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Michelle Eshpeter,[url=http://www.poloralphlaurenoutletonline.us@#$%&/]@#$%& polo[/url], her three year old son Ben and one year old daughter Clara enjoy a meal in their home in Edmonton.
"The first thing I do is to have a plan for purchasing my family's food,[url=http://www.michael-kors-outlet-online.us@#$%&/]michael kors outlet online[/url], and what I will do with it," says Eshpeter, a volunteer with the City of Edmonton's master composter recycler program, which teaches people how to turn food waste into gold, or at least fertilizer. "I think it's the most important thing I do to reduce food waste."
Before shopping, she scours the pantry and the fridge to see what ingredients are already on hand before she makes her list. Veggies gone soft are tossed into a weekly soup. When Eshpeter cooks, she aims for leftovers; they're great for lunch.
Eshpeter's attitude toward food preparation, and her concern about reducing waste, is more than the mark of a thrifty household manager. The planet, and the economy,[url=http://www.katespadeoutleta@#$%&/]katespade[/url], would be further ahead if more people adopted her perspective.
Food waste not only costs money more than $1,000 a year is thrown in the kitchen trash yearly per Canadian family it's a major contributor,[url=http://www.raybansunglassese.co.uk/]rayban[/url], via landfill, to the production of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. (In the United Kingdom, it's estimated that the carbon impact of food waste is more than 20 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions annually.)
Furthermore,[url=http://www.abercrombie-hollister.it/]hollister[/url], when food is wasted, the agricultural resources used to produce the food,[url=http://www.nikefactoryoutletstore.us@#$%&/]@#$%& shoes[/url], such as soil and water, are also lost.
The costs associated with tossing food are startlingly significant; the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that, globally, one third of food produced to feed people is lost as it moves from field to plate. In Canada, the value of the food waste is greater than the combined Gross Domestic Product of the 32 poorest countries in the world, according to the World Bank.
It would be easy to assume that most food loss is linked to spoilage in grocery stores,[url=http://www.polo-ralphlauren-pascher.fr/]@#$%&[/url], or excess production at food processors or in restaurants, or careless handling by farmers and food industry truckers. But 51 per cent of food waste in Canada is generated in the home.
"We often throw small things away, a few tomatoes, or a quarter of a cabbage, or the cucumbers that have turned into a science experiment,[url=http://www.lunetteoakley-pascher.fr/]oakley[/url]," says Martin Gooch, an expert in food waste at the Value Chain Management Centre (VCMC) of Oakville,[url=http://www.louboutinoutlet.it/]louboutin[/url], Ontario. "(So) it's not until we take a step back that we can see how enormous the impact is."
Statistics Canada estimates that about 40 per cent of all the food we produce in this country goes to waste, to the tune of $27 billion a year that's more than the value of all the food purchased by Canadians in restaurants in 2009. American statistics are even more unsettling, with roughly 50 per cent of all food that's produced for people going to waste.
In the United Kingdom,[url=http://www.supra--shoes@#$%&/]supra[/url], studies point out that most consumer food waste could be avoided. While about 20 per cent of food thrown away is made up of items such as cores and bones, the rest could have been eaten.
It wasn't always that way. Anybody with a friend or relative raised during the Great Depression, or either of the World Wars, knows that food was once precious.
"Food waste has got worse over the years,[url=http://www.new--balance.fr/]new balance @#$%&[/url], we have evidence over the years to prove that,[url=http://www.doudoune--moncler.fr/]moncler[/url]," says Gooch, the chief executive at VCMC, an agri food industry consultant specializing in sustainability.
The fact that food is cheaper now than it used to be exacerbates the situation; consumers are perhaps less worried about maximizing its use,[url=http://www.celine-handbags.net/]celine bag[/url]. American statistics reveal that food expenditures as a share of disposable income decreased from about 23 per cent in 1929 to under 10 per cent in 2008,[url=http://www.hermes-sac.fr/]hermes[/url].
Experts note that food cost combined with other factors,[url=http://www.@#$%&-rosherun.co.uk/]roshe run[/url], such as postwar affluence and high expectations for quality in North America,[url=http://www.montrepas-cher.fr/]montre @#$%&[/url], the frantic pace of modern life and a decline in food preparation skills have contributed to a situation in which it can be preferable to throw food out rather than figure out how to cook it.
Competition in the grocery sector also plays a role, with retailers duking it out on volume. Big box stores that offer super sized portions of baked goods and two for one processed cereal deals,[url=http://www.louisvuittonoutlet-online.us/]louis @#$%& factory outlet[/url], or package fresh food in gigantic containers more suited to a platoon than a family,[url=http://www.sac-lancelpascher.fr/]lancel[/url], are part of the problem.
Confusion also abounds over food safety, with many consumers being unclear on the difference between a best before date,[url=http://www.@#$%&--shoes@#$%&/]@#$%& sneakers[/url], a use by date, and a sell by date. Many foods that are still completely safe,[url=http://www.asicso@#$%&/]asics gel[/url], but perhaps deteriorating somewhat in quality or appeal, are discarded out of ignorance. Gooch says the total amount of wasted vegetables has increased from an average of just over 50 kilograms per person, per year, to close to 80 kilograms between 1961 and 2009.
Concern over food waste at home doesn't let industry off the hook. Some 18 per cent of food waste occurs at the packaging and processing stage. Eight per cent is lost in the food service industry. Retail stores are responsible for 11 per cent of food waste, though some major retailers like Safeway have comprehensive composting and donation programs to charities such as Edmonton's Food Bank, to ensure that food is wasted as little as possible.
But when more than half the food that is wasted can be found in the collective bin under the kitchen sink, it's clear that citizens can make a significant difference on the home front.
Nobody knows about that more than Myles Curry,[url=http://www.nikeairmaxa.co.uk/]@#$%& air[/url], marketing co ordinator in community relations for the City of Edmonton's waste management services. Curry was one of the researchers who took part in a study, published in 2013, involving single family homes identified as large volume producers (LVP) of residential waste. Large volume producers, about 10 per cent of Edmonton homeowners, typically drag between six and 10 bags of garbage to the curbside. The average household produces about two bags. Large volume producers were identified by city garbage collectors and 150 households spread across the city were approached in 2012 to take part in an audit of their garbage. The hope was that by identifying the excess,[url=http://www.nikeairhuarache.co.uk/]@#$%& air huarache[/url], it could be reduced.
What's remarkable about the audit was the kind of waste produced in the large volume homes. Typically, the green garbage bags produced by Edmontonians feature 23 per cent food waste. With large volume producers,[url=http://www.polo-ralphlaurenoutlet.us@#$%&/]polo @#$%& outlet[/url], that figure was much higher roughly double at 45 per cent of the total waste in the garbage bag. More shocking was this: almost one third of food wasted was still intact.
Curry notes that 28 per cent of the food garbage ended up in the bin because the consumer chose to toss it rather than eat it. Much of that was in unopened packages, including a sealed box of granola bars. The homeowners, who were provided with a small incentive for taking part in the survey such as passes to city attractions,[url=http://www.hollister-abercrombie.fr/]abercrombie fitch[/url], were blissfully ignorant of the amount of food they were wasting.
"They weren't aware. It wasn't even on their map," says Curry.
Furthermore, many of them didn't care about food waste. In a survey that accompanied the audit,[url=http://www.babylisspro.us@#$%&/]babyliss[/url], more than 60 per cent of the large volume producers said they do no planning to reduce food waste and 42 per cent were not open to the idea of reducing waste. Compare that to a survey of random Edmontonians 54 per cent of whom said they were planning on reducing food waste.

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