sometimes its unavoidable. In the end, after cutting down the trees, contaminating the ground with chemicals, use of resources to sow, grow and harvest the produce, the contamination caused by the burning of fuel while transporting the produce to retailers and customers driving to the retailers to buy the food and going home, the least we can do is to make sure we consume all of the food we buy.

Once again, there is no sense in throwing away good food and then going out to the market to buy somemore food destined for the bin. By properly keeping our leftovers for later consumption, we reduce our impact of wastage, money spent on grocery and travel frequency to retailers, which can potentially save us money which we can use to pay for other commodities such as our water and electricity bills.

Post-Consumption Alternatives

For those with gardens, there is an option to compost your food. Although unconsumed food should ideally be eaten by humans, this option would be much better than sending it to the landfill. By composting food, we are returning back the nutrients in which was used to produce the food.

Uneaten food could also be given away to family and friends. Of course, I'm not talking about the leftovers in your plate, but leftovers from the main plate. By practicing this, we can potentially help each other to reduce our spending on food and at the same time creating good will and strengthening bonds.

We could also reuse the food to create other dishes. Yesterday's vegetable leftovers could be used as salad, whole chicken could be striped to pieces to make chicken sandwiches, bones could be used to make soup, pieces of tofu in miso soup, fish head in curry, the options are literally endless and only limited by your imagination.

Conclusion

To make it short and simple,

Reduce
Eat only what you need. Safe money, maintain your waistline and indirectly feed the hungry.

Reuse
Use uneaten food to make other dishes.

Redistribute
When there is food surplus, give it to those who will eat it instead of throwing it away.

Recycle
If the food cannot be eaten or given away, recycle it by composting the food. In some countries, special bins are available where food waste is sent to an anaerobic digestion facility which harnesses the methane released by rotting food to produce power by combustion.