What Would You Do To Reduce Food Waste In “Just Eat It-A Food Waste Movie”
Dear Friends & Neighbors,
Thousands of packaged hummus dumped and wasted
(Please click on red and note magenta)
Windermere Blue Sunset (credit: Windermere Sun-Susan Sun Nunamaker)
During this week of Earth Day celebration and appreciation, I’d like to share the trailer of a movie, Just Eat It-A Food Waste Movie, below, that truly sheds the light on food wastage in USA. When 40% of the food being produced are not consumed but wasted, we earthlings should really ponder for ways to improve our ways of handling food in order to optimize the energy and resources available to us.
At the end of viewing this informative film and much soul searching, I was inspired to start my share of sense for humanity by reducing the amount of food I would purchase on each trip to the grocery store. I vowed to be purchasing much more consciously in the future. I will try to make sure that more grocery stores and people that I will come in contact with will be aware of the existence of Quest Food Exchange business model or encourage the existence of secondary grocery stores where people would be given the opportunity to purchase “not so pretty food” or food that may have reached the normal expiration date and yet not unhealthy to consume. Perhaps we can all discuss the topic of “not so pretty food” with our friends and neighbors and ask our grocery providers to either donate or sell the expired food (that are still good, just not as pretty) to another secondary market so that these food would be used rather than being dumped. Please also keep in mind that in 1996 Congress passed the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act to encourage companies and organizations to donate healthy food that would otherwise go to waste. This law:
- Protects businesses from liability when they donate to a non-profit organization
- Protects businesses from civil and criminal liability should the product donated in good faith later cause harm to the recipient
- Standardizes donor liability exposure. No need to investigate liability laws in each state.
- Sets a floor of “gross negligence” or intentional misconduct for persons who donate grocery products. According to the new law, gross negligence is defined as “voluntary and conscious conduct by a person with knowledge (at the time of conduct) that the conduct is likely to be harmful to the health or well-being of another person.” More on the legal guide to the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act is here.
Even though the percentage of household spending needed to purchase food has been decreasing over the past century,
Share of Household Spending Chart
we need to consider the amount of energy used in producing these food and energy wasted if such food is purchased but not used. Let’s all try to live more consciously so that our posterity will not have to deal with the consequences of our waste. Check out the screening dates & times of “Just Eat It-A Food Waste Movie“. I have called the film producer to suggest that this film will become available at www.amazon.com and Netflix in the future. Until then, you may like to consider hosting a screening of this film. Let’s get more people to become aware of the existence of and watch this film. I suspect you will be as amazed as I was. Then ask yourself what it is that you can do to reduce such waste. Can you imagine eliminating 40% or more of our wastage simply by tweaking our habits slightly and often in quite delicious ways.
~Let’s Help One Another~
Gathered, written, and posted by sunisthefuture & Windermere Sun-Susan Sun Nunamaker
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