If you are like me, you hate to waste food. Whether you grow it yourself or buy it from the farmers market or at a pinch the supermarket, so much energy and water goes into growing our food that it is almost a crime to waste it. All those food miles consumed just so we can throw it away into landfill to generate methane, which is 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. Talk about a double whammy!
On the off chance that we have any food that happens to go off, then we dispose of it in this order:
- Dogs, if they don’t eat it then,
- Chickens, if they don’t eat it then,
- Worm farm, then
- Compost
No food scraps enter our landfill bin at all. There is always some animal willing to consume it, whether it be beast or insect!
So on that note, here is a great video that shows just how much food is wasted during production and consumption in Australia. It featured on the Hungry Beast show on ABC.
It certainly was an eye opener for me. Half the mango crop thrown away? What an atrocity!
More on food in a post very soon…. I have a surprise for everyone!
I hearby declare that we don’t throw any food away, all veggie peelings are composted, everything is eaten!
Well done Froogs!
I hereby pledge to my best ability not to throw food away
Amen to that! When I was growing up, food waste went to pigs (for meaty stuff and veg), chickens (veg and egg shells), and then compost. Even though I live near the city, it drives me nuts throwing anything away. Keep on keepin’ on!
We are lucky here in Ontario in that we have curbside compost pick up. So, for me, things like cooked bones, which I won’t feed to the dogs and can’t go into my compost, are composted by the region.
The curbside program takes everything – cooked, raw, bones, fats, etc. So between the dogs, the compost and the recycling, no food gets put into the conventional garbage stream.
We also have curbside pick up for all recyclables, so my actual “garbage” is pretty small most weeks – and there have been weeks that I have no garbage!
One thing I want to start this year – putting veggie peeling, etc. into the freezer to use in stock. I make beef and chicken stock, and I need to start making veggie too! I finally got a pressure canner, so there is NO excuse not to increase my stock making 🙂
Like you Gavin, we don’t waste any food at all. However, I’ve been reviewing my finances and I blogged today about a different sort of food waste…. takeaway.
(I’m still reeling….!)
We were raised to not be wasteful. Mom had lots of tricks to get the most use of everything. The few times I mess up and let something go bad, it bothers me. But, composting is somewhat redeeming.
brenda from arkansas
Like you we also have a system where if the chooks or ducks don’t want it it goes to the worms or the compost and I only buy what I need because my budget won’t allow for the extras anyway…I hope to own some acreage one day so saving is a priority!
Thanks for sharing the nice video