"Clean your plate, there are children starving in Africa"

Everyone knows this old saying. And although it holds deep truth, it's easier to poke fun at than to take seriously. I mean, what can we do, mail our leftovers to Africa? I think we need to tweak this saying just a little. How about, "Buy less food, there are people starving all over the world"? Because today there are over 1 billion hungry and malnourished people on earth, which is utterly shocking and unacceptable given our food growing technology. And some of those people are likely just down the street from you, in this country. Lots of them are children.

You might be wondering, how does the way I eat effect whether or not someone else gets to eat? Well, it is more like the way we buy food and end up throwing half of it away causes other people to be unable to procure the food they need. This is because we now have a global food system, and everyone's food choices have an impact on the bigger picture. Let me explain.

The modern food system is an enormous and highly lucrative industry. Functioning under traditional capitalistic principles, the business of selling food is focused on yielding as much profit as possible. That is the primary goal. Since the market is on the global scale, and food industries will try to sell their products to the highest paying costumer, developed countries have a distinct advantage in procuring foodstuffs. The market prices of various food items are driven by what the more affluent countries/societies can pay, driving up the cost of food beyond what the more impoverished places of the world are able to pay. Not only that, but resource rich places, specifically under-developed resource rich societies, are heavily exploited by the global food market. Various global food industries go into these vulnerable places and extract their desirable resources to then sell at high prices elsewhere in the world (which is certainly not a practice limited to provender). The people of these places are usually subjugated when the food companies make deals with the groups in charge - who are often violent and oppressive - or are offered empty promises or coerced in some shady way, only to be left ultimately high and dry with little to no access to their own resources. They certainly cannot pay the prices that the big food companies can get from other more wealthy nations. (Although this is never mentioned in the mainstream media as an underlying driver of social unrest, I guarantee that this type of situation is more often than not a primary factor in conflict around the world. When people are denied access to their own food and water, they reach a tipping point and become willing to engage in almost any kind of rebellion for their own survival. I bet there is much evidence to support this, but I am going to move on from the topic at the moment, since it is not the point of this particular post. I will surely revisit this idea in the future.)

Now, we have established that the demand for different kinds of food from all over the world is governed by the wealthiest nations. Broadly, this means the North America and Europe controls the price of food and where food ends up. Here is where wastefulness comes into play, because a significant portion of the food generated for this dominant market does not even get eaten. It gets thrown in the trash. We are talking one third to one half of all the food allocated to the Western World. Wasted.

*Here is an infographic that really drives this hard fact home: http://www.foodisforeating.org/ 

*And here is Tristram Stuart, author of Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal, simplifying his research of food waste in his ted talk:

I strongly encourage watching this video, but just in case you didn't I will summarize the key points. We devastate our planet - cut down forests, dangerously diminish our water supplies, pollute our air, and contribute significantly to climate change - and exploit people in impoverished communities to generate food that doesn't even get eaten. His numbers show that America throws away half of it's food supply.

Rich countries, like America, invest in increasing their food supply to 3 to 4 times the amount that is actually needed. This is due in part to the fact that we feed livestock corn, soy, and wheat that could be fed to people. We feed our livestock perfectly good food, and they turn 2/3 of it into waste. This waste includes excrement and the parts of the animal that our culture deems disgusting and inedible - like the heart, liver, intestines, and testicles. Only 1/3 is converted to meat that we actually eat. Animals, specifically pigs, used to be efficient ways to get rid of wasted food scraps, turning waste into food. Now we turn perfectly good human food into livestock feed, rendering the whole system completely inefficient and unacceptably wasteful.

The other aspect of this waste is found in the supermarket model of food distribution. Supermarkets - and restaurants following the same model - have strict cosmetic standards that their food must pass. Lots and lots of food doesn't even make it off the farm because it won't meet those ridiculous standards. As much as 1/2 of food doesn't even make it off the farm for this reason. All carrots must be within a certain range of size and be just the right color and straighness. Potatoes must all look identical, being a specific shape and size. Greens cannot have any visible chew marks from bugs or other imperfections. Everything must look the same at all times, and whatever doesn't fit the code is tossed into a dumpster. This is perfectly good food that many people would be happy to consume. Along the same lines, the expiration or use by dates stamped on food products are typically way off. This is for two main reasons. One is the liabilities involved in selling food to people, since if someone consumes a product that has gone off it is always possible that the place where it was purchased is held accountable. The other is that they want to sell as many products as possible, and if people are told their food is going off before it actually is then they will be more likely to throw it out, or use it faster, and go buy more. Therefore supermarkets tend to build a ridiculous buffer zone into their best if used by dating of food items.
Furthermore, the supermarket model puts intense emphasis on projecting the image of surplus. So it is very much preferred to have heaps and heaps of food thrown away each day than to have empty shelves. This desire to always have more than enough is certainly rooted in some sort of survival instinct, but the buffer zone we have created in our modern western world is beyond acceptable (consider Thanksgiving). Read Stuart's book to get the full picture. It is truly astounding.

