Reducing Food Waste by Giving Food Back the Value it Deserves
Laura Trotta: “Every time we throw food in the bin we’re not just wasting our money. We’re discarding the vast amounts of resources, energy and water that it took to produce, process, store, refrigerate, transport and cook the food.
Coco Confusion / Credit: New Gastronome
By Anne D.
February 21, 2022
Reducing food waste is one of the top five solutions to climate change listed in the New York Times bestseller “Drawdown.“
While animal agriculture creates an estimated 18% of greenhouse gas emissions.
We can make a difference … by reducing our food waste and enjoying vegan and vegetarian dishes in our daily lives.
Suggested Links
Food and Climate Action
- Slow Food International
- Healthy Diets for a Healthier Planet (UN Climate Action)
- Why Plant-Based Eating (Earthsave Canada)
Tips for Reducing Food Waste
- What you can do (Slow Food)
- 7 Simple Steps to Reduce Food Waste (WEF)
Vegan and Vegetarian Recipes
- Vegan Recipes (Peta)
- Vegetarian Recipes (BBC goodfood)
In the photos above, we find a group of friends engaging in an ancient (even timeless) human activity …foraging for wild mushrooms.
They’re members of the Vancouver chapter of the Slow Food movement, and they’re foraging for mushrooms in a forest near Maple Ridge.
You might ask: What is Slow Food? And what does it have to do with climate action and reducing food waste?
According to Slow Food: “the key to fighting food waste is to give food back the value that it deserves.”
At a personal level, this includes buying local and seasonal foods, throwing away less food, eating out less, eating less, purchasing food that’s been fairly and sustainably produced … and eating at least once a week with someone you love.
Slow Food calls for tackling the climate crisis through the adoption of environmentally-friendly practices, at all stages along the food supply chain, following a seed-to-landfill trajectory.
The roots of the Slow Food movement are found in Italy, when Carlo Petrini and a group of social activists came together in the 1980s to “defend regional traditions, good food, gastronomic pleasure and a slow pace of life.”
Petrini a centre-left journalist and food critic who wrote for Communist daily newspapers came to prominence, in 1986, as the leader of a protest in Rome against the opening of the first McDonald’s in Italy.
Located near the Spanish Steps, in the heart of Rome, the 400 seat McDonald’s outlet was the largest in the world to open at the time.
Petrini and his friends brought gastronomy and the weight of Italian food and wine culture to the front line in the battle against the globalisation of fast food and industrialized food production.
In 1989, delegates from 15 countries gathered in Paris to sign the Slow Food Manifesto.
The mission of Slow Food includes defending local food traditions, promoting artisanal foods and preserving food biodiversity.
The international Slow Food movement quickly gained momentum and spread (mushroomed so-to-speak) to more than 160 countries at this writing.
The University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, Italy, was established by Petrini and opened in 2004.
The university is focused on the gastronomic sciences and the organic relationships between food, ecology and cultures.
Closer to home, this time in the Okanagan Valley, we find a Slow Food presidium assisting in the recovery of traditional fishing systems for Okanagan Sockeye salmon which travel up the mighty Columbia River to spawn in the indigenous lands of the Syilx people.
Sandpiper SOS
Shorebirds and Port Expansion. Don’t miss this video on the Western Sandpiper.
Learn to love river slime.
Western Sandpiper | Photo Credit: Alan D. Wilson CC BY-SA 3.0
The Vancouver Port Authority plans to build a second container ship terminal in the Fraser River estuary, right on top of a major stopover for birds migrating along the Pacific flyway from Central and South America to their breeding grounds in the western Arctic.
The loss of the mud flats in the Fraser River estuary could lead to the extinction of the Western Sandpiper and other migratory birds that depend on nutrient rich biofilm — also known as river slime — an essential food source on their journey north.
(For more info see: Slime, Shorebirds, and a Scientific Mystery by Daniel Wood)
Don’t miss this video. Learn to love river slime!
Forest Walk – September 2020
Contact the Enviro Team | Join the Enviro Email Group
Above: Pacific Spirit Park, Sept 12, 2020 | The haze in this photo is not a typical West Coast mist or fog in early Fall, but rather smoke from forest fires burning in Washington State, while California is experiencing its worst forest fire season ever, reminding us of the looming climate crisis and the need for climate action.
Reconnecting To Why We Are Environmentalists
by Tamiko Suzuki
A dozen Enviro Team members met on a cool, smokey September morning and followed a path into Pacific Spirit Park …
It started with a callout by the Sierra Club to organize a Forest March to protest the loss of old growth trees. After some discussion, a trio from the UCV Environment Team decided they would organize a visit to the forest but it would not be in protest of anything. Rather it would be a meditation on Nature and our love of her.
A dozen Enviro Team members met on a cool, smokey September morning and followed a path in Pacific Spirit Park, specifically chosen for its beautiful views. As was planned, the first and last part of the walk was a socially distanced time to chat and reconnect. The middle part of the walk was done in silence and alone to awaken the senses, re-energize zoom-fatigued brains, and re-connect with our thoughts and feelings.
The ancient trees are long gone (logged in the 1940’s according to Hanno) but stumps and nurse logs remain to remind us of what was lost. Haze from forest fires in Washington obscured the sun reminding us that Climate Change is a looming threat despite our preoccupation with COVID. Still, the forest filtered out a lot of the smoke and traffic noise and brought a sense of calm and peace. It felt so good to get outside and be among friends again.
The walk was organized by Hanno Pinder, Tara Bonham and Tamiko Suzuki.
