Headline: Americans throw away 90 billion pounds of food per year

[lawrocket 3]

[Url]http://www.fresnobee.com/2013/06/16/3346605/you-can-waste-less-food-at-home.html[/url]

Obviously, this is a staggering number. I'll admit to throwing away plenty of food. Strawberries just don't last too long. Neither to raspberries. Asparagus tends to slime up quickly, as well. We've limited it with use of Debbie Meyer green bags (yes, they do work). But - there's still a lot of additions to our compost heap every week.

I did live in a place that was a quarter of a mile from the store. We didn't stock up much - usually just snacks, lunch stuff. Rather, I'd walk there with the boy every day and buy what was needed for dinner that evening. That's not something I do anymore. I'm a good mile from the closest store and it's a pain to goi shopping every evening. Once a week at Costco. Once or twice a week at Whole Foods. Get our weekly produce shipment from the CSA. And the occasional megamart.

One thing that I thought about, though - perhaps a different angle. We've got an obesity problem. As much as some people still look at "hunger" as a problem, "hunger" is not the issue. "Malnutrition" is. There isn't a state in the US with fewer than 1 in 5 people obese.

So we have what I consider to be a double waste of food. We have people throwing away food. And we have people eating food in excess of their needs. Do others consider this to be wasteful, as well?

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[normiss 906]

I'm curious about how much food is discarded simply because of the "buy new product date" stamps on the container.
Not all of those are expiration dates.

I would also personally throw away the vast majority of fast "food" were I to somehow come in possession of some. Because that ain't food.

[billvon 3,132]

> Do others consider this to be wasteful, as well?

Absolutely. We could live on 1/2 of the calories we eat today, and we'd be healthier overall and live longer.

And we also tend to eat very high energy foods - meat, cheeses, processed foods. For every calorie we get from meat there's ten calories we use up in feed corn, for example. So the problem is even worse when we waste foods like that, because we're throwing out all the food used to create that food.

[normiss 906]

Impossible to stop corn subsidies.
That is a HUGE problem in our food supply IMO.

Portion size could easily be reduced as well.

[lawrocket 3]

normiss

Impossible to stop corn subsidies.
That is a HUGE problem in our food supply IMO.

Portion size could easily be reduced as well.

I also think that the single greatest step that could be taken to improve public health is to stop corn subsidies. Fast food? Now you're paying what that burger actually costs. All that shit with HFCS? Now you're paying what that soda actually costs.

There's the greatest step towards controlling obesity, diabetes and heart disease we could make. In my opinion.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[billvon 3,132]

>I also think that the single greatest step that could be taken to improve public
>health is to stop corn subsidies.

I have no doubt that people's appetites will be more than a match for higher HFCS prices. However it would save some money overall, and it's money we are spending on basically making people fat.

[lawrocket 3]

[Reply]it's money we are spending on basically making people fat.

[billvon 3,132]

>And, of course, on the massive health care costs.

About ten years ago NPR did a story, a tale of two government organizations.

The first one was the USDA, which was reacting to some compromise inserted in a piece of legislation. The legislation cut some subsidy but in return promised farmers they would work with industry to increase the use of dairy products. The result of this collaboration - the Stuffed Crust Pizza by Pizza Hut, a way for dairy farmers to sell a bit more milk.

The second was the USDA, which is tasked with (among other things) giving dietary advice to Americans via things like the food pyramid. Around the same time as that other organization was trying to insert more cheese into Americans, the USDA came out with recommendations to reduce cheese (specifically soft cheeses) intake.

The story talked about the internecine conflict that resulted, with both sides fighting a (taxpayer-funded) war to reduce/increase cheese intake. At one point the interviewer asked one of the interviewees "but aren't you both with the USDA?"

[kelpdiver 2]

lawrocket

One thing that I thought about, though - perhaps a different angle. We've got an obesity problem. As much as some people still look at "hunger" as a problem, "hunger" is not the issue. "Malnutrition" is. There isn't a state in the US with fewer than 1 in 5 people obese.

So we have what I consider to be a double waste of food. We have people throwing away food. And we have people eating food in excess of their needs. Do others consider this to be wasteful, as well?

We'd probably be healthier if we were throwing away even more food.

The kind of food that quickly goes bad is generally the food you should be eating - fruits, vegetables. Meat would also be included and we tend (well, absolutely) over consume it, but at least meat at home is better than fast food preparation.

in contrast, the manufactured, highly processed food that is making people obese lasts for years and rarely needs to be thrown out. (You can always donate it to the can drives for the holidays )

[wmw999 2,602]

We actually throw away very little food, but then there are only two of us, and our appetites are pretty predictable, so I buy what I think we'll eat.

One thing that really helps in the not-wasting-food department is being willing to eat leftovers. Leftover fruits go into smoothies (though fruit doesn't usually last very long at our house), and leftover veggies that aren't eaten for lunch the next day tend to get turned into either stir-fry or pasta primavera.

Americans have been advertised into believing that they deserve whatever they see on TV; easy credit, that Twinkie, 7-bladed razors, and the Big Mac. After buying it, sometimes they discover that they don't like it so much after all, and discard the rest. But hey -- that momentary though has been sated!

Wendy P.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[ryoder 1,590]

billvon

>And, of course, on the massive health care costs.

About ten years ago NPR did a story, a tale of two government organizations.

The first one was the USDA, which was reacting to some compromise inserted in a piece of legislation. The legislation cut some subsidy but in return promised farmers they would work with industry to increase the use of dairy products. The result of this collaboration - the Stuffed Crust Pizza by Pizza Hut, a way for dairy farmers to sell a bit more milk.

The second was the USDA, which is tasked with (among other things) giving dietary advice to Americans via things like the food pyramid. Around the same time as that other organization was trying to insert more cheese into Americans, the USDA came out with recommendations to reduce cheese (specifically soft cheeses) intake.

The story talked about the internecine conflict that resulted, with both sides fighting a (taxpayer-funded) war to reduce/increase cheese intake. At one point the interviewer asked one of the interviewees "but aren't you both with the USDA?"

The recent book "Salt, Sugar, Fat" by Michael Moss includes a discussion of the USDA's split-allegiance problem. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/books/review/salt-sugar-fat-by-michael-moss.html

An enlightening fact that comes out, is that even the people who develop and market the crap we call "processed food" don't eat it.

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.