Wasted! The Story of Food Waste — A Chef’s Point of View
Wasted! is a documentary about food waste in America produced by Anthony Bourdain, and the facts are sobering.
Some critics have said that a chef has no place talking about this subject matter. As a chef and a consumer myself, I disagree. When 40% of our food in the US goes to waste and costs $1 trillion annually, I believe someone that works on the front lines of food has every right to tell people how they are wasting food and what they can do to make a change.
In food history, some of the most classic dishes came from needing to use scraps and what we would now call waste. Cassoulet, Pot-au-fue, Haggis and Ratatouille are just a few peasant born dishes that were created to use what was on hand and what would fill their bellies after a hard days work.
It wasn’t until recently that we have limited our consumption of foods and dishes to what we view as the norm today.
What fish do you normally buy?
Salmon, tuna, cod and shrimp are the main types of seafood purchased by mainstream America. Some startling statistics about those fisheries:
For every pound of shrimp caught, there are 6 pounds of other species caught as by-catch and thrown back.
Wild Atlantic Salmon is nearly extinct (due to over fishing)
Chefs and fisherman use the phrase “trash fish” to describe a fish that nobody wants to spend the money on. Trash fish can be some of the best fish that you encounter. When chefs decide to rename things and feature them on their menu, mainstream interest is peaked and demand is driven up.
For Example:
Uni, formerly called “Whore’s Eggs”
Toothfish, better known as Chilean Seabass despite not being a seabass at all. You want to avoid consumption of this fish due to being classified as overfished as well as putting other endangered fish species at risk as by-catch.
Lobster was formerly used as prison food until Bostonians and New Yorkers developed a taste for it and fishers developed on deck holding tanks to bring the lobster back alive.
As we approach overfishing status on those four fisheries, we are going to have to look to chefs’ creativity as well as societies openness to preserve our aquaculture as best as we can.
Creativity, where does it come from?
This film touched on a very important point — chefs are here to make food delicious. It is our job to create things that are delicious, teach people about new things and waste as little as we can.
One of the chefs at the forefront of this effort is Dan Barber. He believes that creativity comes from the lack of abundance. I find this to be one of the key take aways from the film. When you go to the store and see everything on the shelves and in the cases, you can’t help but buy more than you need because of everything available.
As the film pointed out, grocery stores over stock their shelves in an effort to emphasize the idea of abundance to get you to buy more. More often then not, the overstock gets thrown out because something sits on the shelf beyond its expiration date and can no longer be sold.
While the thought of food sitting on a shelf just to create the illusion of abundance can be discouraging, there are some places that take this opportunity and turn it into a good thing.
Daily Table Grocery, in Dorchester, MA is one of those places. They have relationships with grocers, buy their excess food, and turn it into nutritious grab and go type food or sell the fresh produce, dairy, and bread as is. Their goal is to provide healthy alternatives to the abundant fast food choices at a reasonable price in a diverse neighborhood that is lacking good food options.
This seemed like a novel concept, but I wish it wasn’t. Every city and state could benefit from more Daily Tables. There are people that don’t have access to healthy food options all around the country. There are plenty of people that can’t afford fresh meat, fruit, and vegetables. These people are forced to look to the fast food chains. What better way to cut down on waste and help spread healthy food than to have more places like Daily Table?
What the heck can I do?
On a smaller scale, what can be done at home? Wasted had some great suggestions on how we as consumers can cut back on the amount of food that we waste.
plan meals
write a shopping list
shop local and seasonal
use ugly produce (helping cut down on the amount of crops that go unused)
experiment with scraps (off cuts of meat, the core of your apple)
freeze left overs.
These all seem like very reasonable goals but I get that not everyone thinks like me. If this list of six things sounds daunting, start with one or two of them. Maybe change the way you think about it, planning meals, having a shopping list and shopping locally and seasonally can help you save money as well as eat healthier. Maybe you will notice a difference in how your favorite pants fit!
It’s all about balance, in everything
While Wasted! touched on some very interesting facts and spoke to ways of addressing some of these issues, it is very much like a lot of other documentaries in this genre. These sorts of documentaries have a tendency to use one sided evidence as well as fear and shock to drive action. While it is an effective method, the action that comes out of the fear and shock is too polarizing. The changes that people think they need to make are not sustainable changes that will last long term and then eventually we are all right back to where we started.
When watching these kinds of documentaries, it is best to take in all of this information and then when you have questions (and you should because a lot of the time, you are not given all of the facts), you should do a little research and complete the circle of knowledge. I will watch this film again and research some of the things that piqued my interest. The questions raised in itself make this a worthwhile film to watch.
Inspiring exploration and learning is never a bad thing!
The film ends with Anthony Bourdain saying, “I’m a terrible person but you should listen to me anyway”. We are all just trying to get by as best as we can, and who hasn’t thought this before?
As it relates to this movie, I feel like Bourdain is just saying that we are only human, we can only do so much. One person can’t take on the food waste issue for the whole united states.
It is all about making small sustainable changes. When you can stick to your changes, you can inspire others to make small changes and they can pass on the inspiration. All of these small changes is what leads to greater change that makes a difference in your town city and eventually maybe state. It just takes one small step to set it all in motion.
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