6 ms·

Probably cuts back on some of the epic waste on the consumer side. Hope that ripples to cutting down waste throughout the system. Paying for stuff that isn't co

Probably cuts back on some of the epic waste on the consumer side. Hope that ripples to cutting down waste throughout the system. Paying for stuff that isn't consumed is by definition waste.

nvme0n1p1 2mo ago
Consumers are the last group I would blame. https://www.usda.gov/about-food/food-safety/food-loss-and-waste/food-waste-faqs https://www.usda.gov/about-food/food-safety/food-loss-and-wa... > food waste is estimated at ... 133 billion pounds ... in 2010. USA population in 2010 was 311M. 133B / 311M = 427 pounds per person. I sincerely doubt the average consumer throws away 427 pounds of fresh food in a year.
- qdotme 2mo ago
  1.5lb / day? I'd wager it's quite equally in thirds, would love to see the data. I'd believe 0.5lbs/day/person in my household - cook enough for everyone to have seconds, but most of the time it's tossed (sometimes after some time spent in the fridge/freezer hoping for a reheat); stuff bought but inedible (chicken bones, etc).. I'd believe similar in the distribution pipeline (just look at how much stuff are in the discounted aisle just about to fall off sell-by date + obviously moldy goods), and I'd believe similar in the production pipeline.
  - reactordev 2mo ago
    No food gets thrown out in my house. We have trash from plastic and paper but food is consumed, by somebody. If it hits the expiration date then it’s today’s quick meal or dog food. I try not to throw away anything that is edible.
    - apercu 2mo ago
      Or composted to feed my garden. I hardly throw out any garbage.
    - qdotme 2mo ago
      Probably was that way before we got married and had a kid. And before our dog started getting older and we needed to watch what she eats. Now the notion of "cook fresh every day" is a thing (rather than reheats), we try to do keep leftovers but eventually we run out of space for them.
      - reactordev 2mo ago
        absolutely. Cooking smaller meals for the family to ensure it's all eaten or having no-cook alternatives for afterwards (hello graham crackers!) if you're still hungry. Normally I try my best to portion for who's going to eat. If I'm cooking for myself, its usually a one-pan meal.
- deleted 2mo ago
  [deleted]
- jandrewrogers 2mo ago
  That "waste" is almost certainly excess production that can't find a market + spoilage. It is entirely normal for farmers to literally dump their crops in these cases. Everyone in the supply chain does it to some extent. Lack of market and spoilage makes it unavoidable. When I lived in farming communities there were massive piles where people dumped excess crops.
- hadlock 2mo ago
  When I got married our food waste probably tripled. My food waste as a single guy was significantly less than married. When I had kids it probably tripled again. Much like a horse to water, you cannot explain to a 3 year old that if they don't eat all the banannas before tomorrow, they will go bad. We probably throw out 1-2 lbs of fruit a week, which is ~100 lbs a year right there. The kid might have ate 2 lbs of blueberries a week for six months, but surprise, they hate them now! I can't count the number of half-full glasses of milk I've found in the last month, probably averaging 1 per day. Kids are extremely inefficient eaters unless it is covered in sugar or chocolate.
  - apercu 2mo ago
    Buy frozen fruit?
  - mrob 2mo ago
    >they don't eat all the banannas before tomorrow, they will go bad This one specifically has a good solution: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_bread https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_bread
    - altairprime 2mo ago
      The missing datapoint is that households are having to work more labor-hours per banana every year for decades, so the energy necessary to cook banana bread is in direct competition with the energy necessary to purchase bananas. Atomic Era assumptions that a household has the time, energy, capability, appliances, and electricity budget to cook banana bread no longer reliably hold in the U.S. and cannot be taken for granted as accessible to all families. (If this seems like a negative feedback loop, it is; see also food deserts, substitution of Added Sugars for more expensive-but-nutritional calories in the diets of our majority-obese population, and so on.)
      - 9x39 2mo ago
        If the point is that cost/calorie has risen too much, it's substantially worse in the cost/calorie sense to eat prepared food out of the home versus cook at home. As an aside, a quickbread like banana bread happens to be one of the simplest to make with some of the cheapest shelf-stable ingredients, and almost every home has an oven and access to the ingredients. For those who like it, I highly recommend this recipe (Mark Bittmans): === 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, plus some for greasing the pan 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour ½ cup whole wheat flour 1 teaspoon salt 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder ¾ cup sugar 2 eggs 3 very ripe bananas, mashed with a fork until smooth 1 teaspoon vanilla extract ½ cup chopped walnuts or pecans ½ cup grated dried unsweetened coconut === Step 1 Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9- by 5-inch loaf pan. Step 2 Mix together the dry ingredients. With a hand mixer, a whisk, or in the food processor, cream the butter and beat in the eggs and bananas. Stir this mixture into the dry ingredients; stir just enough to combine (it’s okay if there are lumps). Gently stir in the vanilla, nuts, and coconut. Step 3 Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake for 45 to 60 minutes, until nicely browned. A toothpick inserted into the center of the bread will come out fairly clean when it is done, but because of the bananas this bread will remain moister than most. Do not overcook. Cool on a rack for 15 minutes before removing from the pan.

