Stewardship Tip Dec 8th, 2009- Waste not, want not
Your mother was wise beyond her years when she admonished you to clean your plate.
According to mathematical models developed by Kevin Hall, et al, and detailed in The Progressive Increase of Food Waste in America and Its Environmental Impact, each resident of the United States wastes about 1400 Kcal of food per day. According to Hall, that adds up to approximately 150 trillion Kcal per year.
Hall’s figures might be a little high, however, they are probably not unrealistic. According to the US EPA, per capita solid food waste amounted to about 90 kg per year. Various figures always get thrown about when experts talk about food waste. Generally speaking, its usually about a minimum of 27% and ranges up to 40%.
According to some estimates, agriculture uses about 70% of the freshwater supply. Wasted food would, according to Hall, account for 25% of the freshwater used for agriculture. Moreover, if it takes 3 Kcal of fossil fuel to produce 1 Kcal of food, wasted food would account for about 300 million barrels of oil per year (about 4% of the total consumption in the United States).
Wasted food wastes natural resources. Here are three tips to help you reduce food waste.
Quantify: Anglers have particular skills that can help to understand most any situation. Most of us keep log books of our fishing trips. The same skills that you use to log your catch can be used to identify waste in your home. Keep a log of the meals that you prepare and how much food, if any, goes to waste. Also, keep track of food that you discard from the freezer or refrigerator. Once you have several entries, the amount of waste will become evident. Are your portions too big? Too small? Are the leftovers going into the ‘fridge only to get tossed a week later? With a log, you can identify patterns and take action!
Check your gear: You wouldn’t go to the lake without checking your gear first. Do the same in your kitchen. Check the seals on your refrigerator and freezer. If they are leaking, replace them. This will help to reduce food spoilage. Also, clean the coils to ensure that your unit operates efficiently.
Label your leftovers: Label your leftovers and cycle your stock. Move older items toward the front. If food is in your line of sight, the chances of using it improves. Check your refrigerator and freezer on a daily basis for food that you can use for meals.
Why it is is important to the fish: As Kenneth Tate notes in Monitoring helps reduce water-quality impacts in flood-irrigated pasture, “excessive irrigation diversion can reduce in-stream flow levels.” This, in turn, he notes, “can result in the reduction of available aquatic habitat, elevated stream temperatures and increased pollutant concentrations.”
Water that is diverted to produce wasted food wastes water and endangers our fish populations needlessly.
Quantify, check your gear, and label your leftovers. Help to reduce the amount of waste you you produce in your household. Reducing waste will help to preserve water for our fish.
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This week’s sponsor-partner:Grasshopper Products
is home of the monoMASTER. We’ve used these for a long time and can testify to the fact that they keep waste fishing line out of the environment! We put the waste on the
monoMASTER when we change flies or lures. When it’s full, we deposit the line in the recycling bin. The monoMASTER is small and convenient. It is a definite must for all anglers.
Featured as one of the “Best of the Best” in 2009 by Field and Stream, RecycledFish members can now save 20% on monoMASTERS! Use code “recycledfish” when you check out.
Grasshopper Product’s
partnership helps make this week’s Stewardship Tip possible.
In addition to their partnership to sponsor this week’s Stewardship Tip, we would like to thank them for sponsoring the Recycled Fish 24 Hour Fish a Thon.
Rising demand for our weekly Stewardship Tip and a new partnership with Fly Cast America now makes the Stewardship Tip available in Spanish. Ahora, reciba el Stewardship Tip en español. Gentileza de Fly Cast America.
To read the weekly Stewardship Tip in Spanish, click here Simplemente haga click aquí si desea recibir el Stewardship tip en Español.
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