In this week’s #NoWasteWednesday blog, we are going to let one of the great comedians of the time, John Oliver, explain some of the causes and effects of food waste in the US and around the world, as well as some of the small steps we can take to fight against food waste. While this was first released on Last Week Tonight almost a year ago, it is still a completely relevent piece of social commentary. Check out of the full segment here (warning: contains some explicit language).
In it, John highlights the outrageous amount of food we waste in America — 40 percent! Research in Seattle shows that young professionals and families with small children are most likely to waste the greatest amount of food.
For a local frame of reference as to how much food is wasted every year in the US, imagine 730 Seattle Seahawks stadiums FILLED with food waste!
Since learning about the issue of food waste and joining City Fruit, I’ve tried hard at my home to reduce our waste through a few strategies:
- Carefully considering what we buy at the grocery store. Do we have enough to make meals for the week? What is going bad?
- Freezing everything. I’ve yet to find something that cannot survive freezing. For fruits and vegetables, I try to clean and chop the produce into pieces before freezing.
- Creative recipes. In the winter, we make stew from leftover ingredients (plus all the bits and pieces of fruits & veggies we are less familiar with). And in the summer, we create unexpected smoothies, sorbets, margaritas, and infusions.