Wasting Perfectly Good Food!

[blazearmoru]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5i-dCv7O8o

So this got me thinking about not wasting food and possible events that follow but I have no understanding of how the politics or economy of food works so I'm stuck. So for everyone here, I have a weird question : What do YOU think are some of the expected consequences of an 'MURIKA (or whatever country you're from) that actually stops wasting food?

Thank you for your time and your participation in this random discussion.

 

[dyre]

I try not to buy a sensible amount of fresh food that I can likely finish before it spoils...that's just being financially responsible. But honestly I think this video is ridiculous. It concentrates exclusively on wasted food without presenting any alternatives on what could be done with that food. "Wasting" food is only bad if something could have been done with that food. Unless that 50% of food can be sent to those who need it, there's no point in eating it...Americans are fat enough without eating double the amount of food they already consume.

If corn is wasted because the cost of harvesting it isn't worth the revenue from selling it, then that food is essentially useless. No rational business makes products that cost more than they can be sold.

Also, IIRC starvation around the world isn't so much an issue of global food supply as it is about getting food to places that need it / the inability of the local farmers in poor areas to effectively harvest/store crops due to technological or other limitations. Most of the food that goes to waste in the US would never have made it to Africa anyway...if Americans aren't willing to pay enough for a farmer to harvest crops during bad weather, does anyone really think someone in Sudan is willing to pay enough for a farmer to harvest that food, put it in cold storage, ship it over the Atlantic Ocean, and the transport it to a vendor in Sudan?

tl;dr: As far as I can tell from the video, wasted food in the US isn't really much of an issue. Of course, there might be real reasons why wasting food actively causes harm, but this video doesn't really present any.

 

[Boris Goodenough]

I try not to buy a sensible amount of fresh food that I can likely finish before it spoils...that's just being financially responsible. But honestly I think this video is ridiculous. It concentrates exclusively on wasted food without presenting any alternatives on what could be done with that food. "Wasting" food is only bad if something could have been done with that food. Unless that 50% of food can be sent to those who need it, there's no point in eating it...Americans are fat enough without eating double the amount of food they already consume.

If corn is wasted because the cost of harvesting it isn't worth the revenue from selling it, then that food is essentially useless. No rational business makes products that cost more than they can be sold.

Also, IIRC starvation around the world isn't so much an issue of global food supply as it is about getting food to places that need it / the inability of the local farmers in poor areas to effectively harvest/store crops due to technological or other limitations. Most of the food that goes to waste in the US would never have made it to Africa anyway...if Americans aren't willing to pay enough for a farmer to harvest crops during bad weather, does anyone really think someone in Sudan is willing to pay enough for a farmer to harvest that food, put it in cold storage, ship it over the Atlantic Ocean, and the transport it to a vendor in Sudan?

tl;dr: As far as I can tell from the video, wasted food in the US isn't really much of an issue. Of course, there might be real reasons why wasting food actively causes harm, but this video doesn't really present any.

There are quite a few homeless people distributed over the US that would love the food.

 

[dyre]

There are quite a few homeless people distributed over the US that would love the food.

Right; like I said, the issue isn't the lack of food...it's the lack of effective channels to bring food to where it's needed. Until that's fixed, you can save all the food you want, but it's just going to slowly rot on the grocery shelves...

 

[Boris Goodenough]

There are quite a few homeless people distributed over the US that would love the food.

Right; like I said, the issue isn't the lack of food...it's the lack of effective channels to bring food to where it's needed. Until that's fixed, you can save all the food you want, but it's just going to slowly rot on the grocery shelves...

Oh right, sorry.

Captcha: braaains, no captcha I don't want to eat those...

 

[blazearmoru]

There are quite a few homeless people distributed over the US that would love the food.

Right; like I said, the issue isn't the lack of food...it's the lack of effective channels to bring food to where it's needed. Until that's fixed, you can save all the food you want, but it's just going to slowly rot on the grocery shelves...

That's my initial thought. I keep hearing about how kitchens have to toss out so much food.

 

[Vicarious Reality]

Reminds me of how i always find old food in my relatives house
They sure dont waste anything!
I have some apples going to waste for some reason in the kitchen, i just dont feel like eating them and now they are yellow and softish but not gross enough to toss yet... hmm

 

[Not Lord Atkin]

speaking of wasting food... does anyone else find this series incredibly disturbing?


