The Wasting of Perfectly Good Food

When was the last time you ate bubble and squeak? Do you even know what bubble and squeak is?

Well it is a time honored way of using up vegetables after a Sunday lunch, or any vegetables left over from a meal for that matter.

Problem is most people throw all of the left overs in the bin instead of the frying pan. This is not good news, for the climate, or for bio-diversity.

In the UK we throw away millions of tonnes every year the carbon footprint of this waste food is the same as 25% of all of the cars on the road in the UK. No small amount.

So as well, turning the light off, and half filling the kettle, maybe have bubble and squeak for tea next monday night!

“The British may waste more food than any other nation, throwing out 30-40% of all the produce they buy and grow each year, according to research. Figures collated from the government, supermarkets, processors and farmers” Guardian

How did we get in this ridiculous position, what must the rest of the world think, do you not think this is embarrassing for the UK as a country? So what causes this waste:

Food Waste Problem 1

Farmers are expected to supply the model apple, carrot, cabbage etc. to meet the supermarkets extremely rigorous selection process. Any foods that do not meet the standard go in the bin. .  bye bye.

We are not talking about seriously bad fruit and vegetables here we are talking minor cosmetic marks, shape and size. Nothing which would effect how edible or nutritious the fruit and vegetables might be.

Solution 1: Support shops that sell “wonky” veg. You local green grocer might, and Morrisons actually sell vegetable branded as “wonky”.

Food Waste Problem 2

Buying practices. Buy one get one free on strawberries, woo hoo. Problem is you eat the first punnet and then don’t really feel like more, and before you know it they have gone all fluffy.

Solution: Shop more often and buy less each time.

Food Waste Problem 3

Imports. Mr Mango is picked very under-ripe in mango land, shipped for weeks across oceans in cool storage, and then plonked in the fruit bowl in your house. Tiered and travel sick, mr mango goes rotten within three days and is thrown away.

Solaution: Stick to seasonal produce.

Food Waste Problem 4

Use by dates. People stick religiously to use by dates. Chill out give what ever it is a sniff, and chances are it will be OK (no responsibility taken if you die in screaming agony), yoghurts are a classic. My personal records is six weeks over the sell by date, and It tasted no different to a fresh one.

Solution: Learn to judge whether food is safe to eat regardless of use by dates.

Food Waste Problem 5

The weekly shop. When I was a student come the end of the week I would be eating raw pasta with vinegar on it. Now I am grown up I don’t like to run out of food, so I buy a bit extra when I go shopping, to make sure I don’t. Problem is it is hard to judge just how much extra. . . . so some of it goes rotten / stale and goes in the bin. Sound familiar?

Solution: Only buy perishable food that you are sure you can use. If you are worried about running out then stock a few canned foods at home, so they won’t go to waste if you don’t use them. Tinned food keeps pretty much forever. Did you know there is a market from canned food from World War 2. People still eat it.

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The Reducing Size of Fish

Fish are reducing in size. This is happening for a variety of reasons. This page has photos of reducing fish sizes over the years and first found in the Sunday Times (Quality UK Newspaper) 20/05/12)

1. Overfishing:

• Selective Pressure: When fisheries target larger fish, they remove the individuals that are most successful at reproducing. This leaves behind smaller fish that reproduce earlier in their lives. Over time, this can lead to a decline in the average size of fish within a population.  
• Reduced Age Structure: Overfishing can also lead to a younger age structure in fish populations. Younger fish are naturally smaller than older fish, so this contributes to a decrease in average size.  

2. Climate Change:

• Warmer Waters: Rising water temperatures can affect fish growth and development. Some species may grow more slowly in warmer waters, leading to smaller adult sizes.  
• Metabolic Rates: Warmer temperatures can increase the metabolic rates of fish, meaning they need more energy to survive. This can lead to reduced growth and smaller body sizes.  
• Oxygen Availability: Warmer water holds less oxygen, which can also affect fish growth and development.  

