What a waste.

[pinkyfloyd]

Heard this on the news today and to be honest it sickened me.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20968076

Its estimated that half of the worlds food produced is thrown away. 50% of what we produce just gone into the bin. I dont know about you guys, and I am not the biggest eco warrior in the world but I think its sickening that in this day and age that people are starving to death at a (still) shocking rate while we are throwing half of our food into the bin.

[garth]

I can't be the only one that actively buys the funniest shape veg I can?
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You ain't a has been if you never was

[CaNsA]

The dudes on Deadliest Catch said the same thing about the crab.
No-one wants a crab with barnacles on it, no matter the size :/

[supZ]

hardly new news, but i thought we were trying to get this stopped?

the last big story on this was the stupid EU regs that banana's had to be a certain 'curve' otherwise they were binned.. ridiculous!
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CBR954RR - Daily toy
CBR600RR - Trackbike

[angryjonny]

I had until now assumed that (for example) the tomatoes that didn't make the cut for supermarket shelves at least ended up as Dolmio or puree or ketchup or something.

In my experience supermarkets are a bit better at not wasting food than they were a decade or so ago. At least some of the oddly shaped/sized produce ends up in their no-frills ranges these days.

In the long run I think it's a problem that'll solve itself, as food gets more expensive and we as a society won't be able to afford the luxury of throwing away the less uniform stuff.

[Chalky.]

[Derivative]

The supermarkets reject the weird shapes because you, the customer, reject the weird shapes. Perhaps not personally you, but people on average.

I know I go for the meat at the back of the fridge that has the longest sell by date.

Anyway, food in the UK is cheap. Arguing that we need to donate it to people within the UK is nonsense. If anyone goes hungry in the UK, then that's a problem that needs to be addressed via welfare, personal finances. (Perhaps mental health help for some.)

There's always nonsense on the news about someone 'struggling to feed themselves', and you find so much bollocks going on like prepay electric meters, mobile phone contracts, 2 bed house when 1 would suffice, etc.

Reduction in living quality? Sure. Going hungry? No.

Foreign aid would make sense, but it's not quite as easy as 'send a ship to a country with food on it'. The people you want to get the food won't get the food.

[chris-red]

I've worked in a supermarket everyday I would have to throw out boxes and boxes of food because the sellby was gone. I did my bit though, I eat dozen of cream cakes to save them from the bin.
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Well, you know what they say. If you want to save the world, you have to push a few old ladies down the stairs.
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[pinkyfloyd]

[pinkyfloyd]

[Skudd]

The amount of food I have seen thrown out by supermarkets over the years would make you cry. I once had to throw away a full pallet of spuds just because they were a day past the sell by date. Nothing wrong with them except the date. Even things like plants in plant pots had sell by dates on them.
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[Derivative]

Pinky, with all respect, I simply don't agree.
As a homeless person you can receive benefits through the jobcentre. There are basic bank accounts available to all.
If you don't know this or are too embarrassed to do so - fine. But that's a knowledge problem which could be far more easily addressed than trying to redistribute excess food (through what channels? how do you figure out who's deserving? etc)
I can't speak for 'back in the day' because the rules may have been different then.

Food is priority #1. I can accept people living in cramped conditions. I can accept that standard of living might be low, that people struggle to afford the bus or to find a job.

But not being able to afford food? Come on now. A diet which could be considered reasonably healthy costs three pounds per day.
'Not going hungry', as in, tin of beans, new potatoes, bit of bread, etc costs less than a quid a day.

And I'm unsure about calling unharvested crops 'wasted'. Surely they return most of their nutrients to the soil? Or are we picking them and chucking them in landfill? More details needed, really.

[Polarbear]

^^^ Agree with that, the sell by date has caused a lot of this. My missus will throw stuff out the day it hits the sell by date where as 10 years ago it would have been eaten a week later. Also, as said earlier, we all go for the longest sell by date so the short dated stuff is left on the shelves.

As to distributing food around the world. It costs huge amounts and then when it gets to Africa, it goes in the pockets of the corrupt scum who run the place. I am totally against 1 penny of my taxes being spent on that.

A ship costs upwards of $20000 a day to charter, plus fuel on top. That's only a small one as well. Then there's the distribution, bribes, corporate shindigs for the ministers involved. Fuck that.
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Triumph Trophy Launch Edition

[pinkyfloyd]

[Derivative]

[pinkyfloyd]

[Derivative]

[angryjonny]

That's a bit "misuse of statistics" naughty. They should start the "percent" scale at 0 to give a less skewed graph. Although the trend is still clear, they've exaggerated the extent of it.

[Derivative]

[pinkyfloyd]

You got me really confused. Not once have I mentioned the price of food being high or anything. My whole post is about the amount of food being wasted. not the cost of it being produced.

But we'll talk costs. It costs billions to produce this food. To produce 1KG of beef takes around 15K Liters of water. That water costs a small fortune. 1KG of apples is over 800l of water needed to produce.

Its not the cost of producing food thats the issue. Its the amount of wastage, needless wastage. But that costs a small fortune to dispose of too. How much money could be saved with proper food control measures being taught?

Your class distinction between carrots is a good idea but it shouldnt even be a question. Carrots are carrots. Just because they look funny does not mean its not a carrot. Your comparison about houses/appartments is down to choice. We're not given a choice in whether to buy wonky or non wonky. Making them cheaper because they are wonky is not going to solve the problem either. We'll still get serious amounts of wastage. It needs taken back a step all the way to the begining. We should be taught not to be such fussy bastards when it comes to our food shape, supermarkets should not be insisting on X size and Y width or Z roundess and farmers would not need to produce as much as a result. End result would be you eat your wonky carrots that Tesco bought from their farmer and the farmer is happy because he hasnt wasted a third of his crop.

Think about it this way: Joe consumer now has no choice but to buy wonky carrots as Mr Supermarket has told Mr farmer that he'll buy the wonky ones aswell as the straight ones. Mr Farmer is happy now because he no longer has to waste 30% of his carrot crop because they bend in the wrong direction and can now produce a 30% smaller crop and get the same money. Mr Supermarket is happy because he's still selling the same amount of carrots. Joe public still serve sliced carrots on the family table that look exactly the same. (Thats the thing, we complain about wonky carrots and then the only way we seem to serve them is sliced!)

30% carrot waste gone with no money loss or increased costs. Mr farmer now has a spare field to grow corn in, or raise cows.
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illuminateTHEmind wrote: I am just more evolved than most of you guys... this allows me to pick of things quickly which would have normally taken the common man years to master
Hockeystorm65:.well there are childish arguments...there are very childish arguments.....there are really stupid childish arguments and now there are......Pinkfloyd arguments!
Teflon-Mike:I think I agree with just about all Pinky has said.

[angryjonny]

[woo]

lol no disrespect but i found this out when i was a child in mid 80's this has been going on for years!

Its time the occupy movement shouted and protested about this then something might actually change as they are the ones in UK with balls to actually do anything about anything!
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Elen sila lummen omentielvo!

[Derivative]

[pinkyfloyd]

[Rogerborg]