Wasting food

It seems we waste about 40% of all the food we buy. I didn't believe poeple could be that stupid! My friend came to visit this summer and had a blast with all the animals and really liked the pigs because they would eat anything. He is older and there is just him and his wife. He said he was going to start saving all food stuffs for the pigs. After one week he called to say he had THREE five gallon pails of food for the pigs. He then said he had NO idea he was wasting that much food.
Just think if we STOPPED wasting that food there would be:
40% less land needed to grow food
40% less fuel wasted hauling the food
40% less trucks haul the food
40% less space needed in grocery stores
40% less space needed in our fridges and cupboards
40% less space at the land fills
the list goes on ond on
OR we could just fed more pigs, OH that is illegal as the food isn't fit for human use any more so it must not be safe for pigs either.
Here in lies the problem as we were forced into one theme farming, nothing know the circle of life. Growing up it was my job to take out the slop paid to the pigs, which had all the peels, scraps, cooking water. It was also my JOB to EAT the same pig which tasted GREAT and had never left the farm to be finished, or killed and cut up.

One thing I learnt in my commercial kitchen days, and still expressed in my cooking today at home is proper proportioning. I hate wasting food.
When I cook for friends or family or whom ever. I try to plan ahead and determine just how much I will need.

Now I don't hate leftovers so somethings are always good to make a bit extra, like a portion or two for the next days lunch.

Great post, lazy Farmer. Seeing food being wasted is something that just burns my butt!! We were invited to share a meal with friends a couple of years back. Helping with the clean-up, I was absolutely shocked beyond words at the good left-overs that they were preparing to throw into the garbage. Not even a thought to compost them at the very least! Nope, they just scrape the un-touched food into the garbage!!
She said their family did not like re-heated food, so they always throw away the extras. I just cannot fathom such wastefulness. Around here there is very little that gets cooked and not eaten. When there is something that does need to be disposed of, between the cats, dogs and chickens it all goes to a good use.

I HATE wasting food - Just looking my fridge. It's full of little containers of this or that leftover from meals. To throw away leftovers is crazy. Now if it was leftovers from a plate that's a bit different, but just extras are defiantly saving material.

We have Leftover night once a week for supper and it's my sons favourite night! Anything leftover from leftover night then goes to the dogs, cats or birds.

When I was poor I worked in a restaurant. We did brunch and often baskets of delicious pastries would come back from tables. We were told to throw them out. I began putting them in a plastic bag to take them home. I was always taught never to waste. I was caught doing this, dressed down, and my collected pastries thrown out. I was told I was stealing and if I wanted those pastries then I would have to buy them.

At home, it was always a challenge to see how many meals we could get out if a cut of meat. Roast turkey one day was turkey with gravy on toast the second, then turkey sandwiches for lunch and finally a big pot of turkey soup that lasted at least a couple days. Five meals out of one turkey.

Food waste is a topic I have addressed a few times.

If food is purchased raw and whole, the amount of waste is immediately lessened because preparation is usually very accurate and left over foods consumed. For example, selecting, peeling or preparing raw potatoes results in fewer left over potatoes, but if potatoes are in excess, planned leftovers can suffice for a second meal and for animal food (dog, chicken, pig, etc).

One experiment to try is to carry your own garbage in a bag with you wherever you go for a week. This is particularly effective on preteens and teens. Wasteful persons will have a heavy load, while frugal persons will have little. (raw meats are not included in this exercise)

Purchased food is over half garbage in packaging. Buying in bulk and repackaging in smaller containers results in less waste. Small amounts are consumed usually in entirety, while large amounts often go to waste through contaminations such as mould.

Personally, I can fit my own garbage in a small grocery bag after a month. I use very little packaged or prepared food, recycle all that can be recycled here, and feed scraps to the critters. Sometimes food goes bad before I can use it but I know it is because on my own, I do not follow through plans to cook and eat on a regular basis. I am learning to buy less more often to remedy that situation and it only really applies to fresh produce. When I come in at the end of a day, the last thing I feel like doing is cooking a meal.

The bed and breakfast requirements are such that waste there is quite great. For example, any food on the table must be discarded, touched or not. This includes items like butter or coffee cream, bread in a basket, and juice in a pitcher. Because of this, more individually packaged items must be purchased and the garbage greatly increases as does food waste. Now licensed to cook full meals, when supper foods are not eaten, leftovers cannot be served or stored, but must be discarded. I can, however; use them personally.

I agree, as a society, we are extremely wasteful. It is sad when there is enough food in the world to feed all, yet so many go hungry while food is thrown away.

The amount of food that goes to waste in food stores is astronomical. When I was doing my Ag degree we studied the amount of grains and vegetables and fruits (never mind milk and eggs) that are wasted every year in various countries. It is unfathomable. Sadly amongst the worst "wasters" were many of the third world nations where storage and transportation was not reliable and usually not very efficient.

In North America lots of food stuffs are lost because of OVER SUPPLY. There is too much grain and no where to store it or ways of transporting it. We also loose a lot as it is not economicly feasable to pick. Look at the cherry crop this year in BC. The cost of harvesting the cherrys was MORE than the crop was worth!

One has to take the economy and the issues of supply/demand/subsidization/false economy into account, but wouldnt it be great if there was some sort of program where the cost of harvesting something like the undervalued cherry crop could be paid for by some agency, but then none of the crop would be available in Canada or the US, it would not be sold, but it could be processed if neeed and shipped somewhere that the food was needed. It would be hugely complicated and would need to be able to make decisions very very quickly and react to changes and then there is the whole political thing. Sigh..... I just hate to think of the waste.

At home I try not to waste. Between me (loves leftovers) and the dogs and the chickens there is usually nothing left over. I do find though that I ahve to watcha dn not end up with mystery fuzz at the back of the fridge. I would really like my next fridge to be a bottom freezer and a shallower/ledd deep version so O dont have to fold in half to see into the fridge, and things cant get jammed to the back.