3. Other Factors:

• Pollution: Pollution can also affect fish growth and development, potentially leading to smaller sizes.  
• Habitat Degradation: Damage to fish habitats can also affect their growth and survival  
• Changes in Food Webs: Smaller fish can affect the balance of food webs, impacting other species in the ecosystem.  
• Economic Impacts: Smaller fish can mean lower catches for fisheries, affecting the livelihoods of those who depend on fishing.

It’s important to note:

• Not all fish species are shrinking. Some species may be more resilient to these pressures than others.  
• More research is needed to fully understand the complex interactions between overfishing, climate change, and other factors that are affecting fish size.

What can be done?

• Sustainable Fishing Practices: Implementing sustainable fishing practices can help to ensure that fish populations remain healthy and that larger fish are not disproportionately removed.
• Addressing Climate Change: Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is crucial to mitigating the effects of climate change on fish populations.
• Protecting Fish Habitats: Protecting and restoring fish habitats is essential for their survival and growth.  

By understanding the factors that are contributing to the decline in fish size, we can take steps to protect these important species and the ecosystems they inhabit.

Sustainable Fish

“Only 10 percent of all large fish—both open ocean species including tuna, swordfish, marlin and the large groundfish such as cod, halibut, skates and flounder—are left in the sea”, according to research published in the scientific journal Nature.

That has not really left much for our kids has it.

Humans have become too Good at Fishing

The problem is that as hunters of fish humans are getting too good. We started off a few thousand years ago with a fish hook, and with a bit of luck you would get something nice for tea.

Nowadays we have sonar guided fishing ships that spend months at sea, with nets so large they can catch whole shoals of fish in one go.

Example 1 – Un-sustainable fishing of Tuna

Able to carry a staggering 3000 tons of tuna, the Albatun Tres is the largest tuna fishing vessel in the world, it fishes using a purse seine net (image right) to catch up to 150 tonnes of tuna in one scoop.

Skippers may aim to catch only sustainable tuna varieties such as skip jack, but with a net this big. .  they catch allsorts of tuna.

When water closer to home are fished out, the fishing boats further afield to catch tuna where they have not already damaged the stocks.

Example 2 – Trawlers 

Trawlers use a giant weighted net to indiscriminately scoop up all sorts of sea life from the bed of the seas around the UK. In many places this can be a frequent as once a fortnight, although more often it is around twice a year.

With such frequent disturbances, sea creatures and as well as sea weed, and other flora, keep get cut back before they can establish themselves.

In 1956, the British trawling fleet brought in 8.36 million tones of fish, in 2007 this has dropped to 600,000 tonnes. So something is very wrong. . .wouldn’t you agree?

Can we Eat Fish Sustainably?

It not good news I’m afraid. With 8 billion on the planet, what fish we can eat sustainably (and more recently healthily has changed. This site’s first version back in 2006 gave a list of sustainable fish below.

1 – Choose a Species (What)

This is getting more difficult to do all of the time. Fish stocks are spiralling . . and what is sutainable to eat keeps changing.

Sustainable Fish to Buy (as of 2006)

• Pollack
• Gurnard
• Pouting
• Mackerel
• Mussels

Sustainable Fish to Buy (as of 2025)

• Pollack  – Alaska Pollock is OK (different species) but not UK pollack
• Gurnard  – If not trawled. And most are.
• Pouting
• Mackerel – Downgraded to OK choice by MSC
• Mussels – Farmed Mussels are OK, but they are all full of plastic pollution.

Fish to Avoid

• Bluefin Tuna (Thanks Mitsubishi)
• Skate
• Eel
• Shark
• Rock Salmon (Actually Shark)

2 – Choose How the Fish are Caught (How)

 The fishing method used to catch a fish has a big effect on the sustainability. Using a net catches everything fish, jelly fish, dolphins, turtles. . . . .

“27 million tonnes of dead and dying creatures, snared as unwanted bycatch, being thrown back into the oceans” – The Ecologist

3 – Look at the Label 

 there will be thing written on the label like dolphin friendly, well that doesn’t really mean anything. Two labels to look for are the MSC Eco Label and the MCS Label, both of which are certified scheme to check that producers are doing what they claim.

