Good Food, Bad Waste: Let’s Eat for the Planet
Good Food, Bad Waste: Let’s Eat for the Planet
Josh Domingues was living above a grocery store in Ontario when the idea for a new app came to him. Upset when his sister, a chef, had to throw out $4,000 worth of food, he decided to tackle a huge problem within the food industry, from grocery stores to restaurants and beyond. Grocery stores are left with tons of food that’s getting close to its best-before date. It’s all thrown in the garbage. Grocers have been trying to find ways to reduce waste by keeping food fresh longer or by donating it, but a lot is still sent to the landfill. Josh wondered if he could create a phone app that would enable people to buy food near its best-before date at a discount and then pick it up in-store. That way he could help get food to people who needed it while also helping the planet. His app Flashfood was born. It’s a win-win for people and the planet.
Good Food, Bad Waste: Let’s Eat For the Planet is part of the Orca “Think Series” which examines current world issues and spurs middle grade readers on to social activism.
It is estimated that the amount of food that is thrown out every year is enough to feed three billion people. Though readers might think that the majority of food waste comes from grocery stores and restaurants, in fact, families waste more food than grocery stores and restaurants combined.
Following a brief introduction, Good Food, Bad Waste is divided into five chapters. Topics include the various causes of food waste, the cost of producing food as it relates to water and energy, how food waste contributes to global warming, using food waste and organic matter to create renewable energy, and initiatives begun by individuals and countries around the world to reduce food waste.
The first chapter focuses on family food waste habits such as purchasing family-size food products that will not get eaten, pushing leftovers to the back of the fridge where they get forgotten and rot, and throwing out smaller quantities of a variety of foods rather than being inventive and using them up in a new dish. In this chapter, eye-opening statistics show that, in Canada, households waste, for example, more than 20 million tons of food each year; in a single day, Canadians waste 750,000 loaves of bread, 2.4 million potatoes and one million cups of milk.
The second chapter discusses the real cost of producing food, from deforestation to make room for farming (thus reducing the amount of oxygen in the air), to water consumption and energy usage for farm machinery and the greenhouse gas emissions from trucks that transport food to distribution centres and supermarkets.
In the third chapter, readers are introduced to the term “food recovery” (also known as “food rescue”) which refers to ways in which food can become available to people who need it. The food recovery hierarchy demonstrates that source reduction is key and that there are several ways to use surplus food before it ends up in a landfill, the last resort. Readers will discover organizations and individuals who have made a difference by upcycling food, starting community gardens, and gleaning (picking unharvested fruits and vegetables from farms and yards) and donating the produce to food banks.
Among other topics, the fourth chapter features food recovery partnerships in which grocery stores and restaurants provide leftover foods to farmers for their livestock. Other topics include biogas to provide power and electricity, biosolids to create fertilizer and other products, and the benefits of composting.
Finally, the fifth chapter provides several ideas for individuals, households and schools to help reduce the amount of food wastage. In the home, simple tips such as where to store particular foods in the fridge, how to interpret “best before” versus “expiration dates”, and freezing overripe bananas to use in smoothies later will go a long way to reduce the amount of food that is thrown away. Other tips, such as having a meatless meal, even once a week, or eating foods grown locally, can have a huge impact on reducing greenhouse gases, a win-win situation for both humans and the environment.
The text is easy to comprehend, even when it explains more difficult concepts. Sidebars, entitled “Food for Thought” and “Bits and Bites”, provide additional information. Some of the book’s many strengths are an attractive layout, plenty of excellent diagrams and graphs that reinforce concepts, colour photographs and appealing cartoonlike drawings. Author Silver chooses examples of food waste reduction initiatives from cities and countries all over the world but stresses that even small changes at home can make a big difference and children and their families have an important role to play. That said, Good Food, Bad Waste is a book that begs engagement with parents. After all, it is the parents who purchase the groceries, stock and clean the refrigerator, and make the daily meal plans.
A table of contents, a glossary and an index are included, as well as a list of print, video and online resources.
Educational, insightful and eye-opening, Good Food, Bad Waste fosters awareness of a huge problem and encourages thoughtful solutions.
Gail Hamilton is a former teacher-librarian in Winnipeg, Manitoba.