I mean... it's food. food is delicious. It's supposed to be eaten, right?
I always feel bad when something goes bad and I have to toss it out. Such a waste. I feel like I could have eaten it instead. And I definitely would have loved it.

Food is the best.

That's the only justification I can give, really. I was never poor or hungry. I don't know what it's like and I hope to never find out. But I do love and appreciate food. Even without having to think of the poor and hungry, I find it to be unbearable to see food get wasted. All food deserves to be eaten.

 

[x EvilErmine x]

True story regarding food wastage.

I worked for Marks & Spencer Foods, part of my responsibility was to do something called a 'waist check' on a daily basis. What this involved was to go round the store and check for products for sell by dates, we would then reduce the price by a set amount (say 25%) then at about 1pm if it was still on the shelf we would mark it down some more (10 to 20%). Well that's what we were meant to do anyway, in reality I would mark it down by a ridiculous amount (75 to 90%) just so that at the end of the day I wouldn't have to throw it out. I'm proud to say that on my shifts we had only a little that needed to go at the end of the day as I'd sell nearly all of the stuff.

One area I had no control over was the bakery though, the bakery would end up putting boxes (1.5m x 1.5. x 1.5m boxes) of freshly baked cookies, loaves, donuts, etc. into the bin every day. I suggested that they give the waste to the local homeless shelter and food bank as there was that much of it every day. I was told that due to health and safety regulations they couldn't. If someone got sick because of eating it M&S would be liable. This to my mind is friggin ridiculous..,who the hell has ever got sick from eating bread that was baked that morning? That's just a stupid IMO and almost criminal in my mind.

I don't know why I just told you that story...maybe because this tread brought it all back to me, and it still makes me angry even now. Maybe it's coz I grew up really poor and food was always an issue so we really couldn't afford to waste it, I dunno.

 

[theboombody]

Restaurant portion size in the US is ridiculous. At least for white collar workers. Blue collar workers need a lot more to eat since they burn a lot more energy. I think huge portion size is a waste for the most part.

 

[Scars Unseen]

True story regarding food wastage.

I worked for Marks & Spencer Foods, part of my responsibility was to do something called a 'waist check' on a daily basis. What this involved was to go round the store and check for products for sell by dates, we would then reduce the price by a set amount (say 25%) then at about 1pm if it was still on the shelf we would mark it down some more (10 to 20%). Well that's what we were meant to do anyway, in reality I would mark it down by a ridiculous amount (75 to 90%) just so that at the end of the day I wouldn't have to throw it out. I'm proud to say that on my shifts we had only a little that needed to go at the end of the day as I'd sell nearly all of the stuff.

One area I had no control over was the bakery though, the bakery would end up putting boxes (1.5m x 1.5. x 1.5m boxes) of freshly baked cookies, loaves, donuts, etc. into the bin every day. I suggested that they give the waste to the local homeless shelter and food bank as there was that much of it every day. I was told that due to health and safety regulations they couldn't. If someone got sick because of eating it M&S would be liable. This to my mind is friggin ridiculous..,who the hell has ever got sick from eating bread that was baked that morning? That's just a stupid IMO and almost criminal in my mind.

On the first part, if I were you're boss, I'd tell you to mark the price down according to store policy or go find another job. The fact that significantly more of your product is selling than other departments certainly means that more people are buying product, but it also likely is causing people who would have bought the food at full price to wait for the price drop. 10% is a token discount meant to attract people's attention. It's not enough to warrant breaking a shopper out of his routine, but it might grab some impulse shoppers who like a "bargain." 90% is a habit changer. How many people would buy games on Steam for full price if they knew it would be sold for a fraction of the price later that day?

On the second part, do you know what else they might have been eating? Just because it isn't your food that got them sick, doesn't mean that you aren't the person they'll sue. Common logic like "no one gets sick from day old bread" won't serve as much of a defense in court, but the fact that you had to pay lawyers in the first place means you already lost no matter the outcome. Better to avoid the situation altogether. Sad, but that's just how it works.

 

[manic_depressive13]

Oh man I hated that fucking video. Otherwise intelligent people spewing bullshit about how we're going to fix world hunger by small and convenient changes to our lifestyle. They even acknowledge that an enormous amount of wastage happens before it even reaches the consumer, and even more is wasted by the store itself.

What's the solution? 'Don't buy and cook food unless you intend to eat it'. Wow, what a revolutionary concept that's sure to fix the myriad of issues regarding food production and supply.

