As a child my parents raised and taught to me never waste my food. My mother strongly believes you shouldn't waste food because think about all the children who are poor and left hungry. I am not allowed to simple ask if I can eat my dinner later or keep it for tomorrow and so I have grown accustomed to making sure all my food is eaten before I put my plate away. Some children, however, are brought up in a completely different way. They are raised by parents that have little to no appreciation for the food that they are given, this causes them to act in the same ignorant way that the parents have. After they have learnt the wrong way their future generations are affected as well. This continuous cycle will go on for several years unless they are taught and influenced by another to value the food that is placed on their plate and treat it with respect.
A news article that relates to this topic is Food Waste On Staggering Scale, BBC. Did you know that 3.6 million tons of food is wasted every year in England and Wales alone. The Waste & Resources Action Program (WRAP) discovered that the most common food that was wasted were fruits, breads and salads. However that was not the only interesting part, 60% percent of the all the dumped food was untouched. This was because they were either out of date or they were just unwanted. Liz Goodwin, the chief executive of WRAP was shocked by the amount of food wasted by the British, not only was this an environmental issue but it was an economic one too. Liz Goodman said "It highlights that this is an economic and social issue, as well as about how much we understand the value of our food." In this last part of the quote she describes how people are not respecting the food that they are paying for with well-earned money. This links back to what I said before about the value food in the Introduction. If people were more aware of how valuable food is then the amount of wasted food would decrease drastically.
Christopher Haskins
However, ignorance to the amount of food we waste on a day to day basis is not the only reason we end up wasting a lot of our food. Lord Haskins, the government advisor of food and farming, claimed. 'We are risk averse. We're obsessed with sell-by dates, so much so that we throw away perfectly good food which happens to be out of code.' Most families are cautious of food poisoning, this isn't bad, however, if we buy or cook too much food and don't eat all of it, we end up throwing away the either untouched food or leftovers. Sell-by date and best before dates only give the customer a better idea on when the food will stay fresh or taste its best. These labels are mandatory in most countries so that people aren't eating rotten food or buying it either. So if you see that there is a food in the supermarket that is 'out of date' do not be hesitant in buying it, just because it is out of code doesn't mean it's bad for you.
In July 2006 an article was written by Sean Coughlan named Food for Thought. This article explains ways out of wasting leftovers and untouched foods. The simple way would be to only buy or cook what you will eat. But most people can't gage the amount of food their family and they will eat. Coughlan explains to the reader that wasting food isn't so bad if you were to compost the leftovers. Millions of tons of edible food are thrown into landfills everyday. We can reduce this number by composting our food. You can compost your food in almost every country in the world, even in small towns it is possible. Last year Mr. Housego introduced to the families and staff of ISKL the idea of composting. He set up a system and it worked as follows; the family or staff member fills their compost bin and brings it to school, every week Mr. Housego would send the compost to a farmer that gave back, in return for the compost, soil. Mr. Housego then passed on the soil to the supplier and the cycle continued. But that is not the only thing that ISKL does to reduce the amount of wasted food, in the canteen you may have noticed the Waste Food bins that are placed near the trash can and where you put your dirty plates. This is yet another example of how ISKL is doing their part in reducing the amount of wasted food. If more schools and families followed this regime the millions of tons of food would be reduced.
So the next time your not hungry but you still have food on your plate consider any of the following solutions, composting, eating it later or asking someone else if they want it. We can also remind our friends and families not to waste their food, even such a small thing can go a long way. Remember, there is always a way out of food waste!
What is Composting?
The Forth Resource Management describes composting as '...a natural process by which organic materials are broken down by micro-organisms, effectively cooking and breaking down the ingredients. Many materials can be composted, for example grass cuttings, leaves and branches. When done properly, composting will kill harmful bugs and bacteria and produce a safe, sterile end product.'
Picture URLS:
http://palscience.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/food-waste-stop.jpg
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/media/Lord_Haskins_of_Skidby2.jpg
http://www.shetlandrealnappies.org/images/WRAP.gif
