More than half of all food produced in Canada is lost or wasted, report says

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Coming up, a new fad that’s sweeping the nation - wasting food.

[Fuzz]

Well it is a bit of a problem. If they use oversized packaging that has to be manufactured, shipped, filled with padding, shipped again(taking up more space than a small box) then ya, it is going to have a bigger environmental footprint. Is it a big problem? No probably not. But it is a bit silly when they could toss it in a bubble mailer.

[MoneyGuy]

Originally Posted by Shazam

How the hell am I supposed to diet if I eat all the food on my plate?

Put less food on your plate. Or save leftovers for another meal.

I know you’re joking, as am I.

[Scroopy Noopers]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Well it is a bit of a problem. If they use oversized packaging that has to be manufactured, shipped, filled with padding, shipped again(taking up more space than a small box) then ya, it is going to have a bigger environmental footprint. Is it a big problem? No probably not. But it is a bit silly when they could toss it in a bubble mailer.

Yes but that is plastic instead of cardboard. Which is another issue. Although none of these have anything to do with food so I apologize for the derail.

[Scroopy Noopers]

Originally Posted by CaptainYooh

I understand your view and I totally disagree with it. You shouldn't be concerning yourself with the waste. Waste is not a problem at all - it is manageable at all local community levels (although not managed well often). Environment is a problem (pollution, air quality, water quality, micro-plastics in everything we f...n' eat and drink etc.); but Amazon's silly cardboard packaging, while annoying, is not making the capital E environment any worse. Just increases the volume of cardboard to be recycled into cellulose. It will be solved, once they come up with better and more efficient packaging .

Yes, my point was the packaging isn’t the biggest problem. The pollution of the shipping is, which you also alluded to in this post.

Double apology as I had missed this reply in my post above.

[FireGilbert]

If I have too many potatoes I will cut them into fries and put in the freezer. Good times.

I'd like to see two things to combat food waste. First we need to change our views towards ugly fruit and veg. It all tastes the same, who cares how it looks.

Secondly we need to revamp the best before date system and stop confusing this with expiry dates. Plenty of food can still be eaten long after the best before but we seem to think our health is at risk so throw it out. Judge your food based on look and smell, not an arbitrary date on the box.

[4X4]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

It's not necessarily true though. For, say, Walmart, the item goes to a Walmart warehouse, is then shipped to the store, and you go to the store to buy it. With Amazon, it goes to an Amazon Warehouse, then to you, skipping a step. Now, small individual items, if you buy them with a bunch of other stuff, or at a store you are walking by, ya, that's probably worse.



But a few weeks ago I drove to 4 different stores before finding it on Amazon, where I should have looked in the first place. In that case, it would have used fewer resources than trying to find something obscure in a store. I try to at least order a few Amazon items at the same time if I am not in a rush.

I honestly view my Amazon habit as more efficient than my drive to the store and see if they have what I want habit.

At least with Amazon and delivery companies, they compile their deliveries into the most efficient route possible (which most of us do as well), but they deliver way more goods in one van than the collective people who would have otherwise driven to the store to pick up as purchases.

As for waste, I've also received small items in surprisingly bigger boxes, and to mitigate, I try to group a couple of orders, although, sometimes that just means impulse purchases.

There are so many brick and mortar stores that will disappear in the next 10-15 years due to Amazon and the like, and IMO, the environment will be better off for it, even if we wont.

[Wormius]

Isn’t it possible to call a store to see if they have what you want before driving all the way there and being disappointed? Even if you end you ordering online anyway, it seems to be a bit disingenuous to suggest that it saved you from driving all over looking for something and nobody had it in stock when you could have easily called the store and asked (yes, I get that store staff are sometimes lazy and won’t check, but still...)

[DownhillGoat]

Originally Posted by Wormius

Isn’t it possible to call a store to see if they have what you want before driving all the way there and being disappointed?

You'd think so, yet I've called stores, had them claim it was in stock, claim it was on hold for me, only to drive 45 minutes to find there was 'some error' and it wasn't there.

The problems are two-fold.

1) Said stores are run by 16 year olds who don't really care.
2) The stock systems aren't great and don't account for shrinkage or online sales.

Combine those two and I don't trust anything outside of online ordering with local pickup.

[4X4]

Originally Posted by Wormius

Isn’t it possible to call a store to see if they have what you want before driving all the way there and being disappointed? Even if you end you ordering online anyway, it seems to be a bit disingenuous to suggest that it saved you from driving all over looking for something and nobody had it in stock when you could have easily called the store and asked (yes, I get that store staff are sometimes lazy and won’t check, but still...)

Yeah, as the post above says, I've done this a few times. It's almost a self inflicted curse to call in advance and get told "oh yeah, we've got like 48 of those", because you show up, and "ah man, there must be some kind of computer inventory thing happening... they're all gone".

And no, checking online is no better. Don't even know why this is a talking point. This has happened to literally every person that has ever wanted a specific thing.

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

I don't want to side track this thread but you don't really need to over-water in Calgary. Once a week is sufficient even in August. It's all I do and I always have a green lawn. The issue I see is a lot of commercial properties with the underground sprinkler systems are watering multiple times a week (many soaking the roads as much as the grass). That's a big waste of water.

Watering less often is good anyway, encourages the roots to grow deeper

[#-3]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

I bought a bag or organic apples on Friday which had about 12 apples in it, by Sunday they were already turning bad and I ended up tossing half of them.


I mean in terms of bread etc from above, I don't think people realize that bread lasts more then a couple of days.

First mistake.

pet peeve of mine, but the organic food movement is probably one of the most damaging things happening to the world today. People unwilling to accept more efficient crops that can save resources or turning there backs on no blight, non-browning, vitamin enriched foods because they thing their fear and lack of understanding trumps expertise, is probably the most likely thing to kill us all.

"Organic" advocates have helped bring attention to good lessons about crop rotation, drip irrigation, land management. These solutions are needed, but small victories like this cannot be cited as evidence for their other crazy BS.

We need all of those things plus:
No till farming
Drought resistance
GE pest resistance
GE Blight/Browning resistance
GE nutritional enrichment.
Chemical Fertilizers
Chemical Pesticides
Preservatives
Soil monitoring

rejection of these things is not just an existential risk on the order of climate change, but probably a key contributor.

[Fuzz]

Organic farming also has a massive plastic problem:


https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt...-controversial