If you have not seen this I highly recommend looking it up and watching it. The premiss of the show is that 4 Food Network chefs are given the challenge to cook a meal for 100 people only using what stores, farmers, and other would consider waste. I put it on thinking it would be like any other food network show (bit cheesy) but found it very alarming what we as American consider “waste”.
One farmer (crazy enough around the corner from my office) that he discards 40-50% of his crop all because tomatoes may have cracked skin, or a hurricane blew down some corn stalk so his “pick your own” customers will not pick it, or the veggies may have small blemishes. All of this produce ends up at the end of the season in a massive composte pile We have trained consumers to demand perfection. The crazy part about that is they they demand aesthetic perfection. If you know anything about food you know that just because a tomato is bright red does not mean it is good, actually it normally means they are crap.
A fresh chicken house claims consumers will not bye a chicken that has broken wing after butchering because they think there may be something else wrong with it. The chicken came in alive and was butchered in that facility, but because of a broken wing it died for nothing. Really??? If you are going to toss it, give it to me. I roast one ever Sunday a I dont give a crap if the wing is broken.
With all the hungry people we have in this country as well as the world this is ridiculous. I know this focussed on the NYC area, and the US but I would imagine this is a world wide problem. Check it out!!
J