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Adventures in Sustainable Living Podcast

Episode 23

Waste Not, Want Not, Pollute Not

Hello everyone and welcome back to the Adventures in Sustainable Living Podcast. This is your host Patrick and this is episode #23 titled Waste Not, Want Not, Pollute Not

In the United States, as much as 40% of the food we produce actually goes to waste. Now that is an astounding figure to think about. But before I get into that, I want to share a story with you about an orphaned girl from South Africa. 

Now this was a story that was shared with me from a friend of mine named Andy. Andy and I have known each other for many years. He shared this story with me over dinner one night.  

Andy had gone to a local restaurant to have lunch because he knew the owners. While he was there, a person that was from out of town had ordered a burger and fries for lunch and he was mistakenly given the wrong order. This man apparently was so indignant and upset about this simple mistake that he almost started a fight with the cook. The police had to be called and the man was removed from the premises. 

Later that afternoon, Andy got a call from some friends that lived in South Africa and were back in the States visiting. These folks had adopted an orphaned girl from South Africa. Andy met them at a local restaurant even though he had already eaten. The family had ordered food and when it was placed on the table, the young girl they had adopted kept looking at the food in front of her and looking around at all the people in the restaurant. When she was asked if she was upset or unhappy about something, she simply asked, “Do people here get to eat more than once a day?” 

Now think about this. Here are two example of people at completely different ends of the spectrum. One man obviously SO entitled that he became enormously angry simple because a mistake was made in serving him a meal. And an orphaned girl from South Africa that was accustomed to only eating once a day.  

It is interesting how we become so engrossed in our own culture that we forget there is a whole different world of people out there that live a much more different life than most of us. Yet as much as 40% of the food in the supply chain in the United States goes to waste. Now I am sure if someone came along and took 40% of your monthly income and threw it away, you would likely have some to say about that.  

I remember not too long ago I went into  numerous local supermarkets to ask if I could take home unwanted food scraps, in particular, produce food scraps. This is because I raise my own chickens and turkeys and I simply wanted the greens to feed as an additional supplement. I was repeatedly told “no” because they said it was too much of a liability. The last supermarket I went to after the manager said no and then walked away, this young employee came over to me and said, “I really do not understand what they will not do that for you. You would not believe the incredible amount of food we throw away everyday. 

In the United States, there is an estimated 130 to 160 billion pounds of food that goes to waste each year. And much of this food is perfectly edible and nutritious. This wasted food cost this country about $218 billion a year.  

Now the other side of this is the affects on the environment. All of this food loss means that we are unnecessarily putting additional strain on the environment for no reason.

But why is this? How did we get here? And how can we change this? 

Now to be clear on this, there is a difference between food loss and food waste. Food loss often occurs before we as consumers have anything to do with it.  For example food is lost on the farm, on fishing boats, in produce packing plants and in manufacturing facilities. Food waste is directly connected to the consumer. 

Now I would like to give you a few examples of food loss that routinely happens. Consequently, you will see just how wasteful our system of food production really is. 

• Farmers often plant more than consumers demand in order to hedge against losses from weather damage, pest, disease, etc, 
• If the price of produce is less than the cost of labor and transportation, farmers will often leave food unharvested and it goes to waste in the field. 
• During the COVID pandemic, the closure of restaurants, schools, forced farmers to plow crops under and pour out more than 3.7 million gallons of milk every day. 
• Did you know that about 78 million tons of fish that are caught are discarded every year. As much as 40 to 60% of fish caught by European trawlers are discarded. Shrimp trawlers have the worst discard rate at 27 % of total catch. And what all this waste does is produce an enormous food supply for scavengers, which throws off the balance in the ecosystem. It also kills large numbers of both target and non-target species. 
• Food packing houses will often discard food due to not meeting specific cosmetic standards. 
• When food is processed, waste results from trimming off edible portions of the food such as skin, fat, crusts, and peels. Even though 33 % of this food waste goes into animal feed, we still loose about 2 billion pounds of food yearly. 
• Food is also lost in transportation and distribution networks. This is often due to transportation problems and lack of proper refrigeration especially in developing countries. If you remember in my episode  about fair trade, I talked about how 70% of the food in world is produced by people that make less than $2.50/hr. Well, that means a developing country.

Now what about food waste. 

• First of all I want to mention the retail industry. It is estimated that about 43 billion pounds of food is wasted annually at the retail level. Most of that of course has to do with perishable good such as produce, sea food, baked goods, and meat.  
• The USDA estimates that supermarkets loose about $15 billion per year due to unsold goods. And a lot of this has to do with wasteful over stocking that is simply viewed as a good business strategy, as well as food discarded because of imperfections
• The restaurant industry generates between 22 and 30 billions pounds of waste each year. This includes meals that are left uneaten, edible lefts overs left by customers.
• And now let’s get to the household level. While it may be easy to point a wasteful finger toward big industry, let me say that 40 to 50% of the food waste in this country is actually at the household level. Household waste accounts for 76 billion pounds of waste each years. On average, each one of use wastes 238 lbs of food per year at a cost of $1,800 annually. 