4 – Make Yourself Heard

Sign up to something that supports sustainable fishing, example to the left. Write to your MP.

Other Solutions for Sustainable Fishing

In the 1950s research conducted at Aberdeen’s Marine Research Laboratories showed that the mess size of nets, if increased could greatly reduce the impact of trawler fishing.

10cm ( 4 inches) was the size deemed to be most effective where juvenile fish slip through the net unharmed, hopefully going on the bread and maintain fish stocks.

At present however, net size is unregulated and fisherman choose which size to use.

It’s OK. Its Farmed Salmon (??)

Erm . . . no. Unfortunately Salmon eat fish, and these are caught just like all the other fish, with big nets, they are then ground up, made in to pellets and fed to the farmed salmon.

This problem is multiplied by the fact that for ever 1kg of farmed salmon that is grown, it has to be fed around 5kg of other fish, which has been caught from the oceans / sea.

The same principal applies with most farmed fish and seafood, tuna are fed mackerel, and prawns are fed mashed up fish. The problem is that these fish are not caught using sustainable methods, resulting in habitat destruction and severe social / economic impacts on local communities. Especially in developing countries.

Farmed Fish is Bad – Example

Yum. Prawns. . . but that flavour may come at a cost.

Orissa, India. A costal settlement which mainly relied on subsistence fishing, and very little industry. In steps the World Bank with funding for a prawn farm, which aimed to utilise the saltwater lagoons that are common in that area.

Prawn Fishing vs Prawn Farming

In reality prawn farming and prawn fishing are just as bad as each other, whilst watching the excellent Indian Ocean with Simon Reeve, I have noted the following:

Prawn Fishing

Again in Orissa India we find the Astaranga Fishing Port which has a large fishing fleet. Stocks have been declining over the last decade. In the programe we see a trawlers bottom dragging for 1 hours, with a total catch of 5 prawns and about a dustbin full of by catch. Prawns are small so you need a fine mesh, this means everything is caught.

A look ecological project was visited that aims to protect sea turtles. According to the project organiser around 10,000 sea turtle are killed around Astaranga every year. Turtles need to breath every 45 minutes, and when trawlers drag there nets around for 1, 2 3 hours the turtles caught in th nets can’t get to the surface to breath and die.

Prawn Farming

Large areas of low altitude Bangladesh are easily converted to Salt water lagoons, where prawns can be farmed. Farmers who once grew crops in these highly productive delta areas, have been encouraged in to prawn farming by processing factory owners.

The problem is that once you have flooded your land in this way, you can not go back. It is a one shot deal. The ground is salinised and useless for growing crops.

Obviously growing say maize on an acre of land will feed many more people than growing prawns on the same area. This can not be good for a country with a rapidly expanding population, which thanks to the sea food desires of the west is quickly ruining large areas of its most productive farm land.

Ocean Plastic

Yet another problem with eating fish, whether farmed or caught is that the fishing and fish farming industry are responsible for very large quantities of plastics entering our oceans. This makes beaches untidy, but more importantly it is poisoning the whole ocean. Large plastics break down in to micro plastics, and in turn are ingested by small fish or krill, and are concentrated up the food chain until our apex species such are whales and sharks are being poisoned. There is no way to help here other than removing ocean plastic, or stop eating fish altogether.

 

Standard farming methods appear more efficient, ie you get more output per acre of farmland, than you would using an organic system.

But what you are seeing is a pay off from the masses of energy that has gone in to producing artificial fertilizers and pesticides. In fact a study found a 20% smaller yield from organic farms using 50% less fertilizer and 97% less pesticide.

As much as forty percent of energy used in the food system goes towards the production of artificial fertilizers and pesticides.

So organic food will have a lower carbon footprint, and will maintain higher levels of bio diversity within the crop lands.

What can I do?

Buying organic fruit, neg and meat from a supermarket is a good idea, but you will be limited on choice and for some items you may pay a premium.

