Food conservation and issues with safety

[InfiniteNow]

In another thread regarding obesity, the concept of wasting food was brought up, and how the desire to clean one's plate is often associated with other things. It happens when someone has had experience struggling to get enough food to make it through the day, and also how some feel badly when leaving food on their plate, especially when considering how many people on the planet simply don't have enough food to survive the day.

 

The example of food shows was mentioned, whereby chefs cook masterful dishes, and serve the attendees for free, but throw most of the remaining food, of which there is a lot, out... even if only a single slice has been cut from the entree.

 

This made me think of restaurants, cafeterias, catered group functions, and every other individual's waste of food collectively, when people die every day from starvation, this seems silly and clearly inefficient.

 

Yet, there are also health concerns involved, and this is part of the reason so many groups throw so much away, so it often seems a catch-22.

 

What can we do? Is it okay wasting so much food? Should concerns for the health of a few outweigh concerns for providing nutrition to the many? Can we have our cake and eat it too?

 

Let's put it all out on the table. :cocktail: What's up?

[ThisIsMyName]

Regarding my earlier comment about the Food Shows and all the wasted food, I simply don't understand why these chiefs and Food Service people can't wrap them up and take them down to a shelter? If these poor souls are desparate enough to be digging out of garbage cans, I doubt they'd mind accepting the food. A lot of people that go to these food shows are to prideful and won't even take some of the left overs to their own families because it implies they can't supply their own food (I know this because my father works with these Food Companies that host Food Shows and I knwo that's why he never bring homes any of the leftover entrees).

 

You mentioned Health concerns... What types of health concerns would there be? I am a little confused about what you mean. :cocktail:

 

In my personal opinion, I think America (and the entire world for that matter) could stand to be a little more giving. Everything we have is a gift! We take, take, take and never think of where we got it... We should be thankful for the food we have and be considerate of those who are as fortunate, no matter how wealthy they are.

[Jay-qu]

funny you say that, last night i was walking past the local bakery and saw them dumping all the days unsold bread into a bin.. I said gee what a waste! but then my sister said that they take it all down to some sort of homeless shelter or give it to those in need. I thought what a good idea :)

[Southtown]

An ounce of preservation, yo. If we didn't waste so much food, we'd have a little extra non-perishable cash to spare. That would be the best, since we would have to find out why they have no food of their own anyway and assist them proper rather than just mailing leftovers.

[Jay-qu]

maybe in some situations.. but in the instance of a bakery, they have no idea how much they will sell during that day, if one day they didnt make enough and had customers unserved, surely the next day they would cook extra to meet the demand. Clearly this will fluctuate and will not always exactly meet the demand.

 

This goes for many food shops, and in an industry where freshness is often paramount and consumers would be angered to recieve day old food, what are they to do? giving it away to the homeless seems the best option.

[Turtle]

The example of food shows was mentioned, whereby chefs cook masterful dishes, and serve the attendees for free, but throw most of the remaining food, of which there is a lot, out... even if only a single slice has been cut from the entree....

 

This made me think of restaurants, cafeterias, catered group functions, and every other individual's waste of food collectively, when people die every day from starvation, this seems silly and clearly inefficient. ...

 

What can we do? Is it okay wasting so much food? Should concerns for the health of a few outweigh concerns for providing nutrition to the many? Can we have our cake and eat it too?

 

Let's put it all out on the table. :D What's up?

 

Order up! No, it is not OK to waste food or anything for that matter. :) If I were in charge I would outlaw cafeterias, restaurants, caterers, and anyone preparing cooked food for profit.:D That's right. Not only do they waste food and spread disease, they waste gas & electricity by having their stoves, burners, fans, coolers, & lights running continuously whether they are cooking or not. They also waste energy by forcing hungry people to travel. Any one who wants to eat must prepare the food themself and only in the amount they will consume. The people put out of work will be employed as food police to enforce the law. If you think I'm kidding, just put me in charge and see what happens.:)

[ThisIsMyName]

A friend of mine went on a Missions trip to some place in Africa. He worked in death house (Where people who have diseases go to die, like lepors and stuff). He said to me that the worse part about working there was taking out the trash. Inside the trash were dirty srynges, limbs, bits of coughed up lung, and maybe some left over provisions. And after he would go back inside he'd look out the window and see tons of people go and dig through those garbage cans looking for food.

