DON'T WASTE YOUR PLATE

We are still in the midst of exploring the topic of food, a basic need, and how we can make it nourishing. Yes, nourishing for ourselves as we have talked about here, for all people as we talked about here, but also we are going to broaden it out and think about it in terms of nourishment for our land and planet.

We are a long way from the traditional hunter/gatherer lifestyle, and a long way from our earlier agrarian lifestyle where we tended our own/community plants and animals. We no longer have much of an interest as a society in long term vision for sustainability of our food sources (though the tides may be turning). To tend and invest in soil, to store and preserve foods for tougher times, for saving seeds. We have spoken about the depletion of top soils which is crucial for growing all of our food and medicinal plants here.

The large-scale agriculture (“big ag”) approach is to clear, monocrop (grow only one thing), throw on a bunch of fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, maximise production (profit), harvest, deplete, abandon, then acquire new land and repeat. This is clearly unsustainable, and is wasting land, resources, top soil, destroying local ecosystems, polluting, increasing carbon emissions – a disaster. How can we resist this system? By growing our own food, buying from local farmers, voting for representatives who support sustainability, and placing political pressure on those in power. Our best assets: our time, our money, and our voices.

Every piece of food we grow is valuable; it’s a resource. And yet it is estimated that 31% of food is wasted in the US. 133 billion (nine zeros) pounds! Read more here. This is considering all aspects of the food supply chain from losses, damage, and spoilage on the farm, those during storage, and transport. Also foods that get rejected by the buyers like grocery stores because of appearance (ugly or imperfect), supply and demand issues. And waste by businesses and households. Most of that waste ends up in landfill and accounts for approximately 22% of the waste. Whilst in theory it sounds fine because food can break down, the conditions in landfills are such that the food is actually trapped in the landfill and cannot breakdown naturally. The normal organisms that would breakdown the food cannot gain access, and instead the slow (anaerobic, meaning without oxygen) breakdown releases methane and other greenhouse gases which contribute to climate change. ☹ In fact, 7% of global greenhouse emissions are from food waste. Learn more about this here. See how your country ranks here.

There are issues with waste all through the supply chain. Let’s now focus on us, the individual consumers. It is estimated that the average person in the US wastes 219lbs (99kg) of food a year. Why is there so much waste in households? A number of factors are responsible:

1.      Food spoiling (going bad) before it can be eaten

2.      Food passing its expiry or best before dates

3.      People not liking the food due to taste preferences or cooking

disasters

4.      People not liking to eat leftovers

5.      People eating out and not taking the extra food left over

This is a serious problem. And there’s a big difference in the attitude to food waste for different people. If you grew up in a household like mine, there were budgets to stick to, you had to finish everything on your plate, and we were told about the starving kids in Africa if we didn’t want to eat it. Now I am not recommending these as strategies, just merely to point out some attitudes. I would go to friends’ houses and my friends would only eat some things on their plate, or there would be a buffet-style meal and some of the leftovers would be thrown away. My eyes always grew wider at seeing this.

Ok, solutions!

buy what you need

The most important strategy we have as consumers is to only buy what we need. This means meal plans, shopping lists, budgets – all the boring things you probably have heard a million times. But we have to do it! For me, shopping once a week works best and I know if I stick to about the same quantity of food, it’s about right for me. Buy fresh produce that is vibrant and will have the longest shelf-life and most nutrients. You know it’s coming- try to buy local.

Don’t stockpile food. Just because something is on special or on sale doesn’t mean it’s worth it to buy 10 of them if they are not a staple. My Mum always did that. I bet your family has a tale or two about the discovery of a 10 or 20-year-old food item in the depths of the cupboard or deep freezer (or is it only my family?). Stockpiling food is a good way to have spoilage due to age, weevils or other insects.

And also the ‘use by’, ‘expiration’ and ‘best before’ dates are guidelines. If the food looks, smells, and tastes OK, it’s probably fine to eat. The vast majority of food spoilage organisms do not cause food poisoning. If you are immune-compromised, pregnant, or breast-feeding, of course, do not risk it. Do make sure you’re storing food appropriately, and that your fridge is working properly. Web search the best way to store different foods. I use The Swag bags to keep my vegetables fresh in the fridge but you could just use tea towels, pillowcases, cloths, jars.

be smart about excess food

If you make more food than you need, don’t waste it. Put leftovers in the fridge in appropriate containers, freeze them, give a meal to a neighbour or a friend, eat it for breakfast. Take home the food you don’t eat at a restaurant. Say a preemptive no thanks to the 3 million packets of condiments. If you have grown more food than you need, share it! Let your family and friends know, post it on a Facebook group for local free stuff, put it out front. Who doesn’t love free lemons? Some food banks and homeless shelters also accept food donations. I take food in to work and put a “Free” sign on it and it always disappears.

don’t waste your waste

If you send your scraps, offcuts, and food waste to the landfill, they will just be creating greenhouse gases. And this stuff is gold! Here are some ideas of what to do with them.

