Wasted food

[danaeonyx]

If there's one thing that upsets me more than people eating meat, it's people NOT eating meat that they've bought. Especially at parties, the amount of meat that gets thrown away is such a waste

[twinkle]

Yeah. For a long time (I didn't realise this, and was a bit shocked when I found out) my (I thought) vegetarian housemate was a freegan in that if he knew meat would be thrown away anyway, he would eat it because he hated to see it go to waste. I can see his logic but I found it icky

Don't the UK throw away something like 40% of the food we buy? I'm certainly not blameless in this, I put things in the fridge then forget they're there quite a bit. I try to compost where I can though. I think there are some compost systems you can put meat into, but it's not recommended for the general garden ones.

[DiaShel]

I agree completely! As a waitress I practically beg people to let me box their food because I hate to throw it away.
A few weeks ago me and my friends went to this huge cafeteria style breakfast place (all I could get in the whole place was a banana and orange) and they went crazy! Got tons of food, half was tossed. I was so mad and had to bite my tongue.

[KcCrash]

I hate this too.
Iremember going to a pizza place once, as a none vegan but I saw gruops of people (students) going up to the all you can eat buffet thingy and each one got a whole pizza, sides,chicken wings salads and stuff.

As I was leaving, they were leaving too and I glanced at their table and noted that each plate had at least half a pizza left on it, some had only eaten one or two slices, most of the chicken wings and sides were left too.
I hate waste

[Korn]

IMO the situations you mention actually describe something much sadder than wasted food: wasted lives.

[Quantum Mechanic]

And in the case where there's both food and dead animals (which is fairly usual for omnis), then it would be a case of both wasted food and lives.

Double insult.

[firstandthen]

I work weekends at a supermarket and I hate to see all the food that is thrown away. Not just meat but things from the bakery wrapped up in a bin bag that could easily have been givent to people who have nothing else to eat.
I know supermarkets are there to make a profit but they're losing money on it anyway, why can they not just give it away to help someone else?

[harpy]

There are one or two organisations that redistribute food that's reached its sell-by date to the homeless, like this one http://www.fareshare.org.uk/about-us.php They can't do anything with food that people have put on their plate and not eaten, though

Obviously it would be better if people didn't eat meat at all but if they do I agree they shouldn't waste it, otherwise more animals will be killed to satisfy the same amount of demand.

[Elahiya]

IMO the situations you mention actually describe something much sadder than wasted food: wasted lives.

that was right the sentence i thought when a customer at my shop let a package of eggs fall down.

i´m working at a health food store and often have to throw the expired food into the waste. it is every day, actually, especially a lot of prepared things. it´s really a pity and i think more companies should give their "waste" to organstions like mentionend from harpy.

[harpy]

Do you think they would consider giving the expired food to a food bank type organisation, Elahiya? FareShare does seem to have a London operation but I don't know if it's the right area for you. They might know of someone else though.

[pat sommer]

I think more grocers would donate if they could: case in point Trader Joe's near my mother offers up regularly to local food banks -last minute- but there often isn't anyone to provide transportation in a 4 - 6 hour period. Stuffs gotta go and there ain't storage space for the fresh delivery as well.

Anybody out there with a truck or panel van contact your local food bank.

[Elahiya]

Do you think they would consider giving the expired food to a food bank type organisation, Elahiya? FareShare does seem to have a London operation but I don't know if it's the right area for you. They might know of someone else though.

i think they would, or i´d at least hope so!!! i should ask them, definitely!

everytime, i have to do the "waste" (i.e. i check the fridges for the expired food of that day) i have to think of the homeless person with her dog, who is at the main street around the corner. i always wish i could something for her, cus i often meet her after work. unfortunately, we´re not allowed to take any of these items.

[aussievego]

I've had a few 'moments' at social functions when I have made the mistake of counting lives. One in particular was when I went to a friends house not long after going vego. It was no big occassion and there wouldn't have been more than ten people there, but they had bought four roast chickens for the meal. When I saw all the dead chickens I was suddenly hit by the tragic waste of four lives so they cold have one meal. Even though they weren't doing anything different to any other meat eater, I couldn't get it out of my head left early and have never really had the same relationship wiht them since then.

