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The Gorilla Lurking in our Trash
Your mother was right when she told you to clean your plate. It may not help feed starving children today, but it may help reduce food waste resulting in making it easier to feed the worlds growing population.
Experts say that 30 percent all the way to 50 percent of the food produced in the world goes uneaten. From farm to fork, children to adults, people of all ages contribute to the food waste problem.
The average American throws away 33 pounds of food each month - about %40 worth, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. In a year that means each person throws away almost 400 pounds of food, the weight of an adult male gorilla.
Through poor portion control or buying too much fresh food that goes off before we use it we create a lot of waste. Follow these tips to help you reduce food waste, save money and protect the environment:
1. Write a list!
Menu plan your meals for a week. Check the ingredients in your fridge and cupboards, then write a shopping list for just the extras you need.
2. Stick to the list!
Take your list with you and stick to it when you're in the store. Don't be tempted by offers and don't shop when you're hungry - you'll come back with more than you need.
3. Keep a healthy fridge.
Check that the seals on your fridge are good and check the fridge temperature too. Food needs to be stored between 1 and 5 degrees Celsius for maximum freshness and longevity.
4. Don't throw it away!
Fruit that is just going soft can be made into
smoothies or fruit pies. Vegetables that are starting to wilt can be made into soup.
5. Use up your leftovers.
Instead of scraping leftovers into the bin, why not use them for tomorrow's ingredients? A bit of tuna could be added to pasta and made into a pasta bake. A tablespoon of cooked vegetables can be the base for a crock pot meal
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6. Rotate.
When you buy new food from the store, bring all the older items in your cupboards and fridge to the front. Put the new food towards the back and you run less risk of finding something moldy at the back of your food stores!
7. Serve small amounts.
Serve small amounts of food with the understanding that everybody can come back for more once they've cleared their plate. This is especially helpful for children, who rarely estimate how much they can eat at once. Any leftovers can be cooled, stored in the fridge and used another day.
8. Buy what you need.
Buy loose fruits and vegetables instead of prepacked, then you can buy exactly the amount you need. Choose meats and cheese from a deli so that you can buy what you want.
9. Freeze!
If you only eat a small amount of bread, then freeze it when you get home and take out a few slices a couple of hours before you need them. Likewise, batch cook foods so that you have meals ready for those evenings when you are too tired to cook.
10. Turn it into garden food.
Some food waste is unavoidable, so why not set up a compost bin for fruit and vegetable peelings? In a few months you will end up with rich, valuable compost for your plants. If you have cooked food waste, then a kitchen composter (bokashi bin) will do the trick. Just feed it with your scraps (you can even put fish and meat in it), sprinkle over a layer of special microbes and leave to ferment. The resulting product can be used on houseplants and in the garden.
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