Over the last 10 years there have been numerous organic veg box companies that have sprung up all over the UK. They offer comparable value to supermarkets, with the benefit of home delivery. Variety is also excellent with many new vegetables being included in each delivery. Tomatillos for example which are bludy marvelous!

There is a good artcile with regards to organic veg boxes in the telegraph. In terms of cost you eefectivly get organic produce for just £3 – £4 more than an equalant non-organic supermarket shop.

There is one HUGE bonus to getting vege box. That is the freshness. Veg from a veg box will last ages, weeks in a refrigirator and so this reduces your wwaste to practcaly zero. Every bought a punnet of berries from a supermarket and the are furry within 24 hrs, same with soft fruits. You don’t get this with a veg box.

You can look for this symbol on products you buy, at the super market.
For more information visit http://www.soilassociation.org/

Riverford which are based in the Southwest and deliver all over the Southwest UK.

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Love good food? We’ve got weekly boxes of it. Seasonal and organic fruit, veg and more to your door. You don’t even need to be in when we deliver.

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My father in-law have a herd of cows (cattle) which he grazes on the green hills of Devon. They are grass fed. They eat grass straight from the field for around 8 months of the year and silage for 4 months whilst kept indoors in barns.

In order to make sure the cattle have a complete diet, their grass feed is supplemented with a compound cattle feed. This comes in in pellet form and is delivered in a big lorry every month or so.

In order to make for a protein rich cattle food a very common ingredient in this food is Soy. As in soya beans.

Soy cultivation is a major driver of deforestation in the Amazon basin. Seeds from the soybean plant provide high protein animal feed for livestock, and 80% of Amazon soy is destined for animal feed; smaller percentages are used for oil or eaten directly. Today Brazil has 24-25 million hectares devoted to the growth of this crop, and is currently the second largest producer of soybeans in the world.

So even in the wilds of Devon, considering mainly grass fed beef, there is an Amazon Impact. The fact is that this soya impact is so far reaching that can even invade a vegetarian diet, some of the most popular vegetarian brands in the UK, are not clear about where they get their soya.

The Scale of Deforestation

The deforestation to grow soy, is not just limited to the Amazon, it extends far to the south and to the north countries such as Guatemala, have near complete deforestation in large areas. Pink shading in below image shows >75% tree loss since 2006.

2006 is when the SOY MORATORIUM was signed, which was supposed to slow deforestation. Effects have been limited, and complex. For example attempts to limit soy production have boosted prices, and led to illegal farming of soy in the wide areas of south and central American rain forests.

Products that Contain Soya

Zeolite Green peace article will blame this soya driven deforestation on the global meat and dairy industry and they are between 10% and 90% right in that respect.

Meat production does intensify soya use. To produce 1kg of beef we might need to feed a cow 25kg of soya, a ratio of 25-to-1. We could just eat the soya, and reduce that impact by 90%. However beef is a worst case. With chicken this ratio might drop to 3.3-to-1, as shown in the below graph. Meat and Dairy Production Graph.

So meat and dairy do “contain” the most soya potentially. But there is a great deal of generalisation when trying to assess impacts. Beef will never just be “beef”, it should be divided in to grass fed, or intensive or average. It is hardly fair to compare a grass finished Devonshire bullock, to a intensively finished feed-lot American beef. But at the moment that is what happens.

Vegans & Vegetarians

I am afraid vegans and vegetarians are not off the hook. After all soya is a great source of protein, and many vegan and vegetarian food are chock full of it. If you are looking for the cleanest conscious then you need to choose your proteins carefully.

There is an excellent guide form the Ethical Consumer, on choosing carefully, as you can see many big names are flagged as a concern, with Habitats and Resources being perhaps most relevant to this deforestation topic.

So what can we do about deforestation?

Here are Green Food’s top tips for helping reduce deforestation:

1 – Eat less meat, unless you have studied how it is fed.
2 – If you must eat meat, eat high welfare chicken.
3 – If you can live with farmed fish, eat that.
4 – If you eat vegetarian choose wisly.
5 – Avoid meat and soy altogether*.

*This is a tricky and you would require careful dietary planning to ensure good protein sources.

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