Michael Haggert
There is a real chance that when I am
by myself I slip into some very bad dietary
habits. I grab something at a takeout place;
not all takeout is bad but I tend to go high
fat, high carb, deep fried and skip the
vegetables.
If I make something at home it’s likely
a sandwich: bread, meat, cheese, some
condiments, maybe a couple pickles. You
know, a sandwich. A sandwich can be a
beautiful thing, that’s not the problem. The
problem comes on day five when all I have
eaten is sandwiches.
I might have a steak with baked potato
and salad. I’d have the steak on Monday,
baked potato on Tuesday, and salad on
Wednesday. Some might argue that it all
averages out over time but knowing my
tastes, the logic of four nights of steak to
one of salad would somehow prevail.
Some of you might have more
discipline than I do. Cook balanced
nutritious meals. Eat. Carefully package and
refrigerate the leftovers. Wait a few days and
clean out the fridge, throwing away the
unused leftovers in a seemingly unending
cycle.
Thirty-one billion dollars worth of food
in Canada is wasted, almost half (47 per
cent) at the consumer/household level.
That’s a million dollars a year just in the
city of Windsor. With no green bin
municipal composting program that’s a lot
of leftovers going to the landfill. And that
figure doesn’t include energy costs:
cooking, storing, collecting or transporting
to the dump; there are also substantive
greenhouse gas emissions and an impact on
Where food
waste
occurs in
Canada’s
Food Value
Chain 2014
global climate change.
Could there be a simple way to eat a
healthy, balanced diet without wasting all
that food and energy?
It could be as easy as buying the right
amounts of food items. If you only need six
slices of bacon, don’t buy a pound. Buy just
six slices. Buy one, get the second half off
isn’t a good deal if you throw away the
second one. If you want three hotdogs and
three buns, don’t buy 12 and 8. Such a
change in buying habits doesn’t happen at
big box or warehouse stores. It happens at
the deli counter and the bakery. It happens
at the butcher’s and the farmers market.
Wandering through the market you’ll
see a sign for six ears of corn or a basket of
peaches, If you only want two, just buy two.
The farmers don’t want to see their hard
work go to waste either.
Getting closer to the food producers
cuts down on energy use. Buying the right
amounts cuts down on waste. It also saves
you money. The per unit price might be a
small amount higher but probably less than
the cost of throwing so much away.
Eat a balanced diet. Have a relationship
with the food producers in our community.
Reduce energy use, and waste and save
money through it all. Change your shopping
habits and change the world. Whether you
are buying for one or for a large group,
preprocessed and packaged is sized mostly
for the efficiency and convenience of the
processor.
If your food matters, it’s time to try to
change how much you are going to throw in
the trash.
Tell us on Facebook about your adventures with food this month,
or tweet us @thehubWE #foodmatters
August 2015 - The HUB 7