Food Waste

I was convicted this morning when I encountered an article on food waste in the New York Times.  Since two of the qualities that I admire most about the housewife tradition is frugality and being mindful of waste, I had to pay attention to the reality of how much food we Americans (and Europeans) throw away.  

I confess that I am guilty of tossing food.  I do a good job of planning weekly menus and sticking to my shopping list when I'm at the grocery store, preventing me from buying too much extra food we won't eat.  But still, I manage to toss leftovers that don't get eaten and have been sitting in the fridge for days.  Every time I hit the garbage disposal switch, I do think about the global food shortage and how it seems unjust for my sink to be eating better than many people around the world.

Of course there are things I can do to cut my waste, like composting, for instance.  But wasted food stretches beyond my garbage disposal.  The article in the Times talks about grocery stores and restaurants tossing perfectly good fare, and the gleaning of fields on an even larger scale.  

Needless to say, my interest is piqued and I am making a commitment to learn more about food waste.  To start, I'm going to check out one blog, Wasted Food, and read some of the author's posts on ways to eliminate waste.  I invite you to do the same.

One final note: the issue of food waste is exactly the kind of social issue that I think women who choose to stay at home are particularly equipped to tackle.  We can exercise more control over the resources in our home than many, mainly because we are home more, and we also have more time to devote to our communities (time to, say, become food rescuers).  Please feel free to share your thoughts on conserving resources, food or otherwise, by emailing me at shillberry@comcast.net.