Tuesday: Wasted Food

Did you know that we Americans throw away nearly half our food? It's true, and if you read Jonathan Bloom's new book, "American Wasteland," you'll be surprised by the many reasons for such senseless loss. For example, as many as 25% of lettuce grown in this country is left to rot in farmers' fields simply because farm workers are afraid it's not up to the standards of grocery chains. Another situation--many school children in the US throw out more than half their lunch because they're not hungry. Why? Schools have started serving lunch to many students as early as 10:30 AM, when kids are still full from breakfast.

I loved this book because it was a real eye-opener and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in the topic and wants to learn more about what they can do about the problem. It got me thinking about the ways we combat waste. One of our favorite strategies is buying from our local grocery store's "bargain bin" of items that are nearing their "sell-by" dates. Many food items are perfectly acceptable to eat (Bloom agrees) at or past their sell-by dates.  There's also a produce "bargain bin" --veggies and fruits that may have gotten bruised or a tad withered that are sold at a fraction of their cost. I'm really glad our store manager offers these items on sale, vs. throwing them in the trash.

Another way we avoid waste is by cooking smaller meals. Sometimes leftovers "hide" in the refrigerator, only to be discovered after they've spoiled. Eating everything at one sitting alleviates this problem. And when we do have leftovers, we try to incorporate them the next day in another dish, so we're sure to eat what we've paid for.

Finally, anything that does go bad, or the inedible parts of produce, ends up in our compost heap. We've got some very happy worms out in that heap, and the compost makes fabulous fertilizer for the vegetable garden.

In my opinion, wasting food when so many people in the world are hungry is a sin. I'm astonished at how much we throw away and hope that people like Jonathan Bloom get the word out that things need to change.