Wasted Food

[Koldo]

I find this perspective disturbing. I see no difference in this mindset and the mindset of a rich person who takes more than they could ever use at the expense of the poor who can't make ends meet or a person that kills for sport. Seems to me to be a rather selfish position.

If you see no difference, you should pay a visit to an optometrist.

 

[Koldo]

^ this

*yawn*

 

[Koldo]

For me it's the acceptance that my body is borrowed energy and matter in the first place.

My body is continually being eaten, whether it's mites feeding off my dead skin cells or my own lysosomes eating waste material in my cells. Something eventually uses my bodily material for its own existence, and it continues this cycle of life and death we all must experience.

Sure, with the concept of honor being completely alien to the physical/biological process.

 

[Secret Chief]

When you prepare a meal, what do you do with leftovers...both unserved food or any food remaining on your plate?

In a restaurant, if you can't finished the portion served to you, do you leave it behind or take it home in a "doggie bag" and eat it later?

For me, personally, I find it unsettling to see food wasted knowing there are those less fortunate than me that go hungry. In my personal life, I always prepare individual portions that I know I can finish in one sitting, unless I plan to cook a batch of something, in which case, I freeze it for future meals. Bread that begins to turn gets thrown over the fence for the birds and other animals in the thicket.

When dining out (usually at a Chinese buffet my daughter enjoys) my plate is always picked up clean. My daughter has largely picked up on these values as well, but my granddaughter is still the finicky eater, and my daughter will put a variety of things on her plate, much of which won't be eaten (save the food my daughter scavenges when she's done). I find it unsettling when this happens or when I see anyone else taking more food than they can eat and leaving it on their plate.

It would also bother me to see food discarded in a commercial setting. The QSR chain I managed for years wasted on average of 1% of the food they purchased due to over-preparation. It unnerved me to the point where my district typically ran the lowest waste numbers in the company.

This is why I have an admiration for businesses like Panera Bread, who donate any non-perishable food left over at the end of the day to the homeless. Unfortunately, the business I managed served perishable food that would have presented a food safety concern had it been donated.

I thought of this today as I rinsed my porridge bowl this morning and watched the residue from the side of the bowl get rinsed down the sink and wondered how much residue over time would have made a full meal for someone who goes without.

How concerned are you about the food you waste (if any)?

Wasting food is not good.

I can't recall ever having left any food in a cafe or restaurant. I don't order more than I'll eat.

We don't have much waste at home. I regularly make curries and anything that's looking past it's prime goes in one. In fact, that's what my curries consist of!

 

[Eddi]

^ telling

I think that putting on a show about how concerned you are about wasting food is empty and pointless virtue signalling, posing even

The other day I threw out a packet of stuffed pasta that was past its date

Am I supposed to feel bad or guilty about this????

Have I contributed to world hunger by doing this????

No, of course not

My conscience is clear

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

How concerned are you about the food you waste (if any)?

I don't think that food can be wasted. We are dependent on the entire ecosystem including the decomposers (bacteria, molds, etc.). Even when food rots, it is not wasted.

In a restaurant, if you can't finished the portion served to you, do you leave it behind or take it home in a "doggie bag" and eat it later?

We bring plastic to-go containers to restaurants and take most of our leftover food home. My wife takes the leftover bread for the birds. The dogs get as much of the leftovers as we do. They had leftover tilapia for breakfast today.

We have an acquaintance who, with her husband, used to come to our home for meals twice a month. My wife prepared and served salmon one evening, and though we let her take leftover salmon home with her, we wanted the skin for the dogs, since the oil is good for their coats and health in general. She thought that she should get the salmon skin, which she hadn't expected to take home until we told her that we give it to the dogs, because they're "just dogs." We like most dogs better than most people, especially ours.

I also recall an incident about 30 years ago when my wife and I went to Denny's and ordered three grand slam meals for the two of us, one to go.
We mentioned that it was for the dogs, and the waitress became angry. Maybe she had trouble feeding her children, or maybe she was just of the mind that only people count. We've never shared that information with another waiter or waitress again after that.

 

[Secret Chief]

I think that putting on a show about how concerned you are about wasting food is empty and pointless virtue signalling, posing even

Could it not be an honest expression of one's attitude, when asked?

Our "contribution" regarding food is indeed about how we as individuals behave. A large wave is composed of small drops of water.

 

[SalixIncendium]

I think that putting on a show about how concerned you are about wasting food is empty and pointless virtue signalling, posing even

I think calling people out for talking about virtuous behavior is telling of one's own level of security regarding their own behaviors.

 

[Koldo]

Could it not be an honest expression of one's attitude, when asked?

