Waste not want not

As we find that we have been eating horse not beef in our burgers the issue of mass produced food and the waste associated with this industrial approach is centre stage.

I have blogged before on the irritations of coming home to find the fridge (refrigerator) packed to the gunnels with fresh food that one knows will go to waste.  My wife sees a full fridge as a sign of good parenting whereas I only see the looming waste.  Now my local research has been broadened out in a new report by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers says that as much as two billion tonnes of food produced around the world is never consumed by humans.

http://getwd50.blogspot.com/b/post-preview?token=YnBvLzwBAAA.xGIWLGvbCtK84SQ5Ele9MQ.QtISIew3NpnoAkXLo7xIXg&postId=664096252825248051&type=POST#!/2012/11/week-3-chart.html

The report, 'Global Food; Waste Not, Want Not' found that inadequate infrastructure and storage facilities, overly strict sell-by dates, supermarket offers and consumer demand for aesthetically pleasing food are just some of the reasons behind the alarmingly large amounts of waste.

 1. Between 30% and 50% (1.2-2bn tonnes) of food produced never reaches a human stomach

2. 30% of vegetable crops in UK are not harvested due to their physical appearance

3. 550bn m3 of water is wasted globally to grow crops that never reach consumers

Anyway to solve the problem the world should:

·         Send men out to do the shopping

·         Encourage people to shop in smaller amounts and more locally

·         Ban the movement of food certain over long distances -why do our French beans come from Kenya?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jan/10/half-world-food-waste