Probably cuts back on some of the epic waste on the consumer side. Hope that ripples to cutting down waste throughout the system. Paying for stuff that isn't consumed is by definition waste.

nvme0n1p1 2mo ago

Consumers are the last group I would blame. https://www.usda.gov/about-food/food-safety/food-loss-and-waste/food-waste-faqs https://www.usda.gov/about-food/food-safety/food-loss-and-wa... > food waste is estimated at ... 133 billion pounds ... in 2010. USA population in 2010 was 311M. 133B / 311M = 427 pounds per person. I sincerely doubt the average consumer throws away 427 pounds of fresh food in a year.

qdotme 2mo ago
1.5lb / day? I'd wager it's quite equally in thirds, would love to see the data. I'd believe 0.5lbs/day/person in my household - cook enough for everyone to have seconds, but most of the time it's tossed (sometimes after some time spent in the fridge/freezer hoping for a reheat); stuff bought but inedible (chicken bones, etc).. I'd believe similar in the distribution pipeline (just look at how much stuff are in the discounted aisle just about to fall off sell-by date + obviously moldy goods), and I'd believe similar in the production pipeline.
- reactordev 2mo ago
  No food gets thrown out in my house. We have trash from plastic and paper but food is consumed, by somebody. If it hits the expiration date then it’s today’s quick meal or dog food. I try not to throw away anything that is edible.
  - apercu 2mo ago
    Or composted to feed my garden. I hardly throw out any garbage.
  - qdotme 2mo ago
    Probably was that way before we got married and had a kid. And before our dog started getting older and we needed to watch what she eats. Now the notion of "cook fresh every day" is a thing (rather than reheats), we try to do keep leftovers but eventually we run out of space for them.
    - reactordev 2mo ago
      absolutely. Cooking smaller meals for the family to ensure it's all eaten or having no-cook alternatives for afterwards (hello graham crackers!) if you're still hungry. Normally I try my best to portion for who's going to eat. If I'm cooking for myself, its usually a one-pan meal.
deleted 2mo ago
[deleted]
jandrewrogers 2mo ago
That "waste" is almost certainly excess production that can't find a market + spoilage. It is entirely normal for farmers to literally dump their crops in these cases. Everyone in the supply chain does it to some extent. Lack of market and spoilage makes it unavoidable. When I lived in farming communities there were massive piles where people dumped excess crops.
hadlock 2mo ago
When I got married our food waste probably tripled. My food waste as a single guy was significantly less than married. When I had kids it probably tripled again. Much like a horse to water, you cannot explain to a 3 year old that if they don't eat all the banannas before tomorrow, they will go bad. We probably throw out 1-2 lbs of fruit a week, which is ~100 lbs a year right there. The kid might have ate 2 lbs of blueberries a week for six months, but surprise, they hate them now! I can't count the number of half-full glasses of milk I've found in the last month, probably averaging 1 per day. Kids are extremely inefficient eaters unless it is covered in sugar or chocolate.
- apercu 2mo ago
  Buy frozen fruit?
- mrob 2mo ago
  >they don't eat all the banannas before tomorrow, they will go bad This one specifically has a good solution: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_bread https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_bread
  - altairprime 2mo ago
    The missing datapoint is that households are having to work more labor-hours per banana every year for decades, so the energy necessary to cook banana bread is in direct competition with the energy necessary to purchase bananas. Atomic Era assumptions that a household has the time, energy, capability, appliances, and electricity budget to cook banana bread no longer reliably hold in the U.S. and cannot be taken for granted as accessible to all families. (If this seems like a negative feedback loop, it is; see also food deserts, substitution of Added Sugars for more expensive-but-nutritional calories in the diets of our majority-obese population, and so on.)
    - 9x39 2mo ago
      If the point is that cost/calorie has risen too much, it's substantially worse in the cost/calorie sense to eat prepared food out of the home versus cook at home. As an aside, a quickbread like banana bread happens to be one of the simplest to make with some of the cheapest shelf-stable ingredients, and almost every home has an oven and access to the ingredients. For those who like it, I highly recommend this recipe (Mark Bittmans): === 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, plus some for greasing the pan 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour ½ cup whole wheat flour 1 teaspoon salt 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder ¾ cup sugar 2 eggs 3 very ripe bananas, mashed with a fork until smooth 1 teaspoon vanilla extract ½ cup chopped walnuts or pecans ½ cup grated dried unsweetened coconut === Step 1 Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9- by 5-inch loaf pan. Step 2 Mix together the dry ingredients. With a hand mixer, a whisk, or in the food processor, cream the butter and beat in the eggs and bananas. Stir this mixture into the dry ingredients; stir just enough to combine (it’s okay if there are lumps). Gently stir in the vanilla, nuts, and coconut. Step 3 Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake for 45 to 60 minutes, until nicely browned. A toothpick inserted into the center of the bread will come out fairly clean when it is done, but because of the bananas this bread will remain moister than most. Do not overcook. Cool on a rack for 15 minutes before removing from the pan.