Food is Not Trash, It's Life.

                                           Rummaging around in the reduced section

Recently I posted about the chicken war going on in major supermarkets, yet another ploy to lure us in and buy produce we probably don't even need.

That's what it amounts to basically, marketing ploys and raking in huge profits, blow the carnage regarding living beings, or colossal food waste (£12 billion worth of food thrown away every year in the UK.) Ignore the fact that globally 925 million people are undernourished and that in the UK 5.8 million people are living in poverty. These monolithic food corporations don't care about any of that, they're positively encouraging food waste.

Food dating (the biggest con) was never about public health but used initially for stock control reasons. However, consumers became confused (bless them) mistakenly believing 'best by' dates actually indicated how safe food was to consume, (my grandmother is turning in her grave.)

From fields and factories to our forks, huge food corporations have an overwhelming amount of power over our food supply. They are not in the business to look out for the best interests of the people, rather, the purpose of these corporations is to maximise wealth for their shareholders. They are literally rubbing their sweaty palms every time the average family wastes £680 a year on food, throwing the equivalent of an entire meal away per day. They see nothing immoral in food waste or food poverty so it is our responsibility to reclaim some common sense, as used for centuries prior to food dating.

I bought these cheeses which in December were £4 for two, the sell by date was 4th January', they were reduced, then reduced again to 39p. I've only just started eating them and it's 21st January! Nothing wrong with them, not a spot of mould, no foul smell and they taste delicious.

I urge you to use your common sense, think about freezing food if it's nearing its best by date or using up ingredients in a hotchpotch dinner. Remember, you might be getting a chicken for less than three quid but we are still throwing 86 million chickens every year! Think financially and morally about how you are contributing to the food waste scandal.

When I was a child food was never wasted, we grew up in a culture where we were constantly reminded how lucky we were compared to the starving children in Africa. My mother didn't have a deep freezer filled to the gunwhales with ready made meals or cupboards stocked with crisps and biscuits. She did however always have a huge chunk of parmesan, brought over regularly from Italy, which of course, wrapped in greaseproof paper, never had a use by date! Mum would often toast slices of yesterdays stale bread, slather it with homemade jam and grate parmesan over the top, this was considered a great treat by us kids and I still enjoy cheese and jam on toast to this day.

'Connecting more people to food through gardening, farmers markets and urban farms helps teach us food is not trash, it's life.'
- Jonathan Bloom

Love Donna xxxxx