Experts estimate that people around the world waste 1.3 billion tons of food each year. The costs to individuals, families, and the environment are astronomical. You can make a difference by making a personal commitment to minimizing food waste. At Mark’s Daily Apple, we’re joining Primal Kitchen in an effort to #MaketheMost of mealtime this National Food Waste Day. Scroll down to find tips and techniques for being more sustainable and reducing your environmental footprint by reducing food waste, optimizing your grocery budget, and contributing less to the landfill. For more information, head to PrimalKitchen.com and sign up to receive an exclusive e-book to fight food waste with tasty recipes, packaging hacks, and more tips! Store and Preserve Food Properly So It Doesn’t Go to Waste Food spoiling before you get a chance to eat it is a huge contributor to food waste. In additional to shopping smart (more on that below), you can nip this problem in the bud by storing food properly after you bring it home from the store. For those times when you buy a little too much or you’re lucky enough to have a bountiful garden harvest, learn how to preserve that food and enjoy it for months to come. Avoid spoilage: Vegetable Victory: How to Best Preserve Produce When Do Foods Really Go Bad? Freeze: How to Freeze Produce Fresh Versus Frozen Food: Which Is More Nutritious? Dehydrate: Dehydrating Food at Home: How to Get Started Easy Camping Meals You Can Prepare at Home How to Make Your Own Jerky How to Make Turkey Jerky (That’s Super Easy and Tastes Like Thanksgiving) Pickle and ferment: Sauerkraut Benefits (with an Easy Homemade Sauerkraut Recipe) Pickled Vegetables, Two Ways: Home Fermented and Quick Pickles What to Do with Food Scraps: Trash to Treasure Those food scraps aren’t trash! There’s still a lot you can do with them. Turn them into compost: How to Start Composting Make bone broth: Chicken Bone Broth Four Ways Beef Bone Broth Variations Instant Pot Chicken Bone Broth Recipe (with Stovetop Option) Get creative: The Many Uses of Junk Food Eat Nose to Tail We know, those bits and bobbles can be a little off-putting at first, but organ meats are some of the most nutritious foods on the planet! Eating the skin and gristly bits nets you a bunch of collagen to balance out the methionine in muscle meat. The bones of small, oily fish contain calcium and other minerals. And best of all, almost nothing goes to waste. This is huge at a time when we’re fighting against a tide of anti-meat sentiment and claims that meat eating is bad for the environment. The best thing we meat consumers can do is advocate for and practice responsible omnivory or carnivory. Get started with nose-to-tail eating: Guide to Organ Meats Why We Should All Be Eating Organ Meats How to Eat More Organ Meat Organ Meat Recipes 6 Sneaky Ways to Work Offal Into Your Diet Learn more about … Continue reading “Easy Ways to Reduce Food Waste and Pitch in for the Planet”
Read MoreComposting is one of those things that everyone agrees is good. There are literally no downsides, only benefits.
Composting creates nutrient-dense, well-fertilized soil.
Composting means “food waste” is no longer wasteful.
Composting is better for the environment.
Composting organic materials is more productive than simply throwing them away into a landfill.
Composting is passive income. You’re not actively breaking down the organic materials. You’re not doing anything except throwing it in the pile or in the container. The microbes handle the rest and you get the benefit.
From all perspectives, composting is a smart move. If you just want a healthier garden, composting does that. If you want to improve soil health and fight soil nutrient deficiencies, composting does that. If you want to fight environmental degradation, composting does that. If you just want less stuff in your trash can and in the landfill, composting does that.
Read MoreToday we’re going to talk about seasonal eating and getting the most out of the winter vegetables you’ll find at your farmer’s market and grocery store this time of year.
The statistics on food waste are sobering, as discussed previously. Reducing food waste takes a multi-pronged approach. Some of the things you can do to waste less food and be more sustainable in the kitchen include:
Prioritize the produce that is seasonal in your region.
Don’t buy more than you need.
Learn how to store food correctly.
Learn how to preserve food if you won’t eat it in time.
Use the whole plant when possible. (Hint: All of the vegetables we’ll be mentioning today have edible leaves!)
Use food scraps in broth, soups, smoothies.
Compost what you don’t eat.
The week of Feb 21, 2022, Primal Kitchen is featuring ways to cut down on food waste. Find food waste facts, waste reduction tips, exclusive recipes, and resources from the Farmlink Project by signing up here. All week, MDA will be featuring posts that can help you get the most bang for your grocery budget and minimize food waste to boot!
You love eating vegetables. When you hit the supermarket or farmer’s market, you enthusiastically fill your basket with all the colors of the rainbow, grabbing up vegetables, fruit, and fresh herbs with abandon. But what you can’t figure out is how to prevent your fridge full of fresh, healthy produce from turning into a vegetable drawer full of mush!
Globally, people waste an estimated 1.3 billion tons of food each year between food that doesn’t get harvested in time and food that spoils during processing, in transit to stores, on store shelves, and in our refrigerators. A 2020 survey of almost 40,000 Americans found that they spend more than $1,300 each year on food that’s ultimately wasted—more than the average American spends on gas, clothing, property taxes, or household repairs and upkeep. This comes at not only a great economic cost but also an environmental one, as resources are poured into growing and transporting food that never gets eaten.
You can help reduce food waste by making sure that the food you buy doesn’t go bad before you get a chance to eat it. Here’s everything you need to know to preserve produce.
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