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Evan

It sounds odd to me that the Govt is concerned about food waste at a time when they are concerned that as a nation we are getting too fat! After all there would be less food wasted if we didn't leave any food on our plates!And a lot of food that is thrown away is too little to do anything with. How often do people put left over food in the fridge only to forget about it and throw it away a couple of days later?

But the real problem that is simply hardly talked about is the huge growth of the population of the world. This is a given undisputed fact. Countries barely able or unable to feed themselves now have rapidly growing populations. Ethiopia's population, for example, is growing at aroud 3% per annum.

Global warming is a distraction. The number one problem of the world is population growth in the third world exceeding the ability of the world to sustain it. And for those who feel global warming is the real problem, they should see that population growth in the third world is destroyiing the planet by deforestation, erosion etc. Ethiopia's population is expected to grow to 150 million: how is this sustainable? The story is repeated throughout the Third World.

Having leftovers or surplus food only requires some affluence, but dealing with them needs cookery skills and confidence to ingore use-by dates.

It feels like there is a big difference between having not enough or merely sufficient food, and having access to more than enough food. This means that I can entertain guests, make choices about what I'd like to eat and try new things. Food becomes a part of culture.

Commercially, food also becomes something that we buy independently of its consumption. Frequently food is bought before their existing purchases have been started, as also happens with books, music, clothes etc.

I'm quite horrified by your comments about wasting food. Yes, throwing leftovers away simply because you want to vary your diet IS waste. What are you doing with leftovers anyway? You must be buying too much, or preparing too much.
I supposed it angers me so much because I cannot afford to buy enough food. I was on a low income while I was unemployed, but now I am self-employed, it is even lower. I have a basic Β£49.15 a week to spend on food, gas, electricity, water, phone, not to mention clothes (charity shops, car boots)...If I get some work in, I increase that to Β£60, so my normal spend on food is about Β£20 a week. How do I manage? Without my allotment it would be very hard. At the moment, I have a lot of veg coming from my allotment, and even surpluses of lettuce and beans. I give them to friends who are delighted with them, and I would be very pissed off if they just chucked them in the bin. For the rest, I make do with muesli, omelettes, cheese rolls (I make my own bread). i can't afford proper meat, though I love it. I can tell I'm getting worse off because I used to be able to afford to buy Yeo Valley yogurt and I can't any more, nor can I afford orange juice (value packs of course). I also used to be able to afford to go swimming twice a week, and I can't afford that now either. If anyone has that much disrespect for food that they throw it away, they ought to be sent to India or somewhere and forced to explain themselves to those who are really short of it. All this talk of food prices going up - what's a tub of organic yogurt less compared with NO rice or NO maize?

Comment 1 says it all, small planet too many humans, until that is addressed nothing will improve.