Proposed: Recreational Forest Walks
Join us for a walk thru Pacific Spirit Park
email Hanno at the Enviro Team
NOTE: At present, the Walking Group is not officially part of the Enviro Team, but we share an appreciation for trees and forests
Photos by: Tamiko Suzuki and Mary Bennett
Laura Trotta: “Every time we throw food in the bin we’re not just wasting our money. We’re discarding the vast amounts of resources, energy and water that it took to produce, process, store, refrigerate, transport and cook the food.
Coco Confusion / Credit: New Gastronome
By Anne D.
February 21, 2022
Reducing food waste is one of the top five solutions to climate change listed in the New York Times bestseller “Drawdown.“
While animal agriculture creates an estimated 18% of greenhouse gas emissions.
We can make a difference … by reducing our food waste and enjoying vegan and vegetarian dishes in our daily lives.
Suggested Links
Food and Climate Action
- Slow Food International
- Healthy Diets for a Healthier Planet (UN Climate Action)
- Why Plant-Based Eating (Earthsave Canada)
Tips for Reducing Food Waste
- What you can do (Slow Food)
- 7 Simple Steps to Reduce Food Waste (WEF)
Vegan and Vegetarian Recipes
- Vegan Recipes (Peta)
- Vegetarian Recipes (BBC goodfood)
In the photos above, we find a group of friends engaging in an ancient (even timeless) human activity …foraging for wild mushrooms.
They’re members of the Vancouver chapter of the Slow Food movement, and they’re foraging for mushrooms in a forest near Maple Ridge.
You might ask: What is Slow Food? And what does it have to do with climate action and reducing food waste?
According to Slow Food: “the key to fighting food waste is to give food back the value that it deserves.”
At a personal level, this includes buying local and seasonal foods, throwing away less food, eating out less, eating less, purchasing food that’s been fairly and sustainably produced … and eating at least once a week with someone you love.
Slow Food calls for tackling the climate crisis through the adoption of environmentally-friendly practices, at all stages along the food supply chain, following a seed-to-landfill trajectory.
The roots of the Slow Food movement are found in Italy, when Carlo Petrini and a group of social activists came together in the 1980s to “defend regional traditions, good food, gastronomic pleasure and a slow pace of life.”
Petrini a centre-left journalist and food critic who wrote for Communist daily newspapers came to prominence, in 1986, as the leader of a protest in Rome against the opening of the first McDonald’s in Italy.
Located near the Spanish Steps, in the heart of Rome, the 400 seat McDonald’s outlet was the largest in the world to open at the time.
Petrini and his friends brought gastronomy and the weight of Italian food and wine culture to the front line in the battle against the globalisation of fast food and industrialized food production.
In 1989, delegates from 15 countries gathered in Paris to sign the Slow Food Manifesto.
The mission of Slow Food includes defending local food traditions, promoting artisanal foods and preserving food biodiversity.
The international Slow Food movement quickly gained momentum and spread (mushroomed so-to-speak) to more than 160 countries at this writing.
The University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, Italy, was established by Petrini and opened in 2004.
The university is focused on the gastronomic sciences and the organic relationships between food, ecology and cultures.
Closer to home, this time in the Okanagan Valley, we find a Slow Food presidium assisting in the recovery of traditional fishing systems for Okanagan Sockeye salmon which travel up the mighty Columbia River to spawn in the indigenous lands of the Syilx people.
Sandpiper SOS
Shorebirds and Port Expansion. Don’t miss this video on the Western Sandpiper.
Learn to love river slime.
Western Sandpiper | Photo Credit: Alan D. Wilson CC BY-SA 3.0
The Vancouver Port Authority plans to build a second container ship terminal in the Fraser River estuary, right on top of a major stopover for birds migrating along the Pacific flyway from Central and South America to their breeding grounds in the western Arctic.
The loss of the mud flats in the Fraser River estuary could lead to the extinction of the Western Sandpiper and other migratory birds that depend on nutrient rich biofilm — also known as river slime — an essential food source on their journey north.
(For more info see: Slime, Shorebirds, and a Scientific Mystery by Daniel Wood)
Don’t miss this video. Learn to love river slime!
Forest Walk – September 2020
Contact the Enviro Team | Join the Enviro Email Group
Above: Pacific Spirit Park, Sept 12, 2020 | The haze in this photo is not a typical West Coast mist or fog in early Fall, but rather smoke from forest fires burning in Washington State, while California is experiencing its worst forest fire season ever, reminding us of the looming climate crisis and the need for climate action.
Reconnecting To Why We Are Environmentalists
by Tamiko Suzuki
A dozen Enviro Team members met on a cool, smokey September morning and followed a path into Pacific Spirit Park …
It started with a callout by the Sierra Club to organize a Forest March to protest the loss of old growth trees. After some discussion, a trio from the UCV Environment Team decided they would organize a visit to the forest but it would not be in protest of anything. Rather it would be a meditation on Nature and our love of her.
A dozen Enviro Team members met on a cool, smokey September morning and followed a path in Pacific Spirit Park, specifically chosen for its beautiful views. As was planned, the first and last part of the walk was a socially distanced time to chat and reconnect. The middle part of the walk was done in silence and alone to awaken the senses, re-energize zoom-fatigued brains, and re-connect with our thoughts and feelings.
The ancient trees are long gone (logged in the 1940’s according to Hanno) but stumps and nurse logs remain to remind us of what was lost. Haze from forest fires in Washington obscured the sun reminding us that Climate Change is a looming threat despite our preoccupation with COVID. Still, the forest filtered out a lot of the smoke and traffic noise and brought a sense of calm and peace. It felt so good to get outside and be among friends again.
The walk was organized by Hanno Pinder, Tara Bonham and Tamiko Suzuki.
Proposed: Recreational Forest Walks
Join us for a walk thru Pacific Spirit Park
email Hanno at the Enviro Team
NOTE: At present, the Walking Group is not officially part of the Enviro Team, but we share an appreciation for trees and forests