The United States throws out 40% of their food (article). With the world under greater and greater ecological pressure, many parties state the obvious: efficiency improvements are the low hanging fruit. Lowering your house temperature in the winter, raising it in the summer, buying a fuel-efficient car or changing your light bulbs saves a great deal of energy at very low-cost. A major, but overlooked, contributor to environmental degradation is food production, transportation, and preparation.
Not only is over food over consumption bad for the environment and your health; in a world where people still go hungry it is immoral to waste food. For all humanity’s sake we should eat less (and less meat). When your mother told you to finish your plate because kids in Africa were starving, she was not lying.
Recently I had the misfortune of eating at a hotel buffet. I have no evidence to back this up, but I am convinced that eating at a buffet greatly increases the amount of food you consume. You keep going back for “just a little bit more” and before you know it you have had three portions. Self-serve buffets can be found around the world, but the United States is certainly the champion. Serving plates of food, in the traditional fashion creates a form of measurement for us to know when we have eaten enough. The smaller the plates, the less we eat; not because we are less hungry, but because our brains trick us into being full. In Japan, they eat Bento boxes, prepared platters with various items that fill you up to 80% full. Then your stomach contracts and you feel full. This, and their insistence on fresh products, has helped Japan achieve the longest lifespans in the world and some of the lowest obesity rates.
Many westerners are now using Bento boxes to save money by bringing their lunch to work and to become more healthy. I think it is high time we reduce the amount of food we waste.
