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chhotiiI'm at least better than some other people at managing my food inventory. I have strategies for this. Before I go grocery shopping, I try to look at what's on hand already, particularly at what really most urgently needs to be used up, and think about what to do with those items and whether I need to buy anything to make the recipes that use the stuff I already have. For example, recently, my fridge contained a half-full opened jar of tomato sauce. I've been making lasagna lately with more than one jar of tomato sauce-- more like, a jar and a half. So, I purchased ricotta, sliced mozzarella, mushrooms, and another jar of tomato sauce, to go with the half jar I already had plus the lifetime supply of lasagna noodles that my mom passed on to me when she decided to go gluten-free.
When I went to make lasagna this evening, though, I opened the jar from the fridge and thought the sauce looked a little weird. Peering more closely, I saw a patch of the dreaded white fuzz on the top of the sauce.
Ewwww!!! Eeewwwwww!!!!! Horrifying! Fungi are efficient decomposers, as they secrete digestive enzymes from the enormously branching network of microscopic cylindrical structures that penetrate whatever they're growing on (hyphae). If you see a wee patch of mold on the surface of a food, who knows to what extent the hyphae have penetrated throughout the entire mass. Especially something as soft as tomato sauce. Eating something that another entity is in the process of digesting?-- bad idea.
No lasagna tonight and the jar got rinsed out into the garbage disposal straightaway. Unquestionably the right decision, but, it pains me when these things happen. Periodically you'll read articles in the popular press about the latest study on what percentage of the food Americans buy gets wasted, and hand-wringing about how much carbon was put into the atmosphere in the production of that portion of our food that goes straight from fridge to trash. The tone of the articles is always "you wasteful people, look, you're trashing the environment by being so wasteful."
But what is to be done about that? I don't think the answer to this problem is to make people feel bad about throwing away food. This guilt does not decrease the amount of food that gets purchased-- or, at least, not the amount of food that I purchase. When I buy a food, I buy it with the belief that we will eat it. Duh, why else would I buy it? Food costs money, and full grocery bags are heavy to carry up the stairs. I'm already motivated to not buy more food than I think we will eat.
What is the effect of this guilt about wasting food? Since I feel so keenly distressed about waste and environmental problems, the guilt can be sharp and pointed, and it results in my eating some excess food that I don't actually want or need. The mere thought of eating a moldy tomato product makes me sick, but I have scraped the mold off of hard cheese. I thought I had discovered a win when I found that just slightly moldy bread is not half-bad tasting if you pull off the moldy crust and toast, but Vic read that bread mold hyphae are carcinogenic and talked me into discontinuing that practice. After dinner I finish off Vic's plate, and if I'm anywhere near the fridge during the day, I snack on leftovers. I thought that being unemployed would be a good chance to get in shape, as I should have the time to exercise a lot. But, wanting to be extra-frugal with my money makes the guilt over food waste extra sharp and pointy, and with being at home with the fridge all the time, I have to exert willpower to not be the human garbage disposal.
I don't think that making people feel guilty about food waste decreases the amount of food they buy. People buy what they think they will want or need, but that involves making predictions about the future, which is hard. If people don't want or need the food at t1 that they thought they would want or need at t0, they should not be guilted into eating it. That does nobody and nothing any good at all. It just increases the disconnect between one's appetite and one's actual need for nourishment. And leaving it in the fridge for t2 results in moldy things in your fridge. Also not good.
Why are we the target of the fretful hand-wringing "you're doing it all wrong you environment-trashing Americans" articles? People making lifestyle changes will not save the environment. Legislatures need to tax, rather than subsidize, the use of fossil fuels. Zoning laws and transportation infrastructure planning should discourage sprawl rather than encouraging sprawl. Research funding should be poured into how to solve environmental problems, and politicians should respect what the scientists say.
But big structural change is hard. Easier to blame the little people, as though us eating the bread crusts off our kids' plates would help.
When I went to make lasagna this evening, though, I opened the jar from the fridge and thought the sauce looked a little weird. Peering more closely, I saw a patch of the dreaded white fuzz on the top of the sauce.
Ewwww!!! Eeewwwwww!!!!! Horrifying! Fungi are efficient decomposers, as they secrete digestive enzymes from the enormously branching network of microscopic cylindrical structures that penetrate whatever they're growing on (hyphae). If you see a wee patch of mold on the surface of a food, who knows to what extent the hyphae have penetrated throughout the entire mass. Especially something as soft as tomato sauce. Eating something that another entity is in the process of digesting?-- bad idea.
No lasagna tonight and the jar got rinsed out into the garbage disposal straightaway. Unquestionably the right decision, but, it pains me when these things happen. Periodically you'll read articles in the popular press about the latest study on what percentage of the food Americans buy gets wasted, and hand-wringing about how much carbon was put into the atmosphere in the production of that portion of our food that goes straight from fridge to trash. The tone of the articles is always "you wasteful people, look, you're trashing the environment by being so wasteful."
But what is to be done about that? I don't think the answer to this problem is to make people feel bad about throwing away food. This guilt does not decrease the amount of food that gets purchased-- or, at least, not the amount of food that I purchase. When I buy a food, I buy it with the belief that we will eat it. Duh, why else would I buy it? Food costs money, and full grocery bags are heavy to carry up the stairs. I'm already motivated to not buy more food than I think we will eat.
What is the effect of this guilt about wasting food? Since I feel so keenly distressed about waste and environmental problems, the guilt can be sharp and pointed, and it results in my eating some excess food that I don't actually want or need. The mere thought of eating a moldy tomato product makes me sick, but I have scraped the mold off of hard cheese. I thought I had discovered a win when I found that just slightly moldy bread is not half-bad tasting if you pull off the moldy crust and toast, but Vic read that bread mold hyphae are carcinogenic and talked me into discontinuing that practice. After dinner I finish off Vic's plate, and if I'm anywhere near the fridge during the day, I snack on leftovers. I thought that being unemployed would be a good chance to get in shape, as I should have the time to exercise a lot. But, wanting to be extra-frugal with my money makes the guilt over food waste extra sharp and pointy, and with being at home with the fridge all the time, I have to exert willpower to not be the human garbage disposal.
I don't think that making people feel guilty about food waste decreases the amount of food they buy. People buy what they think they will want or need, but that involves making predictions about the future, which is hard. If people don't want or need the food at t1 that they thought they would want or need at t0, they should not be guilted into eating it. That does nobody and nothing any good at all. It just increases the disconnect between one's appetite and one's actual need for nourishment. And leaving it in the fridge for t2 results in moldy things in your fridge. Also not good.
Why are we the target of the fretful hand-wringing "you're doing it all wrong you environment-trashing Americans" articles? People making lifestyle changes will not save the environment. Legislatures need to tax, rather than subsidize, the use of fossil fuels. Zoning laws and transportation infrastructure planning should discourage sprawl rather than encouraging sprawl. Research funding should be poured into how to solve environmental problems, and politicians should respect what the scientists say.
But big structural change is hard. Easier to blame the little people, as though us eating the bread crusts off our kids' plates would help.
