The Point

My vegetable crisper is a pre-compost bin.

I'm not proud of this. I have excuses. I have the best intentions.

I know it's a waste of money. What I didn't know until yesterday was that people of the earth waste 50% of our food.

See, on December 3rd, I had an epiphany. Unfortunately, it's Paul McCartney's fault.

There was a story yesterday about Sir Paul's call for Meat-free Mondays. The steadfast vegetarian "cited a 2006 United Nations report which said livestock production is responsible for more harmful emissions -- 18 percent of the total -- than the entire transport sector, on 13 percent."
Of course there is some argument whether
1. the UN report is true
2. Paul is going for world-wide vegetarian domination
3. teenage girls will die from lack of beef (some guy actually claimed this).

Reading through that story, I found a August 2009 study released by three collections of acronyms that we in the US waste up to 30% of our food. That's about $48.3 billion dollars.

Can't wrap your head around that? Try imagining how much water it takes to produce the volume of food we are not eating.

So that touched a nerve.

Coincidently, as a family we have been working our way toward 50% vegetarian with an eye toward 70%.

Before you start thinking "health nut" let me step in here. It's more of a turning 40 thing.  And a health thing. But only because we're starting to feel our age.

My deal is that I buy a lot of vegetables with the best intentions. Most of them languish in the fridge until I sneak them out to the compost heap under cover of darkness.

It's embarrassing.

I keep thinking that with better planning I could avoid this.

So here's my plan: I'm tracking my leftovers. Not only food leftover from a meal, but also ingredients left over from preparing a meal — onion, cilantro and the like. And I'm taking you with me.

Yours in 3/4 cup chopped onions,
Eileen

For more, read Saving Water: From Field to Fork – Curbing Losses and Wastage in the Food Chain