Food Waste - in the defence of 'Ugly' Fruit and Vegetables
More than 600,000 people - a quarter of them children - in Australia go to bed hungry every night and the same is said for almost 800 million people worldwide.
Meanwhile a third of the food produced or prepared doesn’t even make it from the farm to our forks. WTF!!! Just writing this angers me to my core, so I am getting on my soap box right now and say we absolutely must do something about this.
There is enough food on the planet to feed everyone, yet millions of people are dying of starvation every day - One in nine people do not have enough food to eat; that’s 793 million people who are undernourished.
Australians throw out $9.6 billion worth of edible food per year. Add that to the world’s waste and the cost is staggering. In Australia alone the cost of food waste to the economy is $20 billion each year.
When food rots with other organics in landfill it produces the greenhouse gas methane, which is 25 times more potent than the pollution coming out of your car exhaust. Greenhouse gas emissions from food waste equals approximately 6.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Between 20% - 40% of fresh fruit and vegetables are rejected even before they get to the shops because they may not be the right length, size, colour or any other ridiculous cosmetic standard set by us, the consumers and them, the supermarkets. Not only is this waste on an epic scale, the producers who work relentlessly to grow fresh food for us to consume, witness their revenue going down the drain every time they harvest. Is this fair?
The average family wastes over $1,000 worth of food each year. Not liking that burger you just bought? By throwing it away you waste the same amount of water as a 90 minute shower.
WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT
I don’t want to ram all this ‘do good’ stuff down your throat to make you want to gag. What I want to do is let you know the real and not so perfect state of things, and then present ways we can all make a difference on a daily basis.
First of all, if we reduce our food waste, we save money and everybody loves that notion. There are ways we can help our wallets and the planet. Just think, each one of us can do something to make this happen, so let’s go.
Becoming more connected with our food is going to help. Whether we grow our own - great idea - or buy it, knowing where it comes from, how far it’s travelled and if it’s in season gives us a better understanding. Check out Salivate! Market Fresh to know what’s fresh and when
Going shopping at our farmer’s market is fantastic. We get to talk to the people who are actually growing what we’re eating and all of a sudden it makes the interaction a personal thing.
If we do a meal plan each week - download the Salivate! template to use - we know exactly how much we need to buy, which means no more tired old zucchinis languishing in the bottom of the crisper waiting to be thrown out.
Try composting or having a worm farm - that means we’re recycling our waste and putting it back into the earth.
Why not start pickling or fermenting? It’s a great way of preserving so let’s get our leftover cabbage and make some sauerkraut or kimchi, pickle some onions or baby carrots. Stay tuned for the Salivate! preserving book coming soon.
Let’s keep track of what we’re throwing away and make some changes. Get the lowdown on the best way of storing our food so it doesn’t spoil and then has to be thrown out.
Buy the ‘ugly’ fruit and vegetables on offer. They’re cheaper and still taste the same as the ‘good looking’ ones.
