208 – Understanding food waste

There’s a story I remember from my Christian days, about Jesus using five loaves of bread and two fish to feed 5,000 people. Well, actually, that was one account but another one said seven loaves and a few small fish to feed 4,000 people. But, be that as it may, if these accounts were actually literal stories, they would have foretold the birth of Oz Harvest because if I remember correctly, after he fed the multitude in one of the stories, there were seven baskets of leftovers. And if you think getting a bounty from leftovers is miraculous, you should prepare yourself for the next 40 minutes or so as the state manager of Oz Harvest SA, Hayley Everuss explains how miracles like these happen every day, thanks to big yellow vans and a lot of people with goodwill.

Hayley mentions the War On Waste program, during the interview.

Do you ever see a large gourmet feast or even a barbecue gathering among friends and try to calculate how much food will be left over?

What sparked your interest in food wastage?

How much do we waste as Aussies?

Who is worse – households, restaurants, food festivals, pubs, or fast food joints?

One of our listeners, Bruce Gannon, shared today that he throws out food all the time and it’s due to his plans changing and the food going off. And foodie, Amanda McInerney, said on episode 153, that she tends to buy less but buy more often to avoid this situation. What advice can you share?

Listener, Dougal McFuzzlebutt said he’d like you to answer this: How can I as a consumer help reduce food waste?

And I would add, Are there some easy wins? What are the easiest types of food NOT to waste if you know what you are doing?

It is not just about throwing out food, do you have any idea how much food is wasted through peeling and cutting? For example, I am trialling Hello Fresh at the moment and one of their recipes called for me to grate ginger WITH THE SKIN ON. I’ve never done that. I do use brocolli stems, though, so that’s something. What are other blind spots?

By the way, what do you think of these portion-ready food services?

And, do you think we should have communal kitchens instead of solo ones? It must be inefficient, having hundreds of thousands of individual kitchens going when fewer could make big meals to share? I know, I am off with the fairies but any thoughts about this?

Do you eat apple cores?

Are we doing enough to eat UGLY FOOD?

How does Oz Harvest salvage food?

How does Oz Harvest re-use food?

Why does Oz Harvest do what it does with places like St Lukes in the city where former musical curator, Brett Monten, did a team building exercise with Oz Harvest helping to feed the hungry last year. I asked what his memories and experiences were and he said: At an intellectual level, I learned: about how much we waste, that thrown-away food is actually a bigger greenhouse gas problem than regular garbage, that you can use a whole lot more of the broccoli than you think, and a really good way to chop an onion. At an empathetic level I learned: there are people that care (more of a reinforcement than a learning), that it’s not just street people that benefit, it’s also people who may not have life skills such as recent widowers.

Does the Oz Harvest experience get magnified when people view it through the eyes of soup kitchens, etc?

Nigel challenges the panel to pick the fake story from three stories from South Australia’s past. Including the Rose tasting.

News Jan 1944
Fruit Waste Alleged
Further allegations of Government muddling, which was likely to result in the waste of many tons of fruit grown for the troops, were made by Adelaide canners today. The canners said that because
they had not been able to obtain sufficient women to process the fruit much of it was likely to be wasted. Because of these difficulties, two of the biggest canneries were not buying ripe fruit which
was offering today. One factory manager said: “Unless something is done very quickly tons of fruit will be wasted. We co-operate with the Government by making contracts with growers to supply the
fruit; then, because of lack of labor, large quantities of the fruit go down the drain.” There are no prospects of handling 60 tons of silver beet, which will be ready for picking next week. This may be wasted. The factory is also unable to handle 2,000 cases of tomatoes which are available. At another factory between 2,000 and 3,000 cases of tomatoes have been turned away. Unless 150 women volunteered immediately to help can fruit, a large proportion of the local fruit harvest would not be canned for the fighting forces, the Deputy Food Controller, Mr. Gordon, said today. Award wages for women engaged in fruit processing are £3/2/6 for a week of 44 hours. In one factory, working overtime the majority of the women are earning between £5 and £6 a week.
(The base salary corresponds to $214 a 44 hour week in today’s dollar, $4.86/ hour.)

The Express and Telegraph March 1886
Waste of Human Food.
While we hear so much about poverty and distress in our midst, it is painful to hear of a waste of human food. The report of the Central Market, which appears elsewhere, states that there was a
large quantity of fish in the market this morning, but owing to the scarcity of buyers large lots had to be taken away and buried. With so many charitable organisations in our midst one would think
arrangements might easily be made for purchasing and distributing food in a case like this instead of allowing it to be entirely wasted.

The Advertiser March 1915
WASTE IN THE CLUBS
ADEALIDE, There are strong complaints because the Rundle Street restaurants and especially the clubs on North Terrace are not showing any efforts to reduce food consumption. Their menus are
virtually unchanged and extravagant in this time of need. The newspapers are renewing discussion of the suggestion to have at least two, or even three, meatless days a week. The middle and lower
classes are showing a better disposition to observe Lord Devonport’s scheme of food economy. Many of the club members have suggested that by continuing with their meals they are helping the
war economy more than others and helping to maintain the civilised standards we are all fighting for.