We have all seen the commercials on television about countries that do not have enough food to survive in their area of the world. We may look away from the television or we may watch it wondering why they do not grow more food for themselves, but the facts remain the same. Then you have others who spend their day eating some of the food that they have available. They throw away the rest. In an average day, how much food do you feel your family wastes? Why do we waste it? Does it go bad before you eat it, or do you simply find that you do not want it? Either way, food conservation is the area we fall short in when conserving. It alone requires the single biggest effort for us all.

The Waste

Think about a restaurant that closes its doors in the evening hours. When they close their door, the food that they have left gets inventoried and tossed out. During the day, that same restaurant may have to toss out several burgers and fries because they prepare the food and then its shelf life ends before someone buys it. Grocery stores are the same way. They put foods out and then it may spoil before someone chooses to buy it. They also have to keep up with “sell-by” dates and anything that has reached its max shelf life, even though it may be perfectly good, has to be tossed out. In our own homes, we may buy a bunch of bananas thinking we will eat them, but then throw them out because they get too ripe. Life also takes us by surprise sometimes and the meats or salads that we put in the fridge go bad before we eat them. Most of the time, we think only of the money that we wasted by buying something we had to throw away. What we should be doing is trying to think of ways to avoid throwing those food items away.

Conserving Foods Rather than Wasting It

According to some statistics, Americans alone waste approximately 134 billion pounds of food each year. A lot of this food is usable, but unwanted. Most of the time, it is because we live by the “Best By” dates, even though food can usually be edible for long after it is past this date. One great example of this is Caribbean Red Beans, which do not expire since they are dried beans. Bananas are another great example, since most of us enjoy eating them the most when they are bright yellow and toss them when they are brown. However, brown bananas are actually ripe bananas and yellow colored ones are considered green. Instead of tossing out the brown ones, why not make a banana pudding instead? Milk that has gone beyond its expiration date is actually very similar to buttermilk, which is great in pancakes. Freeze the things you can when you get home from the grocery store rather than put it in the refrigerator and the things that cannot freeze, you should consider buying less of it.

Environmental Impacts of Wasted Food

Food waste often ends up in landfills, where it produces methane, which is very harmful. However, it is only a fraction of the problem since it takes water to care for crops, which may never make it to market since it isn’t “pretty” enough. There are also processing plants that end up with wasted food products, that use energy to process them. Less production would mean less waste, but to make this happen, we must stop requiring the agricultural areas to produce so much.