Waste Cooking

I stumbled upon this posting today and was intrigued to learn more about "waste cooking" and to also find this group's new TV show (somewhere online, perhaps?) of the same name. I've heard about "freeganism" before and found it interesting to get a window in to this lifestyle. It is quite troubling to think about how much food is thrown away and about how much of that food is probably just fine for human consumption. I know that reducing (eliminating?) food waste around our house has been a priority of mine; this has been made much easier in the past few months by being able to go to the grocery store at least every other day.

Check out this short film about waste cooking, entitled "Days in Trash":

The trash culture here in South Miami has troubled me and Bryn. Waste collection in our neighborhood is twice a week, every week. We put our garbage out at the very most once every two week (much to the SHOCK of our across-the-street neighbour who is quite outwardly troubled by our reduced schedule) and our massive bin is rarely ever full to the brim. There are, however, folks on our street who put out their overflowing bin for every collection.

I wonder what I would find if I went diving in my neighbor's trash. I worry about the Florida heat spoiling things much faster that it does for the Austrian freegans. I think your window of time to emancipate discarded food from the trash is much smaller here in South Florida. And I guess you have to be strategic about where you go for food--I'm much more likely to hit the "waste" jackpot outside a grocery store than I am rummaging around my neighborhood bins.

There is so much to talk about with this... it brings forward all kinds of problems with our culture's need for convenience and the over-processing of food and our notions of what saleable food should look like. I am cautious with all of this, though, knowing full-well that bad food has the potential to kill. And any one who has ever suffered through a bad bout of food poisoning knows these dangers first hand. I'm sure we've all made a decision here or there to be safe vs. sick, perhaps tossing a food item whose long tenure in the fridge left it shrouded in food-safety mystery.

So? For me? I probably won't be toying with freeganism any time soon, though I'm curious to learn more about these folks. I am going to continue working to reduce and/or eliminate as much food waste as I can in my home, and really reduce home waste in general. I think a composter is in our future. I'm also curious to learn more about how restaurants and supermarkets deal with food waste. I know I've seen discounted produce and products in obscure back-corner piles and have heard of businesses having relationships with shelters and soup kitchens. But how widespread are these responsible maneuvers? And what places actually do these things?