Consumers and households are also perpetrators of food waste. We all tend to over purchase food, rather than under purchase, because on some level we feel more secure to have a fridge busting at the seems or cabinets stocked to the brim. We also tend to dislike food shopping, so we want to do it all at once and stock up. Sadly this results in either overeating - see the current obesity epidemic - or throwing food away. We also are inclined to put more food on our plates than we need, a trend that extends deep into the restaurant industry as well.

Let's go back to the new saying I offer, "Buy less food, there are people starving all over the world". We need to buy less food because the demand we place on the market effects the entire food supply chain all over the world. If we demand twice as much food than we actually use, which is literally the case in America, then we remove that food from the market and from starving mouths that need it for no good reason. The food we waste could easily feed the billion starving people on earth. Once the food is on our plates, it is really too late to make a difference. At that point, the surplus is either turned into waist or waste, neither of which is a good scenario.

Now, I am not offering this information to depress you or instill feelings of hopelessness. Quite the opposite actually. Given that food waste is rampant all up the supply chain - from farm, to factory, to supermarket - and in the home, there are multiple areas for improvement from our perspective as consumers. Here are some potential solutions:

• Buy local as much as possible. This way, you are not supporting the wasteful habits of the global food system or the supermarket, nor are you increasing the demand for food unnecessarily, nor are you then sucking up resources - food, land water - that other communities need. 
• I keep a close eye on what I have in my kitchen and routinely bleed my stocks dry. As a rule, I always like to be able to see the back of my fridge. I know way too many households whose fridge is so full that there are inevitably items stuffed in the back or the bottom of the drawer that will be forgotten about and go bad. This is truly irresponsible. The best way to combat this accidental waste of food is to use up what you have before buying more. Simple! This is where culinary bricolage gets really fun, especially when you have few food items to use or an obscure collection of ingredients to choose from, which almost always happens when you are down to the nitty gritty in your kitchen. I'd always rather have to go grab something at the store then throw food away. 
• Going along with the previous point, I think it is an acceptable request of all of us to commit to taking smaller shopping trips more often (rather than doing the one big shopping trip every once in a while). While there are some things you can buy in bulk that will last in your kitchen for great lengths of time, the things that we should be eating most of - fruits and vegetables - don't typically have super long shelf lives. Visit a farmer's market a couple times a week. 
• Michael Pollan's Food Rules holds many wonderful tips on how to eat, one of my favorites being Eat only foods that will eventually rot. This means, in terms of cutting back on food waste, that we must be agile in keeping tabs on the freshness of the food in our kitchen. Therefore we must develop the knowledge of how to store certain kinds of foods and commit ourselves to using our senses to determine when food goes bad. I don't even look at supermarket best if used by dates, because it is just as easy to look at the food, smell it or even taste it, to decide if it's still edible or desirable. And often times those dates are so inaccurate and encourage you to throw away food unnecessarily before it has gone by. Go by your first-hand experience rather than what someone else is telling you!
• There is no shame in licking your plate! (Even though my mom almost dies every time I do it) It is a silly cultural misconception that licking your plate is rude. Most of the rest of the world thinks just the opposite! Wasting food is rude! 
• I think coffee has a longer shelf life than you might think. I always drink yesterdays coffee if there is some left in the pot. Or, better yet, put it into a jar for ice coffee!
• Smoothies, pizza, tacos and omelets! These dishes are easy repositories of left overs and random collections of food. Get crazy with it! 
• If you can, get some animals that eat food scraps. Pigs, chickens, rabbits, goats - all are great little buddies that can help you cut down on food waste while giving you something in return, whether it be meat, milk, eggs, or just companionship! 
• Eat as little meat as possible because, as previously discussed, the meat industry is a colossal waste of resources. Look for local meat if you'd like to indulge. Or, as previously suggested, get your own animals that eat your food waste that you can then turn into meat.  
• Be vocal about your disgust at the amount of food wasted all along the supply chain! If we bring attention to this tragedy, and promise to take our business elsewhere if it isn't addressed, practices will likely begin to change! Look in dumpsters, talk to your supermarket, talk to you favorite restaurants, etc. 

Let's get started, because the planet and our human family are currently suffering just so we can throw half of the food we demand away. There is so much room for improvement in the realm of food waste, it is truly exciting. It's time for a change!