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It’s blessed to give, but safe to waste.

Published 30th September 2009 - 3 comments - 1702 views -

In his office, Michael is king and media are the bad guys. Obviousy, he didn't regard me as media, in spite of my best efforts... Outside, when I asked his customers, the sound was different. Scandalous, was the most common opinion, when I asked how they felt about supermarkets throwing edible food. In a world where people starve we should send the food to those who need it in some third world country - this seemed to be the standard response. The Swedes might feel bad about throwing food away, they seemed to feel just as bad about getting it themselves for free... There are Swedes that need food, though, whether we like it or not.

Sweden does have homeless people, even in a small and rich town like Lund, where I live. Why not give the food to them? In deed, this is a solution to the waste problem that has been proposed both on this blog and elsewhere.

I can't do that, said Michael. If I give away food to homeless people, and one single of them gets sick, can you imagine what it would lok like in media? 

Yes, I can imagine what it would look like. A greedy capitalist who poisons homeless people with old food. I can imagine what i would write myself on my blog if the story came to me on the radio... Media has a great responsibility, and in the internet age we are all media in some way, broadcasting quick opinions on our Facebook statuses. But the bigger the media outlet, the bigger the responsibility, of course.

War headlines

Our media is excellent in covering crimes, wars and revolutions. It's like when I studied history - our teacher told us to write our paper about a strike, because it is easy. It has a beginning, an end, and usually a sensmorale. But this... when did this enourmous waste industry start? Don't know... When will it end? Don't know... Who is guilty? All of us. Who is the hero in the story? Eh... don't know. All of us?

Environmental issues are not really fit for newspaper journalism. To think about them requires time. To live the solution requires an endless patience, changing the world step by step. An maybe the supermarket is exactly the place where those steps can be taken? Because it is exactly there that we throw away costly resources, but also there we cans top throwing them away.

Michael didn't dare to give away the food to homeless, and the strict rules for food safety actually tries to prevent that from happening. Who knows what happens with the food later? The authorities are afraid to creat a second hand market for food, which is obviously pretty bad. Like the 27 years old meat that was served in Polish restaurants... It was treated in someway to be good for 10 years (!), but after that it was not be sold within the EU. But well outside.

In fact I have witnessed myself a vivid second hand market for Swedish and EU food. Just go into a super market in the Republic of Moldova. In the shelves you will find plenty of food aimed at Swedish, German and other west European markets. How it got there I dont know. But there is something utterly immoral in considering the food that is too old for Swedish, or Poles since 2004, fit for Moldovans to eat.Aluma selle

I was afraid that this thing about sending the food to Africa was something people said because they were expected to do so in front of a camera (I did bring my Flip, of course). So I went to the homeless guy selling Aluma, an NGO magazine outside, to see what he thought about it. He agreed that it is a scandal to throw away food, but did not want it for himself. In stead we discussed about the possibility of sending food by airplane to Somalia. Very humane, but not so climate friendly... He was an intelligent man and I profoundly appreciated our chat, that ended in deep pessimism. All of the problems in the world today - poverty, wars, ecological issues, have been discussed for the last 40 years. And what has actually happened?

It is a weird world. Consumer society is rapidly consuming the resources we need tomorrow. Fresh food gets thrown away but old meat is sold abroad... is there any way out of this? Actually Michael had a couple of ideas, and so do I. I will take a short break, and discuss this in the weekend. So get prepared to post your own solutions to the waste problem as comments then.

Category: Agriculture, Climate Politics, | Tags: waste, consumption, social issues,



Comments

Hemant Anant Jain on 01st October 2009:

Daniel, you are helping bring a really important issue to light here. Wastage.
One of the biggest problems of a consumerist society is indeed the superfluous waste it generates. Found a link for you:
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/supermarket-waste-hits-new-high-780513.html

Here’s a flickr group started by Guardian, which u will really like: http://www.flickr.com/groups/foodwastewatchdog/

Keep your watchful eye on those wasters!

Daniel on 01st October 2009:

Thanks for the links Henand! Especially the Flickr group is great. Used like this, internet communities become a real power for change.

In deed this problem is huge, and it is almost unbeliveable how it can go on. In a time when we beg Brazil to stop deforestation, we still allow cattle to graze there, and then throw away the meat. In a time when we battle to lower CO2emission, we transport tons of food from farmer to supermarkets by trucks, and then throw the food away.

Not to mention the moral aspect… while this is going on, more people than ever risk to starve. A search in Google news for “food crisis” gives 15 070 hits for the last month (http://news.google.com/news/search?pz=1&cf=all&ned=sv_se&hl=sv&as_q=food+crisis&as;_epq=&as;_oq=&as;_eq=&as_scoring=r&btnG=Sök&as_qdr=a&as_drrb=b&as_mind=1&as_minm=9&as_maxd=1&as_maxm=10&as;_nsrc=&as_occt=any)

I think we must understand why this happens, and change it. The Guardian will help us smile

Paul Montariol on 09th December 2009:

There are of course a whole series of solutions.
First is to give this food to pigs. That is done at certain places. It is enough to have enough pigs so that this food is only part of what they eat.
Then it will be necessary one day that this food is ordered by Internet or telephone. Thus there will be no more remainder.
If the person does not come the meat is frozen and provided then to the customer who paid before.
You will find other solutions…

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