-Stocks and broths: Vegetable scraps, bones, and meat offcuts can be kept to make stocks and broths. I have a container in my freezer I keep these things in, and when it is full or I am ready to make something in my slow cooker, in they go. I strain them out before I use the broth.

-Preserve: Pickling, drying, dehydrating, fermentation, canning, and jamming aren’t just the realms of your grandparents. If you have an abundance, why not turn it into something you can enjoy in the coming months? So many resources are available for this. Check Youtube or your local library.

-Get worms: Vermicomposting food scraps, i.e., using worms to compost, is super easy and also really engaging for young humans (and older ones like me!). You can buy a specially-made worm farm to get started, or make one yourself out of stuff you may have lying around. I really like this article on Homestead and Chill for a DIY. Where can you buy worms? Web search to find a local worm farm. Ask your local plant nursery or garden centre. Ask friends. Try your local free stuff or gardening Facebook or Meetup groups. I bought my worms from Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm and I was very excited to have Fedex’ed worms.

The castings (worm poop) from the worms are extremely beneficial for your garden and pot plants. Worms can’t eat everything- citrus, dairy, meat, onions, garlic are best kept out. Things like coffee grounds and tea can go in, but tea bags contain plastic so the bags must be cut open and removed before feeding to the worms. I keep paper bags of my scraps in my freezer for our worms. We typically put them in the food processor before feeding them to the worms but you don’t necessarily have to, depending on your set up. We just have a small box at this stage.

-Compost: You can also compost without worms. There are a range of compost setup options depending on your needs, space you have, and preferences. It’s also a great way to turn your garden waste like clippings back into nutrients for your garden. It’s not only food and garden waste that can be composted, but a bunch of organic items. Here’s another article from Homestead and Chill that I like for composting information. Maybe your local garden group or city accepts green waste or makes compost. If it doesn’t contact them and ask why, like I did today. You could also find drop off points at your farmer’s market. Be sure to check out the do’s and don’ts for wherever you’re sending to. Things like ground egg shells, old coffee grounds, and banana peel-infused water can be used in the garden or pot plants.

-Cleaning products: Citrus peels and rinds can be difficult to find things to do with since they can’t be given to worms, other animals, or composted. You can use the peels to make citrus oil-infused natural cleaning products by placing the peels (first scrape off or otherwise separate from the fluffy white pith) into vinegar or alcohol for 2 weeks. Note that vinegar is not safe to use on granite surfaces. You can also grate or zest rinds to add into refreshing drinks, cocktails and mocktails, in cooking and baking.

-Try regrowing your food: Any vegetable or herb that has the root attached or is a root, could be regrown. This might not work for non-organic foods since they are sprayed with chemicals to prevent sprouting to extend shelf-life. You can try regrowing or sprouting lettuce, leeks, chives, celery, potato, sweet potato, ginger, garlic, shallots. You typically need to either place them in water or a damp environment, or in a dark environment (depending on what it is) to grow roots before planting them in the ground. I have some ginger growing in the garden that I grew from a store-bought ginger root, and rosemary on my balcony that I grew from a cutting. Organic fruits and vegetable with seeds could also be regrown. It’s something fun to try. Check out Youtube for tips and tricks.

Regrowing celery

-Feed it to a more-than-human: I first heard Ayana Young use the term “more-than-human” for our fellow animals and other beings on her podcast For the Wild (highly recommend). Some of your scraps could be fed to chickens, your dog (maybe your cat), your rabbit, goat, pig, cow, horse, sheep, tortoise. Chickens and other poultry are pretty indiscriminate and if you’re able to keep them, I recommend it (do your research first though!). They are also great pest control and fertiliser for the garden. If your dog is healthy and has never had gut problems, liver or gall bladder problems, or pancreatitis, you could talk to your vet about adding in some scraps to their diet. After all, that’s how dogs first became domesticated. Note that some human food is toxic for dogs and cats. Never feed them onions, garlic, leek, chives, grapes, raisins, sultanas, chocolate, macadamia nuts, avocado, coffee, xylitol or sorbitol, animal fat, bones (cooked or raw- usually not worth it). There’s some contention about feeding cooked vs raw meat to dogs and cats, with raw meat risking salmonellosis, other bacterial infections, and in some cases, parasites. I personally rarely feed my pets raw meat but you can speak to your vet and do your own (reputable, please!) research.

Pigs are omnivorous and can eat a pretty diverse diet. Herbivores can typically be fed most vegetables, though fruits only in small quantities due to the high sugar and issues with excess fermentation and gut biome imbalances. Round foods like apples, especially, should also be cut at least in half to prevent obstructions. Some types of yard plants can be toxic for more-than-humans like lantana and maple leaves (there’s a very large list, actually), so always check before feeding any plant clippings.

I am a vet and a pathologist so I get to see the unfortunate effects of feeding the wrong things.

Tortie enjoying sharing the harvest

conclusion

Our access to food abundance is a privilege. I invite you to become interested in what food you are throwing away, and why. Recognise that throwing away isn’t ‘away’ – it is going to your regional (or further) landfill, creating greenhouse gases. Only buy what you need, don’t stockpile food, share your surpluses, and use your scraps.