Happy Food Loss Awareness Day! With a good harvest, it’s easy to feel abundance. But do you take it for granted, or do you cherish it? I’m Hannah Telluselle and this is The Source Podcast, your source of inspiration and good things. Today, we’re focusing on becoming more aware of not wasting our food.
Do you use up what you buy?
While there’s a trend of growing your own food, most of us still get our pantries stocked up by regular visits to the grocery store. But the question is, what are we buying, how much, and do we need everything?
One of the good things about having lived on very little money, is that you learn how to be more frugal. In a shared kitchen at a hostel, for example, it’s customary to only have your own bag or maybe one shelf to your groceries. That means to be discerning and only buy what you really need and eat. On the other hand, it’s nice to have a variety available and at home for weeks in advance, so we can free up our time to instead focus on working, exercising and socializing. It’s a balance.
To get your own balance, begin by going through all your shelves in the pantry, in the refrigerator and in the freezer. What do you use regularly? What can you throw away and not buy again? This is of course a matter of caring about our health. Eating bad food, can make us sick and nobody wants that.
When it comes to multi-packs, it depends on how many you are in your household. Can you divide them into smaller portions if they aren’t already frozen and put away? Can you buy a smaller amount next time? Or if you get more than you need, can you share some with your friends and neighbors directly, so it doesn’t go to waste?
When I was a little girl and we lived in a big house down south of Sweden, we had almost twenty fruit-trees in our garden, with mostly apples. So, whenever any of my classmates would try to sneak in and take some, as it is a customary prank, my mother would actually run out with a bag and encourage them to fill it up. After all, one can only eat so much apple sauce, and so many pies. And this way, our apples didn’t go to waste.
In Sweden, a regular adult throws away about 35 kilos (or 70 pounds per person) of edible food and drinks every year, which costs the households about 14 billion Swedish kronor yearly (or 14 million US dollars for a 10 million population).
In EU as a whole, over 59 million tons of food wastes annually, which amounts to 132 kilos per person (or 260 pounds per person). This cost the EU an estimated 143 billion euros every year, which is about the same amount in dollars.
In the United States, about 35% of the food supply goes uneaten, totaling over 100 billion pounds of food wasted every year (or 50 billion kilos), valued to more than 160 billion US dollars. Imagine how much this is!
Another thing to be aware of, is the production chain. How much should be imported and how much should be grown and produced? This too can become a waste of crops if calculated or transported wrong. I think, we will have more sustainability with less importing whenever possible. It’s ridiculous of Sweden to import apples from New Zealand. But, it can be valuable to import Kiwi-fruits since we can’t grow this here.
All this in turn, is part of the pollution of our planet, when methane is produced through the landfills of decaying food. A way to curb this, is to compost of course. Even I, in a regular rental apartment, do compost my scraps. We fill brown bags with them and throw away in a specific bin for it, that is collected separately together with recycle glass cans, metals, plastic and cardboard. Is that something that is available to you?
You can also look at other things, like clothes, shoes and home décor. How many candleholders and vases do you need? Here, a good rule of thumb is to always give away, throw away, or sell an item, whenever you buy a new. Go through each drawer and shelf, to make a conscious decision about what you like to keep and why.
Then, to take it as a metaphor for life coaching: What are you perhaps wasting in your life? Your time? Your energy? When it comes to how we spend our time, it’s often a matter of trying to find out our true needs. I, for example, usually need about two hours after my dinner to unwind before I go to sleep and since I eat fairly late, especially if I practice dancing or yoga in the evening first, it can become late. While I don’t want to lose sleep, I still have to allow myself this unwinding time, since this usually enables me to fall asleep right away. How is it for you? How much time do you need in the morning and in the evening?
As the name of this day suggests, it’s all about increasing our awareness. We do this by being more present and make conscious choices. Something that is good both for your health and for the planet’s.
The next episode of The Source Podcast is published on October 2nd, to honor our smiles. Tune in on October the 2nd, to remember to smile towards yourself in the mirror.
To listen to this blogpost as a podcast, find The Source Podcast on Spotify, Apple and YouTube.
