I try my best to make meals that are enough for my family and when there are left overs we use them up as best we can..... so it makes me a little cross when food wastage is blamed on people cooking too much and throwing away spoiled food in the home. What about the supermarkets, who throw food away past the sell by date, sandwich chains that throw away sacks full daily and food processing factories that have amazing amount of waste, even hotels and restaurants that cook too much food and then waste so much of it? Let's see the blame go where its due and let's see people kicking up a stink about these issues. Yes its good to be frugal at home, that's where action starts I guess but i'd love to read an article where someone actually tackled the issue where it was most needed!!

Great point Joolee. Yes, having an effective game plan for minimizing food waste on the shopping, eating and cooking levels is one way to relieve the landfills of the burden of rotten food, but since a certain amount of food waste is inevitable, (particularly when we're talking about a business like a restaurant or supermarket) we should all be talking about... COMPOSTING! After all, even if you've mastered the art of the efficient shopping list, and maximized every last morsel in your fridge, you're still going to be left with a pile of inedible veggie parts that are too gross to turn into a soup. 

Composting is perhaps the simplest and most effective means of turning food waste into... well... more food essentially, since you end up making dirt that nourishes the next round of crops. Here in the Bay Area we have free green waste pick up, so no need to build your own compost out back. It's such a no brainer, I can't believe that every business and residence is not lobbying their city to make it that simple for them too. 

Here's a list of resources for turning your own gross food into a growing opportunity:

• Are you a city-dweller with no access to yard space to build your own compost? No problem! 

• A first hand account from one city boy who wasn't afraid to get dirty.

• Danny Seo's clever composting tips - on video, no less!

 

I have to say that both of you have really good insight.  If I might add, vermiculture (worm farming) is another valuable way to make use of veggie and grain scraps.  Some people do this in a bin under their sink at home and sell the worm "tea" and worm castings as valuable fertilizer.

Regarding the grocery store leftovers....unfortunately, that's only part of it.  Trucks will have stuff spoil on them oftentimes because they can't get a store to take the produce.  I'm not 100% clear why this is--maybe overstock?

 I know someone in the Chicago area who is trying to get the produce that the stores don't end up using to the underfed in that area, rather than trucking it to the landfills.  Worst case scenario, they do large scale worm farming if it goes bad, from what I understand.

-Maybe if I stand still long enough, the loam will soak into my body, diffuse into my soul, and infuse it with the life I seek.

We sometimes had leftovers when my kid was little, but I knew anything with oil or salt added would attract unwelcome foragers to my compost bin, and the city didn't pick up where we lived. Not to waste good food, mostly organic, I would eat the leftovers so they didn't get thrown away until one day I realized I could either throw them in the trash bin or (essentially) throw them on my hips. Trash bin won.

Food waste makes up another eight to nine percent. The cost of collecting of the waste management budget, but it does soar to as high as 50 percent.
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