Web Hosting Talk : Other Forums : Web Hosting Lounge : Brown Urges Britain To "Stop Wasting Food"

[WirralNet Matt]

Originally Posted by BBC News

Britons must stop wasting food in an effort to help combat rising living costs, Gordon Brown has said en route to the G8 summit in Japan.

Mr Brown said "unnecessary" purchases were contributing to price hikes, and urged people to plan meals in advance and store food properly.

A Cabinet Office study on food policy reveals that the average UK household throws away £8 of leftovers a week.

Rising prices and the world economy are due to dominate the annual G8 summit.

BBC environment correspondent Sarah Mukherjee said that for some time experts in food production and distribution had accused the government of not having a comprehensive food policy.

"A hangover, they said, from the days of plenty when food mountains were the problem," said our correspondent.

Sorry im going to rant a bit here... Do you know what? I am a conservative man through and through, and I hate this Labour government and how they have all but wrecked our once great and respected nation over the past decade.

But for the first time since he became prime minister, I have to agree with Brown on this issue, 100%!!

I think it is appauling the way people buy and eat food nowadays in the UK. People go shopping to Tesco or Asda and dont have any planning whatsoever, they just waltz in and buy anything and everything that catches their eye, whether they need it or not, and whether it will get eaten or not.

And then people think nothing of wasting food, throwing it away, making too much is never an issue for most people because the extra goes straight into the bin, throwing away stuff simply because it reaches its BBE date is just plain rediculous.

And as for brand names on good argh, people always assume that because something says Heinz or Mcain and has fancy packaging, it is somehow better for them... people I know will not buy anything whatsoever unless it has a brand name on it!!! And then they moan that thier shopping bill for a week is £150+ fo 2 or 3 people households!! And yet, it is the brand named food that is increasing in price, the non-brand food is pretty much staying the same pricewise, with a few exceptions, yet all the brands are taking full advantage of the current fears and increasing the prices of food by 15% or more...

And the supposed "healthy" option food, that turns out to be less healthy than the cheaper standard food haha!

Now, dont get me wrong, im not entirely convinced by either brand names or non-brands, I buy a mixture of both (there is no way in hell I could drink non-branded tea, eek, that too me is just vulgar, Yorkshire Tea only for me im afraid), I dont care if it has a brand name or not, so long as it tastes nice (im not arsed about health because NOTHING from a supermarket is healthy, least of all brand names anyway). I just dont get these people who moan about the cost of shopping and then refuse to buy anything unless it has a big brand name on the outside and fancy packaging and therefore costs upto 8x as much.

And as for food wastage... I carefully plan my shop every week, and as a result I only do a major shop every 3 - 4 weeks and a minor shop for fresh food once a week. I make a shopping list, of what I need, and what I want. I stick to the list as best I can, and dont buy things that interest me but I know will get wasted for one reason or another.

I always eat everything I make, bar the odd exception. I waste very very little in the way of food, and if there is any way of avoiding wastage, I do it. I never empty a tin of food and leave a quarter of the food still in the tin, because "im too lazy to get it out with a fork" lol. I very rarely ever leave anything on a plate, mainly because im a greedy sod probably. But its just common sense imho!

With regards BBE dates, in the wise words of chef off South Park... "that has got to be the most rediculous load of pig crap a have ever seen!". People take strict notice of these dates, once a product hits the date, its binned! I mean come on!!! 95% of foods past their BBE are 100%... just last week I visited my mums and had two eggs there, 6 weeks past the BBE dat but kept refrigerated... I decided to have them as I was hungry, and guess what, they were 100% fine, didnt smell, didnt have any weird things in them, they were just like any normal egg. And I am still alive to tell the tail, and I can confirm I had nothing wrong with me after it, no squits or anything else haha!

Unless it looks, smells or tastes funny (I will not for once second touch anything that smells odd or has mold on it) why throw it away???

There was a good story on ITV's "Tonight" programme a few weeks back regarding BBE dates, and the presenter did a 2 week challenge, eating nothing but "out of date" food for 14 days... and yes, he was fine after it, admitting that the vast majority of foods tasted just as he would expect them to!! Including meat etc (it wouldnt be the first time I have had meat 1 week out of date).

Im not sure why I have always been so careful with regards wasting food... but whenever I think about it, I always picture the horrific images from famins in ethiopia in my mind and I think that has a lot to do with it. What the people, who are suffering famine/malnourishment, for whatever reason be it war, crop failiure, displacement, refugee's etc, would give to have the luxury to waste food, is unreal!

Come on people in the UK and the US and everywhere else... STOP WASTING FOOD!!!

What are your thoughts, opinions on this subject? Do we waste too much food? Do we take it for granted? Are we going to have to learn that we are no longer in the "good times" and adjust our naughty ways? Do you only purchase food with brands on, and if so, why?

ITV Tonight "Past Its Sell By Date" Report - http://www.itv.com/News/tonight/epis...e/default.html

BBC News Report - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7492573.stm

[Evolver]

I don't see whats the problem. I earn the money and I'll spend it any way I like it. Please keep you nose out of my *** and private life.

[WirralNet Matt]

Originally Posted by Evolver

I don't see whats the problem. I earn the money and I'll spend it any way I like it. Please keep you nose out of my *** and private life.

Nice mature discussion you are coming across with there... very good point you raised, but I am failing to understand one slight part of it, who exactly is interfering with your private life?

[Webdude]

I think the days are coming that we need to start learning how to preserve and can foods like our grandparents did.

