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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 10, 2018 16:23:44 GMT
I've had to throw away two items in the last two days. Fuck, get a grip, K2!
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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 1, 2018 6:45:27 GMT
The European food wastage statistics are both shocking and surprising. Which country wastes the most food per person? Which country wastes the least?
I never thought of the Dutch as wasteful people, but they are the European champions.
Netherlands -- 550kg per person Belgium -- 350kg Cyprus -- 325kg Estonia -- 270kg Poland -- 250kg United Kingdom -- 240kg Ireland -- 220kg Sweden -- 210kg Austria -- 205kg Finland -- 190kg Italy -- 170kg Hungary -- 165kg Luxembourg -- 165kg Germany -- 150kg Denmark -- 145kg France -- 140kg Spain -- 135kg Portugal -- 130kg Lithuania -- 120kg Slovakia -- 115kg Latvia -- 110kg Bulgaria -- 105kg Czechia -- 80kg Greece -- 80kg Malta -- 75kg Romania -- 75kg Slovenia -- 70kg
I was looking for similar statistics for Canada, the United States and Australia. I only found Canada -- 400kg. The other two countries agreed that people throw away about 30% of the food that they buy. Some of the reasons were interesting. The culture of eating out contributes enormously to waste because people don't stay home to eat their leftovers. It was also mentioned that the healthiest people waste the most food, because they buy far more fruits and vegetables, which are highly perishable.
Clearly we need to work on this problem much more.
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Post by onlyMark on Nov 1, 2018 9:40:19 GMT
Have you ever thought about how that translates to cultural problems when one person is at the top of the list and another is at the bottom? I am totally aware of this because I am near the top (UK) and Mrs M (Slovenia) is at the bottom. She was brought up to use the last bit of food available and will make leftovers into things for days until it really goes off. When we go shopping she will try and buy the exact amount we need of something whereas I'll add an extra one just in case. We were all told as kids to finish what was on our plate but it is almost a religious necessity for her. I see her hovering over the rubbish bin trying to decide whether something can be thrown away and wracking her brains to come up with something it can be used for.
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Post by mickthecactus on Nov 1, 2018 9:47:14 GMT
Very little food gets wasted in our house. I am paranoid about it.
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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 1, 2018 12:10:43 GMT
It took me years to get over my pathological impulse to finish everything on my plate, even when there is far too much. Of course the fact that there is sometimes too much on my plate is my own fault most of the time, except in restaurants. I finally realised that it was better to allow a bit to go to waste rather than damaging my health by overeating.
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Post by rikita on Nov 1, 2018 13:03:35 GMT
i wonder though, how the amounts thrown away at home (and especially those by "not finishing your plate") compare to what is thrown away by supermarkets, or even earlier at production, because something does not meet some standard (cucumber not straight enough, apple not shiny enough) or because of "best by" dates ... and there's also the thing with having to buy fixed amounts of something (like, some products only come in big boxes/jars, and once you open them they have to finish them soon) when you only need a small amount ... i try to come up with some use for the rest, but sometimes i must admit i forget i have that in my refrigerator. if it was possible to buy smaller amounts - but then instead the use of plastic would go up as some people would end up buying ten small packages instead of two large ones ...
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 6, 2019 18:23:06 GMT
I bought a huge branch of broccoli the other day but then I forgot it in the vegetable drawer. Today I saw that it had turned from its glorious dark green to pissy yellow as the florets developed. So I chopped it up and boiled it with a potato and a big onion, some bouillon cubes and other spices. Then I blended it in my food processor and it will be my delicious soup for the next several days.
Nevertheless, I regret that a minor detail like a change of colour could put me off from eating it "normally."
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Post by lagatta on Oct 6, 2019 18:38:34 GMT
Yes, it does seem odd that the Calvinist Dutch should be the top food-wasters. But Dutch supermarkets have very stringent "aesthetic" rules; they also have a lot of ready-meals in plastic clamshells. Fortunately where I stayed most often in somewhat recent years is in Amsterdam East with a large public market (Dappermarkt) and a long shopping street with many small shops not as obsessed with peppers being exactly the same size.
While my food waste is a relatively mild concern in terms of overall population I do find that I have overestimated my appetite of late and thrown away parts of meal portions.
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 12, 2020 7:12:02 GMT
There was a news report the other day about gleaners working for associations that distribute food to the needy. Apparently, it is completely legal for anybody in France to pick up any items from a field that has already been harvested. In this case, they were working in huge potato fields where the harvesting is obviously done by machine. There were absolutely incredible quantities of potatoes (mostly small of course) to be picked up. In normal years, potatoes are so cheap anyway that working people would absolutely never bother to think of picking up potatoes, but I'm sure it really means a lot to the really poor, especially since the agricultural fields are rarely next door to where they life. But in the cities, people glean the street markets as they close down for the day.
The same can be done with carrots, green beans, cabbages...
Agnès Varda made a movie called The Gleaners 20 years ago, and really not much has changed.
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Post by bjd on Oct 12, 2020 8:49:01 GMT
Last week we were walking through vineyards in the Minervois area (north of Narbonne, east of Carcassonne -- sort of). Anyway, in the fields where the grapes had been picked by machine, or most of them, there were grapes remaining both at the top and the bottom of the bush. We were told that the machines only harvest over a specific height, so anything above or below that area remains on the bush. I guess birds eat some of them but most just rot and fall off.
Of course, they are mostly not sweet eating grapes but rather for wine, but it seemed a shame. They are all picked only when it's done by hand.
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Post by lagatta on Oct 13, 2020 12:43:02 GMT
Since I utterly lost my appetite, I made sure to give good quality, uneaten vegetables to my co-op neighbours. Yesterday I bought a very small "flat cabbage" which I think I should be able to eat, between stir-fries and coleslaw or curtido (it is very tender). I do have to discard anything that is a bit off, though. Sad not being able to eat when so many have nothing to eat...
By the way, a friend from Denmark (another prosperous Northern European country) was also shocked by all the transparent plastic coffins food came in, in the Netherlands. Yes, of course there are public markets and little immigrant groceries (with much nicer fruit and veg) but most people shop in supermarkets.
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Post by mossie on Oct 13, 2020 13:59:02 GMT
I am shocked by the amount we throw away, having been brought up in an era when food was rationed it was a sin to throw any away. Also I don't have leftovers, the plate has to be cleared. Very, I buy ready type meals which are very often for two and I split them to have half today and the other half in a couple of days time. Very occasionally I will throw out a half dish because the first half is something I have discovered I strongly dislike, because I have made the mistake of trying something new to me.
I also don't like the amount of packaging one has to fight through to get at the food.
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