How to reduce food waste through exchanges on Galora
Joel Hitchens
On the @Galoralocal instagram page we have seen some incredible statistics about food waste in the United States. One of the most incredible and hard to comprehend statistics featured was that the 40% of all the food produced in the US never gets eaten. This statistic came from the National Resource Defense Council, which has published several reports on food waste in the United States. The most updated national report, from 2017, also features different statistics that show what all this food waste represents. With 40% of food going to landfills, this amounts to 1,250 calories per person per day. That is over half the recommended daily caloric intake of adults. This figure is even more tragic considering the number of people in the US and around the world who lack food security. This amount of food waste also represents 2.6% of all annual US GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions, 21% of agricultural water usage, and 19% of all US cropland (an area larger than New Mexico). If you want to know more about the issue of food waste and how the NRDC generated their information I encourage you all to take a look at the report linked above. To summarize though, food waste is a big issue.
When I was reading through the first few pages of this report I thought to myself, “Okay, but how much of this is just from restaurants?” I pictured places with large portions that get left behind by people with eyes bigger than their stomachs (guilty). Before food reaches restaurants or consumers, 31% of it is wasted by farms, manufacturers, and distributors. Restaurants and food service account for an additional 26% of the food that gets landfilled in the US. This leaves a whopping 43% of food waste being generated by households! This statistic really got me thinking about my own eating habits. How often do I buy vegetables that spoil faster than expected or food that gets hidden in the back of the fridge, not found until it is already well past expiration?
Two of the recommendations the NRDC gives about reducing household food waste is to “prepare appropriate amounts of food” and “share extra food with family, friends, or neighbors.” My big hope is that the growth of the Galora platform will enable more people to share their food with neighbors, and thereby reduce food waste.
One example of when I wasted food that immediately popped into my mind when I started researching this topic was the last time I made chili. I found a recipe online that looked great, purchased all the ingredients, and busted out my lobster pot. I didn’t realize quite how much chili this recipe would make and I ended up with enough food to feed a village! Since chili is perfect for reheating I managed to eat about half of it before it went bad. I felt awful pouring so much food down the drain. There are two things that could have addressed the issue in that scenario.
Firstly, had I been able to connect with people in my neighborhood through Galora at the time, I would have gladly shared chili with them! I wasn’t about to go door to door in my neighboring apartment complex with cups of chili, but connecting with interested people digitally would have been a feasible and successful way for me to distribute some of my creation rather than letting it go to waste. The other thing I could have done would be to make less.
How often do you start cooking or baking a recipe you have found only to realize too late that it makes more servings than you desired? The majority of recipes are designed to feed several people or a whole family. However, there are plenty of people who are only trying to cook for themselves, or themselves and their partner. This creates a situation where cooks may make more than they need and end up throwing away the excess food.
Looking at the statistics on food waste really got me thinking about my own cooking, baking, and buying habits. This is an issue that you can address directly by making small changes to your own lifestyle. By making less excess and sharing the extra food you do make, you can save yourself money, help the earth, and connect with your community all at once.
For those of you living alone or in a two-person household, I wanted to share here a few blogs and websites that feature single serving recipes.
One Dish Kitchen | Singly Scrumptious | PBS Food
What I would really love to hear though is your best one or two person recipes! Leave them down below as a comment, send them to us on the Galora instagram as a DM, or send them to me on GoGalora!
My Galorian name is Ahitchens, feel free to reach out anytime! Also, if you are in the San Diego area, I am looking for a compost pile to send my food scraps to please reach out if you could help me out with that.
Image source: National Park Service