Christmas is always a tough time for me. All the advertising of the christmas ham, and trukey, and seafood that floods TV this time of year. I find myself being overwhelmed by the enormity of it all.

[Sarabi]

I hate it.
I hate walking into the tray slide place in the dining hall and staring at entire cheeseburgers that have not been eaten. Completely untouched.
Every single day.
And probably the same people do the same thing each day.
And then they have the absolute lamest arguments to continue doing it.

[Quantum Mechanic]

I've had a few 'moments' at social functions when I have made the mistake of counting lives. One in particular was when I went to a friends house not long after going vego. It was no big occassion and there wouldn't have been more than ten people there, but they had bought four roast chickens for the meal. When I saw all the dead chickens I was suddenly hit by the tragic waste of four lives so they cold have one meal. Even though they weren't doing anything different to any other meat eater, I couldn't get it out of my head left early and have never really had the same relationship wiht them since then.

Christmas is always a tough time for me. All the advertising of the christmas ham, and trukey, and seafood that floods TV this time of year. I find myself being overwhelmed by the enormity of it all.

I've always felt this way, and as a child would get mad at my classmates for their waste and utter disrespect - I mean, it's bad enough to start out to eat the animals, but then to act like it's nothing and just throw it away? I don't even do that with paper or tinfoil! At least be grateful that your getting something from their life that was ripped away, instead of taking a piece of that body for yourself, then deciding that you no longer want it and tossing it to the side like it is nothing.

[Laura-Louise]

I always get really upset when people throw meat away too - I just imagine that poor animal, killed before it's time, only to be sold and just thrown into the bin - completely pointless.

A while ago, my other half bought some sausages (blergh) left them in the fridge, open and of course they went dried out and he had to throw a few away. I let him know in no uncertain terms how I felt about that! And he hasn't done it since.

[Ms_Derious]

I am currently fermenting some home made bokashi bran, which I intend on using to make my own bokashi composter. The reason for this is I have very little garden space to run a 'normal' composter in, and the Bokashi should, at least, extract liquid I can use as a plant feed, and the main body of the 'dry' compost should be broken down enough to not require as long composting, and will probably be 'okay' to use after a short time in my 'bucket pile'

One of the reasons Bokashi is popular is that it can break down meat, cooked foods etc which you can't put in normal composters. Admittedly though, I don't eat meat (obviously!) and cooked food tends to get eaten without any problems in this house!

I will let y'all know how it works out

[*live*&*let*live]

There is an 'all you can gorge on but only pay a fixed price for crappy reheated and kept warm food' in Blackburn near where I live. However they charge you if your plate is in their opinion not empty enough. I agree wholeheartedly with others posting on here. Waste is wrong, unavoidable at times but I think it hurts us more as most of the waste is our friends....

[Sarabi]

Actually, I don't feel quite the same way about waste as I did before. The reality is that every life is being wasted in animal agriculture. Waste is a fact of this country. We like to waste stuff. Massive amounts of it. People eating animals is as much of a waste as people throwing carcasses away. Gary Francione points out that the one and only thing that people care about when it comes to harming animals is if it's deemed to be a "waste." If it's for pleasure, entertainment, tradition, habit, etc., it's not a "waste," therefore it's okay.

However, as the following videos demonstrate, "biomedical research" is a complete and utter waste even by society's standards (something even non-vegans will realize they can't support):
http://vimeo.com/1754071
http://vimeo.com/2293367

[*live*&*let*live]

I always get really upset when people throw meat away too - I just imagine that poor animal, killed before it's time, only to be sold and just thrown into the bin - completely pointless.

A while ago, my other half bought some sausages (blergh) left them in the fridge, open and of course they went dried out and he had to throw a few away. I let him know in no uncertain terms how I felt about that! And he hasn't done it since.

GFY!

