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Denmark | Hello Don.
We are fine, thank you. I hope you are too.
Yes, the tonnages are total. And, agreed, part of the waste is unavoidable.
Seems the biggest waste is in the vegetables-fresh fruit department. In the old days we had like strawberries when they were in season here, 1 month during summer. Fresh strawberries do not last long so big waste during one month. These days the stores carry fresh strawberries and any other kind of fresh fruit year around. We can drive home in a blizzard with fresh grapes and cherries. Makes for daily waste.
How the discarded food is handled is not quite clear to me. From the private households most end up in composting facilities. From restaurants, institutions and the like it used to be picked up by farmers using it for hog feed. I guess these days it ends up in bio-gas plants together with whatever they use.
Our newspapers run columns where household experts teach people how to get the most out of their food as a huge part of the waste comes from households and is avoidable. It puzzles me that it is nessessary to tell people that the end slices of a loaf of bread can be eaten too and that it is possible to still eat bread that was bought yesterday!
The whole discussion is interesting as people here are very much against raising crops for energy. It is considered morally incorrect to grow anything but food and feed. Also it is not allowed to use grains in the power plants instead of coal and oil. "We" are also against using grain, (but not straw), for ethanol. Still 5% ethanol is mandatory in all gasoline sold, so we import it from Brazil where it is made from sugarcane! That seems to be acceptable.
Well, moral is good, double moral is double good.
Jorn
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How we use (or misuse) our food.
