If you have kids, you probably already understand that kids are pretty adorable food waste machines. If you don’t have kids, I have five, so let me paint your picture. The wreckage of my house after dinner on a recent Tuesday night was a devastation. Peas were welded to the floor. My 5 year old son decided he was allergic to chicken and left a pile of chicken on his plate. After working all day, first making a meal, and then spending dinner time trying to convince five unreasonable little people to sample their vegetables, I had no choice but to ask them to take their plates to the kitchen, let alone put them in a box. I didn’t even have the energy to convince him to take it. I’ll save the leftovers for tomorrow. So I did exactly what I should not do for the future of the planet. I dropped everything, washed the dishes, and collapsed into bed exhausted.
tens of millions of tons of food Leaving the farm in the US would be a waste. many Some of that waste is generated at the industrial level during harvesting, handling, storage, and processing. amazing amount of food be wasted at home, scraped into the trash at the end of a meal or tossed in the crisper drawer for too long. According to Penn State University in 2020 studyAlmost one-third of the food purchased by American households is wasted.
On a personal level, all this waste is expensive, annoying, and gross. Overall, it’s a shame, About one-fifth Percentage of American families who report not having enough to eat in the last year. But it’s also bad for the planet. every step Modern food production processes generate greenhouse gases. These slimy veggies and inedible chunks of chicken were grown using water, farmland, pesticides and fertilizers before being thrown into the garbage. It was probably packed in plastic and paper and stored and transported using fossil fuels and electricity. Throwing away food means throwing away all the resources it requires, but that’s not the only problem. When food rots in landfills and open-air dumps, it emits methane, a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. According to the United Nationsfood loss and waste account for approximately 8 to 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Some level of food waste is probably inevitable, especially for young children. “The youngest kids are still kind of figuring out what they like, like novel foods and healthy foods. We want to give them that opportunity,” said the Ohio State University student. Brian Roe, a farm management professor and director of the Food Waste Cooperative, told me. “Until you develop a sense of taste, you have to waste a little bit of food.”
More strikingly, Lo’s research shows that food waste is often inversely proportional to leisure time. We get busy, we eat out, and the groceries we intentionally buy end up in the trash. His data shows a 280 percent increase in food waste from February 2021 to February 2022, just as pandemic restrictions ease and people with incomes start eating out more. It was a time when In other words, as soon as people had the option to eat without cooking, they did so. “When you have more kids, you get busier, and you don’t have a lot of time, all of a sudden you don’t have 40 minutes to prepare dinner,” he told me. Therefore, “those materials are more likely to be wasted.”
To reduce food waste, start at the grocery store. Most economically stable households simply need less food than they buy. Sustainability consultant Ashley Piper said she likes to take photos of her refrigerator and pantry before going to the store to avoid making duplicate purchases. She also recommends shopping for the life she actually lives, rather than for her “dream life.” Realistically, unless you plan on making your own pasta or preparing gourmet lunches for your kids, it’s best not to shop for those meals. “There’s no such thing as a lunchbox sheriff,” she told me. (It’s comforting!)
After unpacking groceries, experts say they strategically strive to provide fresh food that’s easy to see, easy to access, and appetizing. Julia Rockwell, a San Francisco mom and sustainability expert, recommends “eat-me” stations, such as baskets, bowls, trays, and parts of the refrigerator. She says this is especially helpful for predisposed teens. She “sticks her nails in the fridge.” She tells me that designating a place to put emergency snacks will remind you, “Here’s that yogurt you missed, here’s half a banana, or here’s where you go first.” Ta. Leftovers and quickly perishable foods also make great dinners or lunches for young children, who will happily snack on items that don’t necessarily fit into a traditional meal.
If you’re cleaning out your fridge or pantry strictly by expiry date, stop. If your food is past its expiration date, but it doesn’t look or smell bad, it’s probably expired. In most cases, expiration dates are an indicator of quality, not safety. (Deli meats and unpasteurized cheeses are exceptions.) food packaging language—A “best before” date is just a suggestion; a “best before” date is the date the manufacturer determines that the quality begins to deteriorate. Frozen foods are almost always safe, and as long as they don’t bulge, dent, or rust, packaged and canned foods can last for years, although they may not taste as good. (You can also hide non-fresh preserved foods in other meals, such as adding old ground beef from the freezer to chili.) For example, when in doubt about stale vegetables: “Bread and fry.” says Mr. Lowe, above.”)
And experts have repeatedly told me that no matter what you feed your kids, you should probably feed them less. How many blueberries does your pickiest child actually eat at the breakfast table? And how many do you put on a plate of what you want them to eat? This small mathematical equation difference is an important factor in household food waste management. Her mother, registered dietitian Jennifer Anderson, recommends avoiding “hopeful portion sizes.” “You know how much you want your child to eat, so you put that amount on a plate, and you take that amount and cut it in half, and then cut it in half again,” she told me. “The actual amount is a quarter of the amount you want to feed.”
Since speaking with Anderson, I have taken her advice to heart. I still spend more time than I would like trying to convince my kids to eat yellow peppers, even though they have decided that red peppers are the only type they tolerate. But the calculation is easy. The less you put on your plate, the less leftovers will end up in the trash later. And I noticed a real difference.
And I still find myself throwing plates of food I pick up in the trash or compost. But I move on to my next meal with less guilt and more grace for having helped my children become stewards of a healthier planet. We want people to understand that our food comes from somewhere and there are consequences if we don’t eat it. That doesn’t mean blaming them for not liking dragon fruit, demanding they clean their plates after every meal, or scaring them about climate change. It’s more like taking them along and helping them participate in a family project that involves the planet. Good luck with the peppers.
This story is part of the Atlantic Planet series supported by HHMI’s Science Education Media Group.
