Food Waste & Food Poverty

[Brian Peacock]

"Half the food that is grown or produced on this planet is wasted - it doesn't even make it to our tables. Yet over one billion people on this planet don't have access to food..."



This young man, Adam Smith from Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK, founded an organisation called The Real Junk Food Project and opened a Pay What You Feel café which relies entirely on food waste - the stuff that's passed its sellby but is still perfectly edible, stuff supermarkets and even foodbanks send to landfill - where you pay whatever you think the food is worth. The idea is catching on. If you want to know why, watch the video.

His model is to change attitudes to the extent that it puts his organisation out of business.

[pErvinalia]

The invisible hand of food distribution...

[Brian Peacock]

I know. I hadn't really given it much thought.

[Feck]

We used to pay farmers not to produce food ....I mean, paying farmers to plant trees or to encourage biodiversity I understand but Europe until 2008 paid farmers who, mostly, just sprayed herbicide on 10% of their fields .
And why are 'Super'Markets importing fruit from the other side of the world when it NEVER ripens ? I only buy fruit when it is out of date even so I've given up on pears, plums, apricots, peaches and mango because I can't a find a shop selling edible ones ! It's no wonder so much of the fruit and veg that actually gets to be sold still ends up as waste .

[Woodbutcher]

We used to pay farmers not to produce food ....I mean, paying farmers to plant trees or to encourage biodiversity I understand but Europe until 2008 paid farmers who, mostly, just sprayed herbicide on 10% of their fields .
And why are 'Super'Markets importing fruit from the other side of the world when it NEVER ripens ? I only buy fruit when it is out of date even so I've given up on pears, plums, apricots, peaches and mango because I can't a find a shop selling edible ones ! It's no wonder so much of the fruit and veg that actually gets to be sold still ends up as waste .

You could ripen some of the fruits by treating them with ethylene or other ripe fruit. Some ripen after picking, that's why they are picked unripe. They never taste as good as tree-ripened fruits, though, I saw that when I picked apricots in the Okanagan in BC. The flavour was unbelievable, up until that time I thought apricots were tart. Check this out:https://www.todayshomeowner.com/which-f ... r-picking/

[Feck]

Yes I've tried many variations of using ripe bananas in brown paper bags with other fruit and in general I'm just adding bananas to the list of inedible fruit I've bought

[Brian Peacock]

I've always assumed it was the business of giving imported fruit a reassuring does of cleansing microwave radiation that stopped it ripening. Now I've said it out loud though I realise I sound like one of the tinhat brigade. I don't expect much joy from fruit these days, but during the growing season I do like to buy the surplus from the local allotment association - and damn the regulations.

[cronus]

Treating all food as 'waste-food' pushes costs down and farmers are forced out of business. Anyone notice the suicide rate amongst farmers? Way to create a industrial world famine. Smart folks know what they are doing, with their population reduction motifs....lesser mortals think it is a good idea, cos the smart fella said so. And so you deserve what you get. Nothing on your dinner plate within a decade.

[pErvinalia]

We used to pay farmers not to produce food ....I mean, paying farmers to plant trees or to encourage biodiversity I understand but Europe until 2008 paid farmers who, mostly, just sprayed herbicide on 10% of their fields .
And why are 'Super'Markets importing fruit from the other side of the world when it NEVER ripens ? I only buy fruit when it is out of date even so I've given up on pears, plums, apricots, peaches and mango because I can't a find a shop selling edible ones ! It's no wonder so much of the fruit and veg that actually gets to be sold still ends up as waste .

You could ripen some of the fruits by treating them with ethylene or other ripe fruit. Some ripen after picking, that's why they are picked unripe. They never taste as good as tree-ripened fruits, though, I saw that when I picked apricots in the Okanagan in BC. The flavour was unbelievable, up until that time I thought apricots were tart. Check this out:https://www.todayshomeowner.com/which-f ... r-picking/

It's because they've been genetically engineered and/or bred and/or treated so as to ripen slowly, so as to allow longer transport and shelf life. Great idea, except that it's hard to actually get ripe fruit or fruit that will ripen at home before deteriorating.

[pErvinalia]

Treating all food as 'waste-food' ...

Who's "treating all food as 'waste food'"? Is it impossible for you to make a sensible comment from time to time?

[JimC]

Growing your own is the ticket - zero food miles...

[laklak]

I have people who do that for me.

[Strontium Dog]

Of course, there would be no food shortage if people abstained from eating meat.

[pErvinalia]

Here we go.

[laklak]

I've got some leftover beef paprikash, anybody want some?