Happy New Year!
I hope you all have been enjoying the holiday season as much as I have! If you made a postcard (or other reflections!) from last month please feel free to send it – I have received a few but look forward to more.
After all the holiday gorging, January seems an appropriate time to think about food waste…yes, I am talking about those moldy mashed potatoes and limp romaine that are waiting patiently in refrigerators for their turn to be scraped into the garbage canister and shipped to a landfill miles away.
So this month’s behavior change challenge is to:
Eliminate our food waste! Let’s complete an entire month without having any food spoil before we have the chance to eat it. (or keep track of all the food that we throw away)
Questions? See if these help:
1) There always seems to be something that goes bad. What are some tips to prevent this?
As my college roommates would tell you, if anyone needs tips on this subject it is certainly myself. Luckily, I recently found an article (Body & Soul, Feb 2010) on this very subject – here are their tips:
- Buy what you need – but not more. This is pretty self-explanatory but can be tricky. For example, last month I made a vegetarian lasagna but realized after cooking the noodles that I had more noodles than the recipe called for. I stowed the extra pasta away in the fridge and three weeks later…well, you can imagine. Thus when trying new recipes, it is especially helpful to make sure you are only buying what you need! Or, that you have a back-up plan for the surplus.
- Plan meals ahead of time! If you make a meal plan and create a grocery list based on the plan, ideally you shouldn’t run into the problem of purchasing more than you can eat.
- Reorganize your fridge and store leftovers in clear containers so they are not pushed into the abyss. Keep them in the front!
- Set your fridge at 39 degrees – apparently many people have their fridge set too warm which encourages food spoilage.
- Freeze leftovers when there is too much to eat.
- Buy local foods! This may sound silly since I am writing this in January and in
2) What if my food does spoil – despite my best efforts?
We are all human. If a food item sneaks into the molding stage, please do not eat it! Instead, track it! I have attached a list that can be printed and hung on your refrigerator. If any food goes bad this month, write it down. It is interesting to track what gets thrown away. Also, if you are willing to share, I would love to see a copy of this! I will try and share mine next month.
3) How does this help the planet?
As I hinted earlier, a large amount of food purchased and/or prepared by Americans ends up in the trash. Americans waste about 100 billion pounds of food per year! (Department of Agriculture statistics) In fact, the average household throws out about 14% of their food purchases! (University of Arizona study) That is not only wasteful in terms of landfill space, energy to transfer garbage, and methane (a greenhouse gas) released from rotting food, but also in terms of money!
I wish us the best in making efficient and sufficient food decisions this month!
Happy 2010!
Catherine
