Food waste

Food waste is one of the many inefficiencies that lead to global hunger and deforestation.

About 1/3 of the world's food goes to waste. In some places it's even more: In Canada & US, half of all food produced goes to waste.

Causes

Business practices

• It's common for restaurants & stores to throw away unsold food at the end of the day - even though most of it is still safe to eat. 💬 discussion TODO: explain their motivations (bakery example) - unpredictability of demand - high markup (so would rather risk wasting ingredients than risk selling out early) - not enough people willing to buy dayolds (and the "dont compete w yourself" mindset discourages selling dayolds) - the end result is that half of stuff goes to waste
• Grocery stores tend to set the bar high for what's fresh enough to sell.
  • Fruits & vegetables, for example, often get thrown out when they're a bit old but still good.
    • Less commonly, even fresh fruits & vegetables are sometimes thrown away due to looking "ugly" (i.e. oddly shaped). But wastage of these is less common, because suppliers typically sell them to factories that turn them into frozen fruit, canned fruit, jams, etc.
  • Overly conservative "expiry" dates - or in some cases "best before" dates which can be weeks earlier than an actual expiry date. 💬 discussion TODO: take it further, talk about safety tradeoffs - even past a true expiry, it's unsafe for some people but still safe for others with strong immune systems - the current regulations don't account for that (probably because it's an awkward discussion to bring up, prone to strawman arguments)
• Damaged packages - for example if a dozen eggs has 1 broken, they often throw out the other 11 because the store isn't set up to sell individual eggs. Or if a 24-pack of soda has one damaged can, they have to throw out the other 23 cans.
• Short lunch breaks (workplaces) - people don't finish everything in time

Cultural norms

• Expecting food to be "always fresh".
  • For example, not enough people are interested in buying discounted day-old donuts, compared to how many day-old donuts bakeries generate.
• Not wanting to take the last of something at a dinner party (+ apathy when cleaning up, throwing away the leftovers). (...)( solution: Be bold & precise, ask the people around you: "Hey let's finish this last {whichever food} so it doesn't go to waste - who wants it?" )
• It's considered weird to ask "Do you want the rest of this?" when it's food on your plate. Even weirder to ask "If you're not finishing that food on your plate, can I have it?". So people don't ask.
• Germophobia (despite the fact that sharing food is generally less risky than being in the same room and breathing the same air). 💬 discussion make a new page about this?
• Apathy, in some cases. 💬 discussion "{Not finishing what's on your plate} is fine but don't chuck it, c'mon!" I gotta say this but in a less patronizing way lol. Same with "people gotta learn to be ok with salvaging older fruits & veg before they go bad, even if it doesn't taste the best". Maybe I should put this in a bullet point called "preferences".
• Procrastination when it comes to cooking & finishing ingredients before they go bad.
• Regret - for example buying junk food and then feeling bad about eating it so throwing it out. Not having someone nearby to give it to.

Lack of understanding

• Mistakenly thinking that food has gone bad when it has not. 💬 discussion TODO: clarify via a story

Effects

• Food waste causes hunger in other countries. 💬 discussion (because it contributes significantly to global food shortages). TODO: Make the page
• Food waste harms the environment (even when it's composted). 💬 discussion (mostly because of how it drives deforestation; also because of the methane that food produces while rotting in landfills or even compost). TODO: Make the page

Solutions / Actions to take✊🏻✊🏽✊🏿

• Redirect unsold food from businesses, before they waste it.
• Demand longer lunch breaks, so that people aren't in a rush to finish their meals.
• Normalize having a leftovers bin.
• Inform people on what's salvageable: Is this still ok to eat?
• Take matters into your own hands: Dumpster diving

More solutions can be added here. 💬 discussion Should this page also have another section called "Discussions" which includes a link to the packaging vs food waste tradeoff?

Seasonal - Fall

• Pumpkin recovery 🎃