 

Maybe not to that degree, but even in place like Miami and LA, there are still people doing those types of things. The least we can do is spare some untouched leftovers.

[Turtle]

A friend of mine went on a Missions trip to some place in Africa. He worked in death house (Where people who have diseases go to die, like lepors and stuff). He said to me that the worse part about working there was taking out the trash. Inside the trash were dirty srynges, limbs, bits of coughed up lung, and maybe some left over provisions. And after he would go back inside he'd look out the window and see tons of people go and dig through those garbage cans looking for food.

 

Maybe not to that degree, but even in place like Miami and LA, there are still people doing those types of things. The least we can do is spare some untouched leftovers.

 

Yum! Coughed up lung sandwich on rye. :wave: Sounds like your on the side of not being wasteful at any rate.:wave:

 

On my earlier post, since I'm not in control and have little prospect of achieving that post, one way to reduce the wasting of leftover vegetable material is to use it to feed worms and make fertilizer.(Vermiculture thread: http://hypography.com/forums/earth-science/6693-vermiculture.html?highlight=vermiculture ) Some vermiculture operations arrange to regularly pick up such waste from restaurants, cafeterias, etc.. The worm turns. :D

[Southtown]

maybe in some situations.. but in the instance of a bakery, they have no idea how much they will sell during that day, if one day they didnt make enough and had customers unserved, surely the next day they would cook extra to meet the demand. Clearly this will fluctuate and will not always exactly meet the demand.

 

This goes for many food shops, and in an industry where freshness is often paramount and consumers would be angered to recieve day old food, what are they to do? giving it away to the homeless seems the best option.

Therein lies the problem. Profitability vs. sensibility. A solution that hits the pocket book is never considered.

 

The same goes for the American government. Lobbyists pay for the campaigns in return for legislative favoritism. We now have a "By the Corporations, For the Corporations" bureaucracy. The role of our government would be better suited as a tool of the people to guide behaviors of businesses, not vice versa. As it stands now, the government is just a big waste of perfectly good profit margins. An investment in employee morale.

[InfiniteNow]

This thread is not intended to be about profit margins, although that does play a role, I agree.

 

We throw megatons of food out while people die of starvation. What's a better way to do things? Are there reasons we do not do things better?

[Southtown]

A better way to allocate food stuffs, short of communism, is probably just personal choices to be less extravagent. There are many people who want more than they need just so they can feel better, lounging on mountains of material things gazing across a sea of liquid asset. Same goes for food. People rarely only take what they need. They take everything they can get. Then, what they don't use they dispose of when it's no longer any good.

 

Leftovers can't practically be preserved and transported. Consumption then must be limited to a more minimalist level. The options are probably limited to coersion. For business, positive incentive, like recycling, or negative incentive, like fines on violating hazmat regulations, could work. For consumers, either ad campaigns or communism. :beer:

[ThisIsMyName]

There must be some sort of way this problem can be solved. Doing what we do now is wasteful. What about the bakery-day-old-bread thing? I saw a cartoon once (bare with me) and what the baker did was took all his day-old bread and sold it for a way reduced price the next day that allowed all the people who couldn't afford the fresh-baked $20 per dozen bread. The bread did go to waste, the baker made more money than he did just lobbing it into the dumpster, and people could buy it just by gathering enough change from the sidewalk.

 

Doesn't that make more sense?

 

Why do you think people don't do that? A matter of pride? No common sense? What do you guys think?

[Michaelangelica]

There must be some sort of way this problem can be solved. Doing what we do now is wasteful. What about the bakery-day-old-bread thing? I saw a cartoon once (bare with me) and what the baker did was took all his day-old bread and sold it for a way reduced price the next day that allowed all the people who couldn't afford the fresh-baked $20 per dozen bread. The bread did go to waste, the baker made more money than he did just lobbing it into the dumpster, and people could buy it just by gathering enough change from the sidewalk.

 

Doesn't that make more sense?

 

Why do you think people don't do that? A matter of pride? No common sense? What do you guys think?

