Discussions

Today at the ACC Prairie Innovation presentation, Jay Ingram presented a fascinating and informative session on a wide range of subject bound by the notion of Innovation.  
 
The latter half of his presentation was on food and providing enough food for the global population that will grow to 9 BILLION people within the next 20 years, and need 100% more food because of rising lifestyles.  
 
Among many ideas he touched upon Jay said that researchers have discovered that we in North America waste over 40% of ALL food produced before it is eaten!!!  
 
FORTY PER CENT of our food is thrown out because it is over cooked, it is uneaten, it is considered too old, it has reached its best before date, ... end result - it has become land fill rather then usable food.  
 
Jay commented that his 17 yr old son won't touch anything that has reached it's best before date - yet experts will tell you that the best before date is simply an arbitary date to ensure maximum freshness.  
 
He also noted that in England a million and a half slices of bread are wasted every day ... along with 4.4 million apples ... 1 million slices of ham and 400 000 prepared meals ... it amounts to MILLIONS of tonnes of wasted food, and millions of barrels of wasted oil ... and ALL of it is food that is otherwise perfectly consumable!!  
 
Given the conversation on meat vs vegetarianism, and the thread on Timmie's coffee ... I wonder if the problem is our expectation of food and our wastage of what is a finite and valuable resource ...  
 
I found it depressing to think that 40% of all food is wasted rather then used ... what is needed is re-thinking of our attitudes towards food, and an insistence that something as important as food shouldn't be treated so flippantly ...