Save Our Happy Place - 🌎 Take Simple Climate Action
💚 SOHP is ad-free. We are community funded. If you enjoy our content, upgrade to a paid subscription.Hey there sunshine! Welcome back to Save Our Happy Place. This week we’re taking a closer look at the food waste issue in the U.S., how it affects the climate, and what you can do to help mitigate the issue through both personal and systemic level action. Food WasteA Cultural Problem with a Planetary ImpactWhere does food waste come from?
What is the big problem with food waste (from a climate perspective)?
Take Lifestyle Action Against Food Waste7 Tips to Lower Food Waste in Your HomeThe USDA estimates that each year, a family of four wastes around $1,500 on food that goes uneaten. 1. Know the difference between "Best Before" and "Sell By” "Sell by" is solely for the retailer; this helps guide them on how long they should keep the product on the shelf. "Best Before" is used for quality purposes and less so for safety. Expiration dates should be followed for fresh and refrigerated foods. As for dry and canned goods, many of these can last months past their expiration dates. This chart by Real Simple is a great source for how long you store different types of food. 2. Prioritize eating what is about to expire This one is pretty straightforward. If something is about to expire, go ahead and eat it. You can arrange your refrigerator and pantry much like they do in grocery stores by keeping the oldest items in the front. 3. Take a to-go container to restaurants Save your food without creating more waste with to-go containers by bringing Tupperware with you! I love carrying Stojo’s collapsible bowl in my bag with me wherever I go. It’s lean, lightweight, and comes in handy in a pinch. If you drive, these are also great to just keep in the car for when you need them. 4. Donate Food You’re Not Going to Eat If you’re about to go out of town or simply know that your schedule will not accommodate food before it goes bad, donate it. Give it to a friend or drop it off at a local food bank. NYC has community fridges in all 5 boroughs. 5. Eat Ugly Food Produce delivery services like Misfits Market and Imperfect Food take high-quality food that grocery stores would rather let go to waste due to not fitting the perfect aesthetic or excess supply. 6. Love Your Leftovers Making sure you eat your leftovers is a huge way to avoid food waste. A few quick tactics: freeze leftovers if you think you won’t get to them this week, get creative and repurpose them into a different recipe, eat your leftovers for lunch, or when meal planning set aside a night or two specifically to eat leftovers. 7. Compost We’ll get more into this one in the next edition. In the meantime, composting is great for those hard-to-avoid areas of food waste like produce stems, cores, and seeds. It is also a magical way to connect back to nature. Systemic ActionsHelp to Influence the 2023 American Farm BillCongress will write our next farm bill in 2023 influencing the next 5-7 years of American agriculture policy. This bill governs everything from how our food is produced, to its distribution and consumption, determining the entirety of our food and agriculture system. As the bill currently stands it supports industrial agriculture practices that prioritize commodities over communities. This results not only in food waste but negative climate impacts and a deterioration of our resiliency in the face of extreme weather conditions. Here are two quick ways to help influence the 2023 American Farm Bill: 1. Sign this petition with Regenerate America advocating for regenerative farming practices around soil health to be prioritized in the American Farm Bill. 2. Send a message to your congressional representatives with Feeding America to support anti-huger programs through the American Farm Bill. Magnify Your ImpactShare the Save Our Happy Place Newsletter with a friend. Support Save Our Happy PlaceIf you enjoy making waves against climate change with us, please consider supporting our efforts by donating through Patreon. Volunteer with UsIf you would like to contribute to Save Our Happy Place or volunteer your time & skill set, please let us know. |
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