[Butterfly]

Yeah I totally agree with how most of you feel, waste upsets me sooo much. I work in a restaurant as a waitress, and there is soo much waste, it really bugs me. Why are people so selfish and stupid, piling up their plates at the buffet when they know they could never eat it all? Because they CAN, and this attitude about so many people makes me sad =(

[DiaShel]

^ I'm right with you on that. When I waitressed when I was told they didn't want to their plate of food that was more then half remaining home I wanted to dump it right on their head. People are like that with everything though. If something is free or unlimited they'll take as much as possible just to throw it out later.

[Ms_Derious]

The funny thing is... when I went to a (vegetarian) food pub a few months back and couldn't finish my whole flatbread... I wrapped it up in a napkin and took it away with me. The waitress gave me the dirtiest look, as if I had been hoovering up crumbs from other peoples plates! Admittedly, this was in Oxford, and a lot of the people there seem to think they are above frugality. I'm allowed to slag it off... I was a student there for three years!

Later, at the performance we were watching I took it out and shared it with my OH. It was a nice treat, and certainly more vegan/cheaper/better for me than any of the interval snacks I could have bought.

Anyway, yes, I think a lot of people waste food when they are out and about as they don't want to look cheap by taking it away with them. Personally, I think if I've paid for it I'm bl**dy having it

[Veggie671]

I think a lot of restaurants contribute to food waste as well. The meals are almost always bigger than I can or should eat and if I try to order off of the children's menu (those are normally sized portions) they tell me that I cannot because I am not a child. I will almost always bring the food home for leftovers as the hubby always takes them for lunch. Places like Claim Jumper, who are famous for giving portions so huge nobody can make a dent in them, are ridiculous.

[DiaShel]

^ Yes but wound anyone not take all that food home? I can't see any reason why not to.

[*live*&*let*live]

The funny thing is... when I went to a (vegetarian) food pub a few months back and couldn't finish my whole flatbread... I wrapped it up in a napkin and took it away with me. The waitress gave me the dirtiest look, as if I had been hoovering up crumbs from other peoples plates! Admittedly, this was in Oxford, and a lot of the people there seem to think they are above frugality. I'm allowed to slag it off... I was a student there for three years!

Later, at the performance we were watching I took it out and shared it with my OH. It was a nice treat, and certainly more vegan/cheaper/better for me than any of the interval snacks I could have bought.

Anyway, yes, I think a lot of people waste food when they are out and about as they don't want to look cheap by taking it away with them. Personally, I think if I've paid for it I'm bl**dy having it

GFY! I would ask too! I always squirrel stuff for Elsie and if I have anything left ask for a doggie bag. Like you say, you paid for it, it's yours! Glad to see you enjoyed your snack instead of £10 worth of ice cream which is non vegan!

[*live*&*let*live]

I think a lot of restaurants contribute to food waste as well. The meals are almost always bigger than I can or should eat and if I try to order off of the children's menu (those are normally sized portions) they tell me that I cannot because I am not a child. I will almost always bring the food home for leftovers as the hubby always takes them for lunch. Places like Claim Jumper, who are famous for giving portions so huge nobody can make a dent in them, are ridiculous.

I agree Veg, obviously I cannot comment on places local to you (I wish!) but I think it is prevalant in most countries. You either stuff yourself silly so as not to waste it, take it and warm it up and it's not as nice or waste it and be annoyed with yourself! Restaurants/take-aways do overface you and I don't know why! Some places local to me (non veggie though) do a light bite plate which is suitable for my nana etc I would much rather them trim £1.00 off a meal and make it smaller than overcharge and waste it. Someone else could be eating that. It's sacrilege. (because food is sacred to some)

[Veggie671]

Guam doesn't have as many of the chain restaurants as the states, thank goodness, but I have to admit I am taken aback a little if I go somewhere and I do get a normal sized portion. I have been so brainwashed that even I have to stop and think for a second and realize I'm not being shortchanged, I just got a regular portion, as things should be. I know when I lived in San Diego, if we would go downtown to eat I would always get my leftovers wrapped up and usually end up giving them to a homeless person on my walk back to the car. I figured they needed it way more than I did. L&ll, you are lucky you are not familiar with Claim Jumper or you might be outside every night picketing. I remember as a teenager I would go there and my dad got some pot pie that could have fed a family of 8. Of course my he saw this as a challenge and ate almost the whole thing, ugh.