Our "contribution" regarding food is indeed about how we as individuals behave. A large wave is composed of small drops of water.

Except that not everyone is a small drop of water.

 

[Eddi]

I think calling people out for talking about virtuous behavior is telling of one's own level of security regarding their own behaviors.

I don't mind people being virtuous but when they deride others for not being like them that is entirely different

 

[Secret Chief]

Except that not everyone is a small drop of water.

That's right, it's almost as if it was an analogy.

 

[SalixIncendium]

I don't mind people being virtuous but when they deride others for not being like them that is entirely different

I'm not sure anyone in this thread has done that.

 

[Guitar's Cry]

Sure, with the concept of honor being completely alien to the physical/biological process.

Not quite.

Honor is a quality related to the experience of empathy, developed in humans due to our reliance on community and social relations. It is an experience rooted in biological processes.

So to dismiss the human practice of raising life for the sole purpose of using it for our own nutritional needs and wants (a cheap and fast McBurger isn't necessary), then simply throwing it away for convenience or profit is completely dismissive of the experiences of the living things we are industrially raising and slaughtering. It is dismissive of our natural capacity towards empathy and thus immoral. It dishonors life because we dismiss it a valued.

 

[Eddi]

I'm not sure anyone in this thread has done that.

See post 18

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

Not at all

I don't care one bit

I don't mind people being virtuous but when they deride others for not being like them that is entirely different

The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference. -- Elie Wiesel

^ this

 

[Eddi]

^ this

I don't see how I am indifferent about world hunger

It's not as if me having food causes others to not have it

I sometimes throw away food... so what????

How does that have any negative impact on humanity?

The answer is of course that it doesn't

Just as being sure to waste nothing does nothing too

Not throwing food makes zero impact, it's a moral thing, not a practical thing

 

[Subduction Zone]

When you prepare a meal, what do you do with leftovers...both unserved food or any food remaining on your plate?

In a restaurant, if you can't finished the portion served to you, do you leave it behind or take it home in a "doggie bag" and eat it later?

For me, personally, I find it unsettling to see food wasted knowing there are those less fortunate than me that go hungry. In my personal life, I always prepare individual portions that I know I can finish in one sitting, unless I plan to cook a batch of something, in which case, I freeze it for future meals. Bread that begins to turn gets thrown over the fence for the birds and other animals in the thicket.

When dining out (usually at a Chinese buffet my daughter enjoys) my plate is always picked up clean. My daughter has largely picked up on these values as well, but my granddaughter is still the finicky eater, and my daughter will put a variety of things on her plate, much of which won't be eaten (save the food my daughter scavenges when she's done). I find it unsettling when this happens or when I see anyone else taking more food than they can eat and leaving it on their plate.

It would also bother me to see food discarded in a commercial setting. The QSR chain I managed for years wasted on average of 1% of the food they purchased due to over-preparation. It unnerved me to the point where my district typically ran the lowest waste numbers in the company.

This is why I have an admiration for businesses like Panera Bread, who donate any non-perishable food left over at the end of the day to the homeless. Unfortunately, the business I managed served perishable food that would have presented a food safety concern had it been donated.

I thought of this today as I rinsed my porridge bowl this morning and watched the residue from the side of the bowl get rinsed down the sink and wondered how much residue over time would have made a full meal for someone who goes without.

How concerned are you about the food you waste (if any)?

Dinner is quite often breakfast. I made some tandoori chicken, dal, and rice the other day. The chicken all disappeared. The dal was a great breakfast nuked and then a single over easy egg on top.

No leftovers last night so it is blueberry pancakes this morning.. For that I have an instant mix, sorry, no involved cooking. Chuck in some frozen blueberries and that's it.

I too hate food waste but I try to cook food where I look forward to the leftovers.

 

[Subduction Zone]

I don't see how I am indifferent about world hunger

It's not as if me having food causes others to not have it

I sometimes throw away food... so what????

How does that have any negative impact on humanity?

The answer is of course that it doesn't

Just as being sure to waste nothing does nothing too

Not throwing food makes zero impact, it's a moral thing, not a practical thing

One person throwing away food does not make any measurable difference. Millions of people throwing away food makes a huge difference. Planning ahead or eating leftovers makes it so there is less food wasted in the wealthy countries and there is more to go around in the smaller countries.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

When you prepare a meal, what do you do with leftovers...both unserved food or any food remaining on your plate?

I greatly prefer fresh meals so I tend to just cook what I'll eat and avoid leftovers.
Though the downside is to avoid waste I might be eating something using the same ingredient a few nights in row.

 

[Koldo]

That's right, it's almost as if it was an analogy.

Entirely missing the point of my criticism.