Household food waste: 

• Food spoilage: about 2/3 of household food waste is due to food not being used before it spoils. 
• Over preparing: we often prepare far more food than we can eat. Then we forget to eat left overs. And the Cornell Food and Brand lab noted that since 2006, serving sizes in some of the most popular cookbooks has increased by 36%. 
• Over buying: Sales on unusual items and bulks items leads us to over buy and food spoils before it can be used. 
• Poor planning: Many people prepare meals without any sort of meal plan which means we often over estimate ingredients. 
• Date Label Confusion: Now this is a good one. It is estimated that 80% of Americans are confused over the meaning of date labels: for example “sell by”, “best is used by”, “expires by” etc. Did you know that these labels are not federally regulated. These dates only serve as a suggestion from the manufacturer in relation to peak quality of the product. It has nothing to do with whether or the food is good. 

So, what are we to do with all of this food waste? So, keep listening because I am going to give you some tips on how you can save yourself thousands of dollar a year and you get to learn some lessons on being more sustainable.  

Now as I go through some of these tips on how to reduce your food waste, I am going to tell you I do not completely agree with some of these things. But, I will of course give you my two cents when it comes time. 

First of all, you can do little to stop or control the food waste that is the result of how food is handled and processed.  The only thing you can really do is to bye pass the industrial market in as many ways as you can. For example, I have much more of a tendency to buy local produce and various products from local farmers. I am familiar with their operations, and how they work. So, I feel much more comfortable with their lifestyle and sustainable practices. I also buy meat in bulk directly from ranchers. And I actually process the meat myself. In fact, I ended up with 200 lbs of elk meat recently by doing this very thing. 

Other things you can do of course, is plant a seasonal garden. If you produce excess then freeze it or can it. We do this at 10,000 by having a green houses . You can also raise as much of you own meat as possible. For example we raise our own chickens and turkeys.

Another great way to save money is to go to farmers markets. This way you are buying directly from the farmers themselves. I remember growing up in Tennessee when we would go to the local farmers market and purchase certain vegetables by the bushel and spend days processing and canning our own food. I distinctly remember moaning and complaining about my Mother making us do this and yet this is exactly what continue to do today. 

So in many ways by doing such things you not only purchase locally but you also completely bye pass the industrial market place. You also get locally grown organic produce and meat that is far healthier and fresher than what you can get in the supermarket. 

Now by doing a combination of these things, when I go to the supermarket these days, I only purchase small amounts of veggies and fruit because that is typically all that we actually need. Because we grow our own, can and freeze as much as possible, buy meat in bulk and process it ourselves, we save hundreds of dollars a month on food. In fact, I was in the supermarket the other day just looking at the price of specialty bread. It ranged from $4 to $5.50 on sale. Then I figure that it cost me about 67 cents to produce the same type of bread on home, which I do every weekend. 

One of the things about American culture that I do not appreciate is the fact that most people are directly dependent on this huge infrastructure that we cannot understand more are we able to control it in  any way. And as I like to say, as long as someone else is in control of your resources, they are in control of your life. So, by going local, producing as much of your own food as possible, canning and preserving the excess, you are actually producing a bit more personal security, especially when it comes to your food supply. 

Now as far as food waste at home, there are several things that you can easily do to prevent a lot of waste. 

