Here's a pretty startling and shaming piece from yesterday's NYTimes, about how much food we Americans waste (Europeans too, by the way):
Grocery bills are rising through the roof. Food banks are running short of donations. And food shortages are causing sporadic riots in poor countries through the world.You’d never know it if you saw what was ending up in your landfill. As it turns out, Americans waste an astounding amount of food — an estimated 27 percent of the food available for consumption, according to a government study — and it happens at the supermarket, in restaurants and cafeterias and in your very own kitchen. It works out to about a pound of food every day for every American.
Joel Bloom, who runs wastedfood.com, a blog devoted to the issue, identifies the cultural assumption at the heart of the matter:
“The fundamental thing that I’m fighting against is, ‘why should I care? I paid for it,’ ” Mr. Bloom said. “The rising prices are really an answer to that.”
I meant to post last week the story -- either from the Times or the Wall Street Journal, can't remember which -- in which economists and others in India were grinching about US complaints that the rising middle class in India and elsewhere were causing food shortages and making the price of food go up in the US. The Indians' attitude was basically, "Look, your people are obese anyway, so who are you to complain about our hungry masses finally getting a chance at a better diet? You could stand to eat less."
Hard to argue with that, if you ask me. Also hard to argue with Barack Obama here:
"We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times ... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK," Obama said."That's not leadership. That's not going to happen," he added.
Wouldn't it be smart if churches took up the issue of food waste as part of teaching about the virtues of thrift? It's all part of stewardship.
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You know, if we ate more and as a result there was less food for people in developing nations, the demographic nightmare that some rather paranoid people on these message boards are worrying about might not happen.
Bon appetit.
I don't think eating everything on your plate is as conducive to obesity, as is WHAT and HOW MUCH you put on your plate.
At home, I do make my kids eat everything on their plate -- if they want dessert, that is. Dessert, by the way, is a SMALL treat -- I have little teensy bowls for a petite scoop of ice cream, or a small homemade cookie, etc.. Not the six-pound slab of cheesecake that you get in a restaurant!
However, I don't put a whole lot of food on their plates. I think the rule of thumb is a tablespoon of food per year of age, which is about 1/2 the size of the "kids portion" at Friendly's! And finishing a reasonably-sized plate of broccoli, grilled chicken and brown rice is not like finishing an oversized portion of deep-fried crap.
Now, my children tend toward the picky-and-persnickety end of the spectrum; if I had the sort of child who inhaled anything and everything I might take a different approach. With my kids, getting them to at least TASTE new foods and learn to eat what is placed before them without wailing that they don't LIKE green beans is the primary goal.
I also found that back when I didn't insist on actually eating their dinners, they would HAUNT me for snacks constantly -- and the snacks they wanted were never raw veggies or fruits. Now, our rule is the only snacks after 4 pm are veggies (baby carrots, sliced bell peppers, celery, etc.) and if they become mysteriously stuffed after eating one bite of dinner, that is fine -- but the kitchen is closed and nothing further is served until 7 AM breakfast. This pretty much eliminated the 7:30 pm whining that they are hungry! As a bonus, they have now become pretty good eaters. They don't really like most veggies, but they have accepted the fact that they have to eat them; and they will usually try new foods with minimal fuss, because they know they won't be allowed to leave the table until they have taken *one bite*. I don't force them to finish if they don't want to, but they often choose to so they can get their little treat.
I see a lot of our friends letting their kids get away with not eating anything at all at dinner, and then giving in to them and letting them have cereal, crackers, cookies, pudding, etc.. before bedtime. Well, of course the kids are not going to change their ways anytime soon!
Oh, puhleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeze!
Now every American is supposed to pass a "global test" about what they drive, how much they eat, and their thermostat setting?!
It seems that the poor people in this country could stand to eat a little less. I have seen some very fat "poor people."
Of course, whether they are poor or not is relative. These people tend to have microwave ovens, refridgerators, TVs, and sometimes even cell phones. But they need help, and how come we're not doing more? Meanwhile real poor people in the world outside the US live on landfills and eat scraps. No problem with obesity there.
Yes, and none of the people in the other countries are going hungry because of bad government, right? If I don’t eat this steak, the cow will come back to life, vomit its corn and silage, and these can be fed to the people in Chad.
How much better if we all had bad governments! Then we'd all go hungry equally.
Social equity is bullcrap. The only way we can have the world we want is to work and pay for the things we want and to be FREE to do just that.
The idea that wasted food makes people hungry is just ignorance and intellectual dishonesty.
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