passion + experience + perseverance
CRANE EDITORIAL SERVICES
  • Home
  • Publications
  • Project work

Would you eat this tomato?

2/7/2013

5 Comments

 
Picture
Photo: By Rochelle, just rochelle (CC)
I’ve been pitching stories about food waste to magazines for a couple of years with no luck—until now. Later this year I’ll see one published in a parenting magazine. (I’ll link to it when it's out.)

Have we reached the tipping point on food waste? There’s definitely more buzz lately. Last month the UN launched a global campaign to cut the “1.3 billion tonnes of food lost or wasted each year” around the globe. 

In 2010, Jonathan Bloom, a U.S., author and activist — tireless champion of waste reduction—released his book American Wasteland: How America Throws Away Nearly Half of Its Food (and What We Can Do About It). Imperfect looking (but perfectly edible) produce, like the tomato above, is one of the foods he says most people would toss.

At our house, we got fed up with food waste several years ago after an embarrassing clear out of our freezer. As my husband and I pulled out package after package of food—snowy, unappetizing victims of freezer burn, quite literally gone to waste—I resolved it wouldn't happen again.

It's been a fascinating journey—but way more uncomfortable than I expected. The reasons we waste food aren’t very flattering. Sometimes we’re as finicky as our kids. (Funny looking tomato? I don’t want to eat that.) Or we’re conspicuous consumers. We buy glorious cartfuls of (local, organic) food at all the right shops and markets but waste half of it because, let's get real, we hit the drive-thru three times a week. Or we’re just plain greedy. We want choice, four kinds of bread in the bread basket, even if we've cut back on gluten and only make sandwiches twice a week. (Guilty.)

But other factors are at work too: our hectic lifestyles, and a consumer culture pressuring us to buy, buy, buy. Anyway, whatever's to blame, we all know where it leads—to nasty stuff growing at the back of our fridges, freezers and pantries. The huge takeaway though is that wasting food has big-time environmental, financial and social consequences. As Bloom writes: “Wasting food squanders the oil and water used to produce it, and food rotting in landfills creates climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions.” This is also food that hungry people could have eaten.

The upside? I’ve found turning things around isn’t actually that hard—a little planning here, a little family communication there—and you can save quite a bit of coin too. According to one estimate, the average family of four wastes more than $2,000 worth of food every year. How would you like to spend those savings?

Does food get wasted at your house? Have you found ways to waste less? I’d love to hear about it.


5 Comments
Lori Sears-Malik
2/7/2013 05:56:52 am

I had been monitoring food waste in our home for quite some time and noticed that the most wasted foods were veggies. Either we were not eating enough veggies or I was buying too much. Sadly, many of the waste was from our organic service.

So what I have done in order to increase the veg intake for my family and eliminate the waste is grab a big roasting pan, toss them with some olive oil and sea salt, load them in, and roast them all in one big batch. They can later be mixed into soups, salads, or frozen.

Reply
Nancy
2/7/2013 07:32:11 am

I am a huge fan of meal planning...if you only buy the food you need for the week, you will eat it all up. I also discovered (sadly, not until about the age of 40), that if you EAT on a regular basis, all the food you are hiding in your freezer you will always have room to store more. I buy meat on sale and marinate and freeze, and keep a running list of what goes in and out.

"Old" veggies make great soup too!

Reply
Krista
2/11/2013 11:53:05 pm

I am also an advocate of dinner planning. We have been doing it for about 4 months. (It was a rough start but we kept at it) We plan each nights' meal and then do the groceries once a week based on that. Each meal is written on the white board, that way if you have to substitute one night for another, it's easy because you know what you can pick from. That flexibility and planning has made a world of difference for us. The grocery bill is less and the waste is less.

Reply
Connie
2/12/2013 12:13:56 am

Hey Krista, I'm curious...what made it rough at first? Was it you getting it all together or your kids' reactions... I know in our case, I used to give everybody more "choice" and now totally don't...what we eat is up to me. I prefer it obviously, but that took them some getting used to.

Reply
Krista
2/20/2013 12:52:17 am

Hey Connie, the "rough at first" was all me and my husband.!!! We had to find time to sit down and go over what we wanted the week to look like food wise. That meant 'owning' a night or 2 of cooking. And figuring out what would be easy/nutritious/liked) which can be quite a combination with 3 kids). Now we have some pretty 'standard' meals we can choose from the planning part only takes about 10 minutes.




Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    About me

    A passionate, experienced & hard-working freelance writer, I offer a fresh & personal take on everyday life. I specialize in writing on parenting, health & wellness, green living, & feminism. 

    Archives

    May 2014
    September 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013

    Categories

    All
    Childhood Obesity
    Consumerism
    Dog
    Education
    Environment
    Ethics
    Food Waste
    Global Maternal Health
    Health & Wellness
    Less Meatarian
    Meatless Monday
    News
    Newspaper
    Parenting
    Pet Loss
    Recipes
    Rescue Dogs
    Social Media
    Writing
    Zoos

    RSS Feed



     ©Connie Jeske Crane 2014. Unauthorized use of site information and content is prohibited without express permission from the owner. 
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.