• First of all, learn what food labels really mean. A huge percentage of Americans toss out food as it gets close to the “use by” date or “sell by” date. You have to realize that this is something that is not federally regulated and has nothing to do with the quality of the food or whether or not it is edible. You have to get accustomed to actually inspecting the food for changes in color, flavor, texture, and smell. 
• Let me tell you about a couple of things that I do in relation to this. There is a discount corner in the supermarket where I shop. Every time I go to the super market I visit this discount corner because they typically have food that is close to the expiration date and it is discounted by about 75%. They do not always have the healthiest food in the discount corner but a lot of time they have specialty bread products, rolls, bagels, etc. I then purchase these at a huge discount and then freeze them. Now I will have to say that I do not do this as much as I used to because we now actually make all of our own bread  
• Another experience that I had that I want to share, and most of you might cringe when I say this but it is a good example of how you cannot always depend on the expiration date. Now I have a cellar at home where I have an enormous amount of home canned good. I do rotate things regularly but I am obviously not perfect and I do sometimes miss things. At any rate, I found 2 sealed cans of spaghetti sauce  and realized they were pass the expiration date by 7 years. I popped the seal, gave them a good sniff, they stilled smelled like normal sauce, I gave then a little taste which seemed normal.  So, I cooked up a nice spaghetti dinner that night. Now of course you are truly going to have to use your best judgement on this one but it is a great example of the fact that you cannot always go by the expiration date.  
• Secondly, you simply need to get yourself organized. Organize your refrigerator so that the most perishable foods are right up front. This way you have an easy reminder to use this food first.  Also, veggies and fruit will keep longer if they are actually stored in the crisper. And you know this reminds me of something. I actually lived at my homestead property for about 7 years without electricity. This was one reason I built the cellar because it was a great under ground refrigerator that required no electricity. So what this meant is that I had to carefully manage my food supply. And because I had to pack in all of my food at the time, I was mindful of everything I used. Consequently, I had almost zero food waste. It wasn’t until I installed full solar, had full electricity, and a refrigerator that I actually had to keep myself organized to make sure I was not wasting food. 
• Thirdly, you can start cooking a little less. This also means keeping your portion sizes smaller. By doing so, you prevent food waste. Now I will have to save that this is a point to which I do not completly agree. This is because I commonly cook large meals but then I freeze the excess because it prevents me from cooking every single day. For example, just the other day we made a big batch of burrito mix, pre-made burritos in a variety of flavors, and froze 45 burritos. Now it is easy to take one of these out of the freezer, thaw and heat for a quick meal on a busy day. So I guess this is our version of homestead fast food. 
• One other tip is to of course purchase only the food that you actually need. This simply means planning your trips to the supermarket, go with a specific shopping list and purchase things in limited quantities. Now again this is where I disagree just a little bit. I commonly purchase things in bulk so I can freeze and can the excess. I feel as if this gives me a bit more control over my food supply. 
• One other thing you can do it to prioritize your cooking. Think in terms of the ingredients that will spoil more quickly such as raw meat, fish, and leafy greens. Use them first. 
• Also, and this is one my favorites because I do this all the time, is to keep your pantry stocked with the basic essentials. This means grains, rice, pasta, beans, canned sauces, etc, so that you have a variety of ways to prepare meals with the fresh ingredients that you purchase. 
• Again, if you over prepare, meaning you cook more that what you can consume, then be sure to use the left overs or freeze the excess. Canning and freezing food should become your best friends. It is ones of the best ways to prevent food waste and to give yourself a little bit more food security. 
• And of course, if you do have to throw food away, instead of putting it in the garbage, compost it. If you have limited space, or live in an apartment, compost with a worm bin. This is an extremely easy, odor free way to compost things indoors. We do this all the time because we live in a colder climate and if we put things outdoors, for half of the year things will just freeze instead of composting. Plus, if we did have a huge outdoor compost bin, it would just be another thing to attract the bears. So, we keep our worms busy will lot of goodies all the time. 

Okay between food loss and food waste, we throw away 218 billion dollars in food every year. This food waste cost the average household between $1500 and $2200 annually. And this is not including the environmental impact. We throw away roughly 40% of the food produced in the United States, which means that is a lot of environmental strain for absolutely no reason.  And yet there are people in the world that are surprised that we actually eat more than one meal a day.  

As I have said before, many times, sustainability is simply about making better choices. Our problem some times is that we live in our little bubble and we forget that 70% of the food in the world is produced by people that make $2.50 an hour or less. Yet there are people in our culture ready to start a fight with the cook because a mistake was made in their food order.  

As I have said before, check your privilege. Remember that we are in fact one of the wealthiest countries in the world. But too many times we are still looking at blue sky. I recently had a conversation with my youngest sister about the state of our planet. And she said, “It is as if the world is in a fast moving vehicle that just passed a sign that said ‘Danger, cliff 100 feet ahead.’” And we all just look at each other and say, “Well, it hasn’t happed yet.” 

The principles of sustainability are actually very simple to learn and apply. I was discussing this just the other day with a co worker. And I simply told them it was in their best interest to start living a more sustainable life because in the not to distance future it may very well become a necessity. 

The simple fact is that we have this enormous infrastructure that we cannot understand or control. Give yourself a little more personal security and take more control of your own food supply by limiting your waste and living sustainably. Simply make one small change at a time but make your goal to live as sustainably as possible. I know it will require us to change many things we are accustomed to doing. But make it our goal to change. 

And one more thought before I go. Think about this in the coming week.

Commit to a goal and focus on actions that are entirely changeable based on results. Don’t just beat your head against a brick wall and keep doing it because one day you expect it not to hurt because you keep doing it. 

Committing to a goal of sustainability is not like beating your head against a brick wall. Making some changes may hurt a little now and again, but in the end you will produce a better future for yourself and the next generation.  

This is your host Patrick signing off until next week.