Up to 20% of all foods that are grown and produced do not meet strict market requirements and usually end up being plowed under or considered “waste” – produce that is crooked or discolored, a mislabeled container of yogurt, a zucchini that has grown too large, too fast. Another 10%-20% is being trimmed off or thrown out at retail stores and restaurants – the stem of a broccoli, the outside leaves of a head of salad, food too close to the expiration date.
And if this was not enough, of all the food we buy, another 20% goes to waste at the household level – the liter of spoiled milk, a two week old half-empty jar of tomato sauce, or the carrots that have gotten so soft you can bend them around your head. So, of all foods that are grown and produced in the United States, only a little more than half actually ends up in our stomachs – that’s a lot of food being wasted!
Local agriculture and local initiatives often make use of “food waste” – such as San Francisco Food Runners (http://www.foodrunners.org), a program that picks up excess perishable and prepared food from businesses such as restaurants, caterers, bakeries, hospitals, events, corporate cafeterias and hotels, and delivers it directly to shelters and neighborhood programs that feed the hungry; or the Marin Organic School Lunch and Gleaning Program, which adds “seconds” to the weekly order from local schools, enabling 12,000 children to have access to local organic foods – all while working within the schools’ tight food budgets (http://www.marinorganic.org/organic_school_lunch.php).
What else can we do? Share your best tips on what you do at home to avoid food “waste”.
(Just a few days ago, I roasted the leaves of a beet in the oven, added a tad of salt and a sprinkle of olive oil, and they turned into crispy homemade chips – yum!)
