Why I Happily ‘Waste’ Food
Orange rinds in the trash
Food waste is presented in moral terms. It’s bad, even a sin, to waste food. This is a terrible way to frame the issue.
Not wasting versus wasting is not about good versus bad. It’s about how you rank different goods: waste, safety, health, opportunity, etc.
Not so long ago in a matter of a couple of weeks, I threw out a jar of jam, 2 pounds tortillas, a chocolate cake, the remains of Chinese takeout, trimmings from a roast, 2 racks of lamb, half a bottle of cooking oil, half a bag of sugar, and half-consumed tins of cocoa, coffee and tea, as well as pounds of fruit peelings. Why?
- Safety.
The jam had gone moldy and thus not safe to eat. The lamb stank.
In days of rationing after World War II, my mother scraped mold off jam (or bread or cheese) and we ate the rest.
Even we, though, would have balked at stinking New Zealand lamb. (It had been in the supermarket cooler defrosted but plastic-wrapped for days. The manager returned my money).
- Job mobility.
We spend two to three months a year working away from home, usually overseas. At the end of our stay, opened, half-used bottles of oil, bags of sugar, and cans of tea, coffee and cocoa have to be disposed of. Some readers have told me their neighbors are happy to take such leftovers. Great. Mine have never been. I’m not sure I would be confident accepting opened food containers from a total stranger.
In a highly mobile society, students, migrant workers, the workers who live in residence motels, and others probably also pitch partially used staples.
- Work requirements.
The kilogram of tortillas I bought for a conference demonstration. They would not last the journey home, so left them on the hotel room dresser in case the cleaning lady wanted them. Again, if I were her, I’d be suspicious of an opened packet.
- Experimentation and Taste.
The chocolate cake that looked so enticing in the bakery turned out not to be to my husband’s liking. Out it went.
Who hasn’t tried new ingredients or only to discover they didn’t like them?
- Respect for others.
Leftover food was passed on to servants, the poor, and beggars In the past, and still in many countries in the world,
Now we feel embarrassed to pass food we won’t eat to those poorer or less fortunate than us. Ideally they don’t have to suffer the humiliation of accepting it. A change for the better in my book.
(Yes, I know a common argument, perhaps the commonest argument, is that waste food should feed the poor but I do not think this, even when possible, is ideal. See the reference below).
- Care for animals.
Leftover food not good enough for humans (splintery bones, lights) went to animals. Now, vets warn against giving pets leftovers. Pigs aren’t welcome in the suburbs and even chickens create problems.
- Not worth your time.
When food makes up 40, 50 or 80 or 90% of disposable income, then you won’t find much waste because any savings have to be savings from food.
When it makes up 10%, as it does for many in the US, then it’s not worth your time to worry over every little leftover. There goes the stale Chinese takeout.
- Health and Taste.
I believe it is good for my husband to eat fruit, but he’s picky about it, so from time to time I make orange juice.
I end up with three or four rinds for every glass of juice. I can make marmalade and candied peel, but there is a limit to the number of rinds I can use. (Contrast this with early twentieth century Sweden where an orange was a rare Christmas treat, used peel and all).
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Making orange juice for break
Clashing values
Not wasting food is good.
Safe, healthy, tasty food is also good. The ability to choose food is good. The opportunity to work is good. Respecting others is good.
It would be wonderful if the “don’t waste” value never clashed with other values such as safety, health, taste, choice, respect, and financial sense.
Life’s not like that. Values clash all the time. Behaving well as an adult means making choices about which values are most important.
Eating well as an adult means making choices about what values are most important.
So enough of the spurious contrast between virtuous non-waste behavior and sinful waste. That simply induces guilt and anxiety. Guilt and anxiety make it difficult to eat well.
Instead recognize that when adults “waste” food, it’s frequently neither careless nor sinful but because they reckon that safety, health, taste, choice, respect for others and/or financial sense are values that trump “non-waste.”
That’s why I’m a happy food waster. And you might want to be too.
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The Onion had a great piece on food waste that made many of the same points. Hat tip to Jayson Lusk who regularly posts on waste, in this case on an economist’s approach to why people waste.
Marc Bellemare and his colleagues have a paper out that suggests that perhaps the problem of food waste is over-hyped. They do a good job of pointing out the differing and often slippery definitions of waste that are employed, often, I have to suspect, for food activist ends.
Also some food “waste” is essential for a secure food supply.
