Food Waste is Hard to Deal With.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > Food Waste is Hard to Deal With.

sat on my keys!: Oct 2, 2014

Liberal_L33t posted:

To which I say, thank god I live in a modern society founded on principles of individualism and I don't have to subscribe to your definition of a "fulfilling lifestyle".

I would be perfectly happy to have the government come along and tell me, in an impersonal way, that I can no longer eat foods x, y, or z (or will have to pay a prohibitively expensive premium for them) - but to have people like you be able to physically come knock at my door, demand my attention, and tell me that I'm wrong for enjoying the things I enjoy would be a never-ending hell for me.

And this does really get to the crux of the food-waste issue, as well. Modern western society puts a high premium on individual choice and a person's right to define their own life. It is my opinion that the best solutions for the health issues (physical health, because I refuse to grant anyone else the right to judge my moral health, which is what people actually mean when they say "mental health") are those which are impersonal, technocratic, and large in scale - like the suggestion to force supermarkets to donate their overstock instead of throwing it in the dumpster.

But no - almost immediately the conversation shifted to how it's the choices of individuals that are the problem. And the real thrust of many posters' criticism becomes clear when I, who have not thrown anything edible in the trash for weeks if not months, am singled out as a sinner by the latest incarnation of the cult of domesticity.

If our society makes it hard for (some) people to learn how to cook, isn't that a societal problem and not an individual one? We don't have home ec or cooking classes in school and so I guess my parents were supposed to teach me (they yelled at me when I wanted to learn) or now I'm teaching myself. People might waste less food in general if they knew how to make better use of it - for instance, people throwing out parts of a whole chicken that they could turn into soup or broth instead, but they don't know how. So they throw all the bones and dark meat in the trash. I eat frozen food sometimes as well, but if Trader Joe's goes under or their Indian food gets really bad, it's good (for me) to have the ability to make and use things myself. Since I've been trying to learn a little bit more about cooking I find I throw less out because I'm willing to just throw a bunch of vegetables in the pan and have a bit more confidence it will be ok in the end. If we taught people how to cook more/better maybe they wouldn't throw so much stuff out because "I can't use this, it's not in the recipe book, what do you do with an expired beet anyway?"

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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > Food Waste is Hard to Deal With.