[Roxy]

We bring home a lot of food from work that's going to otherwise be thrown out. What we can't fit in our freezer, we put downstairs in our building's laundry with a note on it, telling people to help themselves to it. What we bring home though, is only a small portion of what's being wasted unfortunately.

[*live*&*let*live]

That's lovely Rox! Wish more people were in a position to do that - bring food home from work. Just great! x x

[Roxy]

It's not really allowed, but so many of us do it. We see the amount of perfectly good food that is thrown out every day and it angers us. Our store manager refuses to donate it to charity and that angers us even more. The least we can do is take it for our own use, or to donate to others ourselves.

[everdream]

You'd think, even if the manager didn't want to donate the food through compassion for others less fortunate, that s/he would donate it as it would increase the store's PR.

[Veggie671]

I don't know how it is in other places, but I know in California, or possibly just San Diego, if you donate food at random, you can be sued if somebody gets sick from eating it. A long time ago, lots of restaurants would donate all the food at the end of the night to a homeless shelter, or some other needy place. Some people got sick from something once, sued, and won lots of money. Ever since, it takes an act of God and red tape to be able to donate leftover food so most places don't do it.

[everdream]

I read in the paper yesterday that Tesco's sends it's wasted meat (the meat past it's sell by) to be incinerated to provide electricity for 600 homes. It's better than it going to landfill, but it proves we really do kill too many animals, if so many lives are wasted not even to be used for food.

[Veggie671]

I think a lot of it is because people would get angry if they went into the grocery store and the cut of meat, or anything for that matter, that they were looking for wasn't there. My mom always complains about how spoiled people are because when she was a kid my grandfather grew all of their veggies so they could only have certain fresh veggies at certain times of the year because that is when they grew. She gets so mad at people who complain that some type of produce is missing from the store when it's something that is not in season.

[Roxy]

I don't know how it is in other places, but I know in California, or possibly just San Diego, if you donate food at random, you can be sued if somebody gets sick from eating it. A long time ago, lots of restaurants would donate all the food at the end of the night to a homeless shelter, or some other needy place. Some people got sick from something once, sued, and won lots of money. Ever since, it takes an act of God and red tape to be able to donate leftover food so most places don't do it.

I'd never thought of that. Really good point.

[Halcyonelle]

I hate waste too. To me, it all seems to stem from our food sources, which are geared for mass-production i.e. the multinational corporations that serve our food.

To me it all seems wrong - but it's convenient isn't it? My nearest store happens to be a massive supermarket. They're always pushing buy-one-get-one-free and multibuy, I reckon a lot of it ends up in the bin because we don't need to plan as much. What does it matter to most if it ends up in the bin? It was cheap, and there will be another deal tomorrow.

We don't source our own food from our own community anymore, I know this is changing in some parts, though, and I know some people are able to do this! If we all had the means to do so, maybe it would be hard to waste so much.

I don't feel I have a lot of control over being able to grow and preserve my own food, but I'm trying though - growing stuff in my backyard!

[Veggie671]

Thanks Roxy. It really is a shame how things like that happen though, it's just another piece of the puzzle that is slowly making me lose faith in the good of humankind, if there ever was any.

Halcyonelle, I think growing even a few things in your back yard is better than nothing. I love having a garden and here in Guam we have lots of fruits growing randomly all over the place so every time we go out for a drive I'm always coming back with bags of papayas or bananas as nobody picks them all and they will go to waste otherwise. My favorite lately is my neighbor keeps leaving me avocados from his tree which are the greatest.

[Kimberlily1983]

GFY!

Hahaha, I was trying to figure out what GFY means, and all I could think of was something quite rude. I finally realized it means Good For You.