 

[Queen Michael]

I try not to buy a sensible amount of fresh food that I can likely finish before it spoils...that's just being financially responsible.

Unless you do try to avoid buying sensible amounts of food, I'd say this is a typo.

Me, I think that it'd be bad for the economy if we stopped buying more food than we ate, because, well, unless we spend the money on giving food to the needy that's just less food sold.

 

[blazearmoru]

True story regarding food wastage.

I worked for Marks & Spencer Foods, part of my responsibility was to do something called a 'waist check' on a daily basis. What this involved was to go round the store and check for products for sell by dates, we would then reduce the price by a set amount (say 25%) then at about 1pm if it was still on the shelf we would mark it down some more (10 to 20%). Well that's what we were meant to do anyway, in reality I would mark it down by a ridiculous amount (75 to 90%) just so that at the end of the day I wouldn't have to throw it out. I'm proud to say that on my shifts we had only a little that needed to go at the end of the day as I'd sell nearly all of the stuff.

One area I had no control over was the bakery though, the bakery would end up putting boxes (1.5m x 1.5. x 1.5m boxes) of freshly baked cookies, loaves, donuts, etc. into the bin every day. I suggested that they give the waste to the local homeless shelter and food bank as there was that much of it every day. I was told that due to health and safety regulations they couldn't. If someone got sick because of eating it M&S would be liable. This to my mind is friggin ridiculous..,who the hell has ever got sick from eating bread that was baked that morning? That's just a stupid IMO and almost criminal in my mind.

I don't know why I just told you that story...maybe because this tread brought it all back to me, and it still makes me angry even now. Maybe it's coz I grew up really poor and food was always an issue so we really couldn't afford to waste it, I dunno.

That makes sense. As a business there is no gain and even if it's a tiny risk, the total result is no gain + small risk. The laws needa change probably.

I try not to buy a sensible amount of fresh food that I can likely finish before it spoils...that's just being financially responsible.

Unless you do try to avoid buying sensible amounts of food, I'd say this is a typo.

Me, I think that it'd be bad for the economy if we stopped buying more food than we ate, because, well, unless we spend the money on giving food to the needy that's just less food sold.

yea... politics and economy. @-@ such a broken system. Where the game devs at? D:

 

[dyre]

I try not to buy a sensible amount of fresh food that I can likely finish before it spoils...that's just being financially responsible.

Unless you do try to avoid buying sensible amounts of food, I'd say this is a typo.

Me, I think that it'd be bad for the economy if we stopped buying more food than we ate, because, well, unless we spend the money on giving food to the needy that's just less food sold.

Yeah, I originally typed something to the effect of avoiding excessive purchases but edited it halfway; seems I missed an edit.

 

[Stryc9]

I suggested that they give the waste to the local homeless shelter and food bank as there was that much of it every day. I was told that due to health and safety regulations they couldn't. If someone got sick because of eating it M&S would be liable. This to my mind is friggin ridiculous..,who the hell has ever got sick from eating bread that was baked that morning? That's just a stupid IMO and almost criminal in my mind.

Quite a bit of food waste in this country comes down to this exact problem at least when it comes to prepared foods and what happens to them at the end of the day. There are simply people out there looking for a quick payday and for every one of those people there are at least 10 lawyers willing to help them get that payday as long as they get a sizable chunk of that payday for their trouble.

 

[michael87cn]

It's not wasted. All that is wasted is money, or rather human labor. When food decays it returns to the earth to become nutrients and fuel for future food.

 

[blazearmoru]

It's not wasted. All that is wasted is money, or rather human labor. When food decays it returns to the earth to become nutrients and fuel for future food.

I actually don't know what happens to food that is left to spoil lol... I just assumed food is used by non-human biological organisms and in the jungles that would indeed easily circulate but what of cities? I don't know enough but my first assumption is that it is not returning back to the earth in a manner healthy to humans. O-o

 

[Trude]

What really made me sad working as a cook was how perfectly good meals were tossed in the bin if they were returned. It will be distributed to staff if it was rejected immediately, but if it spends more than a few seconds on someone's table without a waiter's eyes on it, into the trash it goes.

 

[krazykidd]

Well if it's no longer any good to sell, is it really okay to give to poor people? I know beggars can't be choosers but still, wouldn't we be saying the homeless are lesser people than the rest of us? I mean it's like saying " we can't sell this to normal people, let's give to the the homeless".

Anyways, i too cheap to waste food , and i don't really care about homeless people, because i'm a terrible person like that.