Wikipedia has a pretty good and non-emotive article on food waste.
Here’s a link to a useful article by Martin Caraher and Sinéad Furey on the question Is it appropriate to use surplus food to feed people in hunger?
- 10 Reasons Why Fish Has Been So Suspect as Food
- When is an Easter Bunny not a Bunny? When It’s a Hare
I love this post! Clashing values, indeed, that is exactly the thing. PS Any thoughts on composting?
Composting? Fine, if you have the space.
Well said, IMO.
I am grateful for a friend’s pet pig, who happily eats whatever I “waste”. However, I do realise that not everyone is so fortunate ;-)
I’m a happy food waster, too. Happy because it all goes to either my chickens or my garden’s compost pile (except animal products). I know it isn’t practical for most people to have chickens, but if you have even a small yard, you can have a compost pile. That will take care of your tortillas, fruit trimmings, tea and coffe. (The latter two stay fresh longer in the freezer. Yes, even tea.) Any gardener would be thrilled to accept your compost if you can’t use it. Low quality bakery products I’ve given away to my neighbors who aren’t as particular. Oil, that’s a hard one. Nothing for rancid oil, but to throw it in the garbage. But that, too, lasts much longer refrigerated. Of course, you might need a second fridge … ;)
Yes, Kathleen. Growing up all our leftovers went to the dogs or cats, or to the dung spreader to go on the fields. We never travelled so there was never a problem with leftover basics. A second fridge–well, you lose on the energy what you gain on the unwasted food. I think!
GREAT points. Many THX4 this post
I don’t waste food, basically I can’t afford to. Also I live alone and cook fresh most days, I plan my purchases, my cooking and my consume so that no waste is created.
About half the things that you’re throwing away can be saved. Jam will keep for a long time if you just put a piece of parchment paper over the surface to keep the air out. It’s the aerobic conditions that create the mould (and keep in the fridge) Tortillas can be portioned into manageable bundles and frozen. Sugar really has no shelf life, especially if you store it in an airtight container. Ditto, tea, coffee and cocoa. Oil, if kept cool and out of the light can keep for a long time as well. At the very least, I hope that you are throwing away the CONTENTS only of the packages and recycling the containers. Composting is the way to go with foods, and if you have a garden, it’s easy to create one. I can’t bear to think of the volume of all this stuff that’s going into the landfill, especially if you are encouraging others to do this. There’s far too much food waste as it is.
Margaret, thank you for taking the time to give me these tips. I’m hoping one day to return the favor to all those who have given me tips and make a list of mine.
Back in my student and single mom of three days I was quite happy to gain any half bottles of slightly rancid oil etc. And oh yes we peeled mold off jam or washed it off pickles. (I still might wash mold off gherkins or olives when I need some in a stew.)
As for that respect thing … our supermarket chains all carry their own salads, sandwiches, baked goods, just heat it up foods. Usually these are much cheaper during the last hour of their working day as they would not be fit for human consumption by next morning.
Suddenly a big chain announced they will have no more late evening discounts. All that food would go to locked garbage bins instead. ‘We do not want cheapskate customers,’ their PR harpy actually said on national TV.
Respect, indeed.
As usual, thanks Ganna for sharing your experience. What to do with leftover food is vexed. I am happy to buy meat from the about to expire bin if it looks good, and it often does. But I’d heard other express real disgust.
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I love that you addressed this topic. I run into it fairly often with clients, and it usually presents itself as “I don’t buy [vegetable/fruit] because of the waste.” Sometimes the waste in question is the root/stem/peel/core of the plant itself, or the parts that spoil before they can be eaten, and sometimes it’s even the packaging it’s sold in. Effectively, people will eat less variety, and maybe even miss out on an entire food group, because of guilt over food waste.
I can usually talk them through it and they will admit to appreciating other values (variety, trying a new cooking experiment, having some fresh food in their diet in the first place) that are more important than avoiding any waste, but it is a real struggle to see the forest for the trees sometimes.
It is also, to me, painfully ironic that the same public health messages are both “encouraging” people to eat more fresh (read: perishable) foods AND scolding them for household food waste. I usually end by telling people that if they want to make an omelet, they have to break (and throw out) a few eggs.
How interesting that this is not just a theoretical issue or one for those who ardently pursue ethical eating, but actually a problem for those who are struggling with eating problems. And the point about the mixed public health messages is well taken.