Commentary

Food Waste Is A Communications Problem

While my mom always told me to “clean my plate” and not waste food – including the Brussels sprouts I attempted to hide under my napkin – we Americans throw out 40% of our total food supply. That’s a staggering amount of food, when you think about it. Picture the typical 18-wheel truck hauling food from state to state, and nearly half of each truck going straight to a landfill. Now think about how much clean water it took to grow the vegetables, or feed the cows and chickens (at a time when water in our best farming regions is increasingly scarce). And let’s not forget the oil and gas used to transport the food. Or the electricity to refrigerate it. Or the millions of Americans who go hungry every day. That 40% of wasted food supply has a large ripple effect through our economy and environment.

And the worst part of the story is that much of this waste is entirely preventable. What is the incredible new technology that can dramatically cut our food waste? It’s called communications.

We can start with the “sell by” labeling on food packaging. Most of us consumers assume that any food that’s past its “sell by” date, like that package of milk in our fridge, is no longer safe to eat and should be tossed. It turns out the sell by date is only for the reference of the retailer and is absolutely not meant to be an indication to us that the food is inedible. A “use by” date is clearer, but even then it’s not meant to imply that the food can’t be consumed past that date. It’s simply designed to show when the food is at its freshest. Date labeling, however, is only required in 20 states (mandatory in all states only for baby food).

Honestly, what kind of idiot dreamed up this system that confuses virtually the entire US population of consumers, and leads to waste on a massive scale? And why does this happen in a country that’s constantly inventing technologies that bring us new levels of efficiency and convenience? I can use Uber to get a great lift. I can have just about any product delivered to my door next day, or within hours. My car has more computers than a NASA rocket. I can see live weather satellite images on my phone. But I can’t tell if it’s ok to drink the orange juice in my fridge. This is the kind of thing that makes my inner Lewis Black come out and rant.  

When I’ve calmed down, however, I can begin to see a clear path towards greater food sustainability:

  1. First, start with the simple things, like common sense labeling that anyone can understand. A smarter system would employ icons and color coding, versus barely legible and totally meaningless ink-jet stamps.
  2. Create a public service awareness campaign that helps people learn when food is still good to eat. This can be about how to save money on groceries. Feed your family, not a dumpster.
  3. Build on the great work of France’s Intermarché chain of supermarkets to show growers and consumers that ugly fruit and vegetables (in their words, “inglorious food”) is still delicious and nutritious.
  4. Power supermarkets with electricity generated from their own food waste. It’s already being done in England by Sainsbury’s.
  5. Eat your Brussels sprouts. Mom was right.
1 comment about "Food Waste Is A Communications Problem".
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  1. Rod Averbuch from EndGroceryWaste.com, July 23, 2014 at 12:18 p.m.

    The large amount of fresh food waste is a lose-lose situation for the environment, the struggling families in today’s tough economy and for the food retailers. There is no single cure, or silver bullet for food waste reduction therefore, we should address the food waste problem in every link in our food supply chain. For example, the excess inventory of fresh perishables close to their expiration on supermarket shelves, combined with the consumer “Last In First Out” shopping behavior, might be the weakest link of the fresh food supply chain.
    The new open GS1 DataBar standard enables applications that encourage efficient consumer shopping by offering him automatic and dynamic purchasing incentives for fresh perishables approaching their expiration dates before they end up in a landfill.
    The “End Grocery Waste” App, which is based on the open GS1 DataBar standard, encourages efficient consumer shopping behavior that maximizes grocery retailer revenue, makes fresh food affordable for all families and effectively reduces the global carbon footprint.

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