[unity100]

Originally Posted by Evolver

I don't see whats the problem. I earn the money and I'll spend it any way I like it. Please keep you nose out of my *** and private life.

what will happen when people behave like this and food gets scarce due to added wastage ? what will you do.

[hellind2]

Compare the food wasted in developed world and the food eaten in third world countries and you did amazed. Educating people is one thing, but market forces is stronger. The food price will rise, people will think twice about what they buy, unfortunately the poorer nations cannot pay the hike.

Any poor country that donot have it's own sufficient food production and need to rely on imports? One is Philipines.

[cheyenne1212]

I believe what evolver is saying, is this.

If I want to spend my money that I earned on food that I will waste then so be it....if I want to go to the store and buy $400 worth of steaks then throw them in the dumpster, I will.

It is my life, my money....not the governments.

I believe that is what he is getting at.

[fastdeploy]

Originally Posted by Xcellweb Matt

What are your thoughts, opinions on this subject? Do we waste too much food? Do we take it for granted? Are we going to have to learn that we are no longer in the "good times" and adjust our naughty ways? Do you only purchase food with brands on, and if so, why?

Wastefulness and massive over-consumption of food is certainly a problem here in the US. Portions have grown dramatically in the last few decades mainly because the actual nutritional content of food has dropped dramatically. And the vast majority of food in this country subsidizes the corn growing industry by being loaded with high fructose corn syrup. Most breads, for example, have corn syrup in them rather than plain sugar to give them a sweet flavor. These include so-called healthy breads like 100% whole wheat and various multi-grain breads - nearly all are loaded with corn syrup. You really have to search to find breads that are not loaded with corn syrup. This goes for a very large percentage of food sold today - cereals, oatmeal, even beans and so on.

In any case, I think the cost of food is what will drive behavior modification more than any nascent desire to eat less or be healthy. The real crisis over food--currently and in the future--will not be over-consumption and wastefulness it will be the cost which is driven by the cost of fuel to deliver it to the stores. The supposed answer is not to eat less or be less wasteful - though it's always a good idea to do that - it will be to contain costs.

With no apparent end in sight for fuel costs the critical issue will be how do we keep food costs from doubling and tripling once gas gets to the $8-$10/gallon range? It will be tough.

All I can say is expect to see a lot more people growing vegetables in their backyards. For now we are a long way off from rationing and really significant modifications to behavior. Just go into any Costco here in the US and you'll still see plenty of people purchasing massive quantities of food.

[page-zone]

Actually garden seed sales are way up. I expect the environmentalists are frantically searching for a "problem" in that. Whats the use of strangling the oil supply if people are just going to grow their own food. We can't have that! It accomplishes zero redistribution of wealth if people are just going to grow their own food instead of participate in the sham.

Here's the ticket - it is extrememely wastefull to fertilize (overfertilize?) a garden. We need a tax of $1.00 per garden square foot, 50 cents to enforce the tax, and 50 cents to be redistributed in the form of climate justice.

[Luke]

OK Matt, thanks for opening up on this issue. Food waste is important on a global level and I think its only right that we address it.

I think though that what Evolve and Dude are trying to get across is that this is perhaps not an issue which the government should be involved with. If the media want to go to town on this (and I know they have in the UK) then that's fine... but for the PM to get involved... that's a different matter all together. Right now I believe he is just jumping on the popular band wagon. Furthermore, I do not believe that the increase in food cost has any correlation with food waste, its just convenient for the government to point the finger elsewhere.

I agree with you on the BBE dates, but as always it depends on the food type and the retailer you're using. If I'm in the UK and buy something from say, Marks & Spencer, I'll know that the product has a couple of days at very least on the BBE date, whereas if I am buying from somewhere like Asda or Tesco I am much more vigilant. Same deal with my local Italian market store vs my local Walmart over here in the US.

On the subject of healthy alternatives, I give you partial credit. You're right in that often the simpler products contain less in to begin with, and fat/carb/caloric contents are lower, but for the majority of the time take a look at the chemical flavour replacements they are using... they can be pretty scary. Let me give you a UK example. Heinz Reduced Sodium/Sugar Beans in the UK vs Asda Reduced Beans. Not only Asda's beans have more in the way of cals/carbs etc, but they also use artificial sweeteners which Heinz won't touch.

Finally I agree with ServerMinds comments on corn syrup usage, especially in the States, but have to query the whole Costco reference. I use Costco to keep the costs down, I freeze and properly use small portions of the products that I buy there. Does that make me somehow wasteful? Careful of those over generalizations .

Thanks again though Matt for a really interesting issue. Its something we ALL need to take notice of one way or another, because in recent years the majority of us (myself included on occasion) have become care free when it comes to waste.

[Webdude]

For everything I know, I dont know how to garden. I have 1/3 acre I will be turning into a garden. It's going to be a learning experience.

[cheyenne1212]

I worked on a rice / corn / soybean farm for 7 years while I was high school and college.

I got my degree so I never have to do that again....lol

[spacehosting]

I would say.

Its the rich poeple that fling more food away because they buy more

Simple

[unity100]

Originally Posted by Webdude

For everything I know, I dont know how to garden. I have 1/3 acre I will be turning into a garden. It's going to be a learning experience.

at last. you started to come around.

[Emil]

I have plenty of experience in gardening but just not the land to do it on. I do love it though, and have loved it ever since I was little working in the fields!

Only problem is getting land