Realizing you posted this a year ago, LOL, I guess I won't expect a response.

[twinkle toes]

one thing that stands out as being uneccesarily wasteful to me is how supermarkets can turn down food from their suppliers if it doesn't look right (eg: fruit and veg that is the 'wrong' shape or size to be displayed in their store).

i keep seeing this book on the shelves and it looks pretty interesting: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Waste-Uncove.../dp/0141036346

also there's a documentary 'the gleaners and i' which is about people who look for value in things other people have thrown away (eg: food, household items which can be fixed and given away or sold on, etc). i didn't get to see the entire film unfortunately, but i'd recommend it to anyone interested in this thread.

[anthony]

I don't mind when people waste meat, any more than when they waste vegetables, or for that matter, clothing, or items in general. Waste bothers me on all levels, certainly. However, I don't think there is any moral magnifier when dealing with animal products. The animal is dead -that's where the waste lays. What happens to the corpse after the fact is meaningless, unless you are anthropomorphizing your views of death and the after life unto an animal. (Which seems odd to me).

The life of an animal has been wasted, what people choose to do with her corpse is a non issue. Eat it? Throw it away? Burry it in the woods and have a little funeral? It's all meaningless. The tragedy has already occured. I certainly wouldn't take sollace if a loved one was killed, but -at least the killer skinned her corpse to make shoes, and ate her flesh as food!. In fact, I think it would make it quite a bit worse.

I think when animal rights activist focus on "wasted" animal products, we -in some way- legitimize animal products as a food source.

[Kimberlily1983]

I don't mind when people waste meat, any more than when they waste vegetables, or for that matter, clothing, or items in general. Waste bothers me on all levels, certainly. However, I don't think there is any moral magnifier when dealing with animal products. The animal is dead -that's where the waste lays. What happens to the corpse after the fact is meaningless, unless you are anthropomorphizing your views of death and the after life unto an animal. (Which seems odd to me).

The life of an animal has been wasted, what people choose to do with her corpse is a non issue. Eat it? Throw it away? Burry it in the woods and have a little funeral? It's all meaningless. The tragedy has already occured. I certainly wouldn't take sollace if a loved one was killed, but -at least the killer skinned her corpse to make shoes, and ate her flesh as food!. In fact, I think it would make it quite a bit worse.

I think when animal rights activist focus on "wasted" animal products, we -in some way- legitimize animal products as a food source.

Very good points. It's amazing how many little things we do and say that reveal that we still have a ways to go in changing our own consciousness sometimes, and that sometimes the things we say - the things we think are helpful, etc. - are harmful in themselves.

[Festered]

I don't mind when people waste meat, any more than when they waste vegetables, or for that matter, clothing, or items in general. Waste bothers me on all levels, certainly. However, I don't think there is any moral magnifier when dealing with animal products. The animal is dead -that's where the waste lays. What happens to the corpse after the fact is meaningless, unless you are anthropomorphizing your views of death and the after life unto an animal. (Which seems odd to me).

The life of an animal has been wasted, what people choose to do with her corpse is a non issue. Eat it? Throw it away? Burry it in the woods and have a little funeral? It's all meaningless. The tragedy has already occured. I certainly wouldn't take sollace if a loved one was killed, but -at least the killer skinned her corpse to make shoes, and ate her flesh as food!. In fact, I think it would make it quite a bit worse.

I think when animal rights activist focus on "wasted" animal products, we -in some way- legitimize animal products as a food source.

I totally agree.
I hate waste on all levels, to a ridiculous point, actually by some standards.
(for example , I buy a sandwich at a shop near my work a few times a week. It's ready made and has raw onion slices on it, and I hate them. Each day, I take the onions out, fetch them home and use them in my cooking at a later time..lol)

[Gwydion]

I hate waste on all levels, to a ridiculous point

Snap, crackle and popsickles. Reeeaaalllllllllly gets to me! Could lose friends and family over such things.

[harpy]

I agree that waste generally is to be avoided. People wasting meat does bother me more though, because it usually means they get through more dead animals.