12 replies to this topic

[Vic801]

Cleaning your plate may not help feed starving children today, but the time-worn advice of mothers everywhere may help reduce food waste from the farm to the fork, help the environment and make it easier to feed the world’s growing population.

http://www.todayszam...-the-world.html

My view: Although the figures of food waste and uneaten food are obscene when people are dying of hunger in other parts of the world, forcing yourself to finish your plate will not lessen world food waste and is detrimental to your health.

[Abi]

Whilst living in Turkey I've only seen empty plates at the end of meal times. One thing I did notice in Samsun was that shopkeepers put boxes of fruit and veg that are just about to go off outside of their shops at night. Usually within 2 hours it was gone, probably taken by the poorer people.

What I found very disturbing in the article was this phrase

'In richer nations edible fruit and vegetables end up in landfills because they are not pretty enough to meet a retailer’s standards

' what is that all about.

If I go out to eat and don't finish my meal, I always ask for a doggie bag.

[Cukurbagli]

The only way consumers can do anything about it is to buy less. Freezing raw or partially cooked (blanched) food in small portions for later use is the best way I have found of cutting waste. If I cook too much I always freeze it or at least put it in the fridge for the next day. Vegetables used to be a problem, particularly broccoli which seems to go yellow as soon as I get it home sometimes, I cured that by blanching it and freezing it. Buying frozen veg is another way but more expensive.

Cleaning your plate is only going to make you fat, ridiculous advice in my opinion.

[Vic801]

Cleaning your plate is only going to make you fat, ridiculous advice in my opinion.

Totally agree on that, that's why the title of that article annoyed me. A lot of obesity-linked problems are due to this guilt pattern (the "think of all the little black babies in Africa" that I got at the school canteen).

Pickling and preserving are also ways of making sure you get nutrients in winter and don't waste when fruit and veg are in abundance.

[sunny]

I agree that advising people to clear their plate is not the best advice if it's too much, it would be much better advise to cook less.

There should be more research on how to get food that is surplus or 'not pretty enough' for western usage, to those who need it. If some template could be devised so that countries could adapt it to their towns and cities so that help came from local people instead of money being thrown at governments, I think it would be more productive.
We had that article on the Adana lady who hung herself because she couldn't feed and keep her children warm. If there had been some scheme in place where this lady could have collected food then perhaps she would be still alive along with others like her.

Please forgive me if my writing is a bit incoherent - I'm using my daughter's Apple Macbook and it's driving me nuts. I touch something and it gets bigger and I can't see all I'm writing or the page slides across and disappears etc. Now all I've got to do is try to scroll down enough to find the post button which it doesn't seem to want to do!

[Vic801]

Western societies are far too spoilt and fed on Hollywood-style images of what food is supposed to look like. Apples are supposed to be perfectly round and red and shiny and without blemishes, just like in Snow White. But some lovely-tasting apples are not - look at russets. Or those wonderful strains of tomatoes which are dying out because nobody wants mis-shapen tomatoes. We are spoon-fed by advertising on food with this aseptic squeaky-clean image, supermarkets sell carrots which haved been washed in bleach, because earthy carrots don't sell. Apples are covered in a fine film of wax to give the shinyness, battery chickens are all exactly 2,2kgs. If we, as consumers, accepted potatoes with eyes, and other ugly fruit and veg, maybe we could reduce waste.

[sunny]

I agree with you Vic but as I said there must be ways developed to get it to the people that need it.

[Cukurbagli]

If we, as consumers, accepted potatoes with eyes, and other ugly fruit and veg, maybe we could reduce waste.

That's the wonderful thing about farmers markets in UK and local village markets here in Turkey where you can buy the produce that hasn't been abused and covered in chemicals. If the bloody tortoises would leave stuff alone I might be able to grow more in my own garden.

[Vic801]

Yes, I am determined to be more organised and grow more in the garden and balconies this year. There is something so heartening about watching green shoots come out of the dark earth and such a better taste in veg that you have tended to and broken your back weeding.

I love the markets here and hope they have many more years to go. It was so depressing in France watching the big hypermarkets sprout up like mushrooms and the markets getting smaller and smaller, our local one was reduced down to the last 3 stalls of die-hards and I suppose doesn't exist anymore.

[Abi]

I agree that advising people to clear their plate is not the best advice if it's too much, it would be much better advise to cook less.

Absolutely agree with your comment Sunny.

[Aston]

I heard a programme on BBC radio 4 about the Potato Movement in Greece where many are living below the poverty line.

The so-called potato movement, was devised by Christos Kamenides, a professor of agricultural marketing at the University of Thessaloniki. It started with thousands of tonnes of potatoes and then other agricultural produce being sold directly to consumers by their producers, it is taking off across Greece which has markets like Turkey does but the potato movement is becoming very popular.
Every one benefits,and people get good-quality food for a third or even half of the price they would normally pay, and the producers get their money straight away. I don't think the Greeks worry if the vegetables or fruit are misshapen. I certainly wouldn't, I am one of life's bargain hunters.
http://www.guardian....s?newsfeed=true

[Abi]

Seems like a great idea and long may it continue.

[Cukurbagli]

That's an excellent idea, I'm all for anything that cuts the profiteering supermarkets out of the chain. They ruin farmers lives with their constant fight to pay less to the producer yet putting up the price to the buyer.