Everyday waste...

The New York Times has a blog post on the rampant waste of food that goes on in our lives. A lot of it is based in that we live our lives in a "Just in case" mode instead of a "just in time" mode. Apparently 30% of our food is wasted, I can believe it. I am guilty of such behavior, especially when I go to the farmers market. The food that is that fresh just doesn't last. Part of it is I think is because of the geography of our lives. We have to drive to get our fresh produce when we need it. So we buy frozen goods all the time.

Or since we don't want to head out to buy groceries so much, we buy a lot and try to figure out how to use it. When it goes bad we throw it away. Perhaps part of the problem ironically is refrigeration. When I lived in Taiwan, my great aunt tended to go shopping daily for her food as part of her routine. The food was amazingly fresh this way and only cooked leftovers remain. Though to be honest some of that disappeared.

Another thing to think about is that if 30% of the food is wasted, 30% of all the energy to bring the food to market is wasted as well. How did we end up with such gluttony. Why don't we even notice it?