Monday, July 07, 2008

I agree with Brown

I have to confess that I agree with Gordon Brown on food waste. Britain is very wasteful with food and too much that is still usable ends up in landfill sites. Brown is a bit slow however in taking up this issue. Last year I worked on a small project for the Lib Dems that found that on average people were throwing away perfectly good food that was in weight, twice what basic wartime ratios were! This approach to food is unsustainable and environmentally damaging but is easily avoidable.

One effective thing to do is simply plan meals in advance and go to the shops with a shopping list - and stick to it. And also learn to cook again! Cut back on the ready made meals (and all the horrendous packaging with which they come). Use left over fruit and vegetables to make chutneys. Stir fry left over food!

As for me, I'm baking bread tonight. I was meant to be making a gooseberry pie instead but I got stuck in the office longer than I expected working on a Focus and canvass cards for the Whickham South byelection. Secondly, it rained tropical strength and getting a drenching in the garden whilst picking gooseberries didn't really appeal to me! Meanwhile if I have any frustrations I can take it out on kneading the dough!


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1 comment:

Alasdair W said...

I wonder how much it cost the Government to do that report to discover those facts? It was already a well known fact that a third of food in the UK is wasted. Brown also needs to address the problem with supermarkets throwing away inperfect crops.