Wasted! Focus Frostburg.

Focus Frostburg

Wasted! The Story of Food Waste.

The Focus Frostburg event that was attended was the film “Wasted! The Story of Food Waste,” followed by a discussion hosted by Siera Wigfield that was not attended because it started more than a half hour late. The film not only provided statistics on how much food is wasted and the monetary value of the wasted food, but it also provided information on several alternative solutions to food waste and examples of situations where these solutions work successfully.

The movie was fascinating. The statistics were shocking, and the interviews were enlightening. The movie included interviews with multiple chefs, farmers, and everyday people, as well as experts in sustainability.

When the movie was supposed to start, they encountered some problems. No one knew where the DVD was, or if it was already set up to play or not. Once they got that figured out, and the DVD cued up, the Director of Dining Services, David Glenn, gave a short speech on what Chesapeake Dining Hall has done to join the University’s sustainability program in the last few years. Chesapeake has come up with quite a few sustainability programs. It has been almost four years since their sustainability initiative began and in that short time period they have started pre and post-composting. Pre-composting is when the food that doesn’t get used is composted and post is when the little scraps of food left on a plane when it is put on the belt is composted as well. To stop food waste, they are also starting a program with the local food bank: for each pound of food the University receives (instead of being thrown away), they will donate a pound of food to the food bank. And, starting next semester, students will also be able to donate unused meal plans to the food pantry.

Some of the statistics are surprising. According to the movie, one third of food produced in America goes uneaten. That means that about 40% of food is wasted. 90% of the wasted food goes to landfills-that’s one trillion dollars that gets sent to a landfill. On average, one billion tons of food gets wasted, yet there are still people that go to bed hungry. One in five kids in America don’t get enough to eat. A lot of food gets wasted due to supermarkets rejecting it because it doesn’t look perfect.

Some solutions the video suggests are supermarkets such as Daily Table. Daily Table is a nonprofit supermarket that sells healthy foods that are still good but are past their “best by” or “used by” date. These foods are still good even though they’re past the date, and usually end up being thrown in the garbage. Daily Table saves them from the landfill and sells them at cheaper prices. “Best by” or “sell by” dates do not mean that the food is bad and can no longer be consumed by the date, as is the usual assumption of consumers. It is a date manufacturers place on foods and such in order to clear out supermarket shelves. Supermarkets buy way more products than they can sell in such a short amount of time. Once the “best by” date comes, supermarkets are forced to throw an abundance of product away and buy more.

This video is educational, and interesting. It’s also disgusting. At one point, one of the chefs ate pork uterus. In spite of that, the movie is worth watching. You learn more than you realize, and a lot of the commentary is hilarious. At one point, a fish strew is referred to as "stew of reject fish." At another point, when asking for clarification, a man asks: "Yeast stops bread from being wasted and allows us to be wasted instead?" And one quote at the beginning is very thought-provoking. While discussing what environmentalists tell humanity they have to do in order to survive, one man says "I don't know that we deserve to live." If you aren't interested in the educational side of the movie, the commentary alone is worth watching for.