I read, or heard on the radio, about some "Urban Gorillas" who collected food from waste dumps etc and survived on what was thrown out. I think the group was in Britain . They have started a whole movement, unfortunately I can't find anything on the web about it. They are trying to focus attention on this very issue.

 

On bread- when I was a kid we used to walk home past the bakery and the baker would give us left over bread - it was still doughy and delicious.

 

Many supermarkets here discount their 'out of date' bakery products considerably. They don't seem to do the same with cheese or meat, they might knock $1 off for example when the bread and cakes can be 75%$ less.

 

I used to work in a business school in a Technical College. Below us were the trainee chefs/cooks kitchens. Some days, with the delicious smells wafting up, it was agony. I remember one day they were cooking Lobster Morney. We thought all the students would be having a feast that day; but at the end of the day the nun's from the local homeless-men's home came to pick up what they cooked .

We were all going to be homeless that night:)

[InfiniteNow]

If I were in charge I would outlaw cafeterias, restaurants, caterers, and anyone preparing cooked food for profit.:) That's right. Not only do they waste food and spread disease, they waste gas & electricity by having their stoves, burners, fans, coolers, & lights running continuously whether they are cooking or not. They also waste energy by forcing hungry people to travel. Any one who wants to eat must prepare the food themself and only in the amount they will consume. The people put out of work will be employed as food police to enforce the law.

I'm so tired of you being apathetic and lacking opinion on issues my friend. :cup:

 

 

The issue of selling food and going to others to find sustanance is much more deeply rooted in our evolved culture. Think in the very ancient past, how wonderers seeking food often couldn't find it. They might stumble on to others who, knowing that favors would be returned, offered their own food to assist them in surviving the day. Hence, bonds were formed, and a strength grew out the increased numbers in their groups. Those bonds were reinforced by sharing food.

 

Now, fast foward to present day society and sharing food is a backbone of our cultural exchanges. Some of my closest friends were made around the dinner table, coming together as friends and families to strengthen the bond.

 

While I agree that far too often profit is sought before conservation, and that numerous steps could be initiated to improve the process of food delivery and avoidance of waste, I do not think you could ever be successful removing the concept of sharing food and exchanging resources (even if it's paper money) when doing so... despite your ever powerful and ever in-charge self's good intentions for doing so. ;)

[Michaelangelica]

Came across this by accident finally

 

http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:rvgiwNVcTfIJ:www.tai.org.au/MediaReleases_Files/MediaReleases/Alert%2520Skip%2520dipping.pdf+Dr+Emma+Rush+Australia+Institute&hl=en&gl=au&ct=clnk&cd=1&client=firefox-a

 

Skip Dipping

Wellbeing from Waste

The latest Australia Institute report looks at the phenomenon of ‘skip dipping’ in which educated professional people, most of whom are relatively financially secure, scavenge from commercial and industrial waste bins.

‘Skip dipping’ is the Australian version of a growing global movement known in

Europe and North America as ‘urban gleaning’.

The Institute study of the phenomenon, Skip Dipping in Australia, by Dr Emma Rush featured in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald this weekend.

Dr Rush examines the experiences and motives of Australian skip dippers. Motives include making a political point about the massive amounts of commercial and construction industry waste discarded each year.

“But skip dippers also share a delight in finding treasure in the ‘trash’ found in

supermarket and construction industry skips,” Dr Rush said.

Goods collected by skip dippers include: honey, pasta sauce, eggs, all sorts of fresh fruit and vegetables, dairy products, bread, biscuits, muffins, doughnuts, cheesecakes, confectionery, deli products, nuts, rice, herbs and spices, pet food, wine and beer, shampoo and conditioner, body scrub, baby oil, baby wipes, tissues, soap, clothing,

crockery, cut flowers, toys, books, laundry powder, light bulbs, furniture, and a wide range of building and gardening materials.

The report interviews skip dippers from around Australia and includes a review of urban gleaning internationally.

For comment, please contact Dr Emma Rush, Research Fellow, The Australia

Institute on 02 6125 1272 (bh) or 0437 967 356.

The Australia Institute is a public-interest think tank based in Canberra.

http://www.tai.org.au