Food Waste

There is a concept in nature that nothing is lost. Anything can be reused, and if it goes back to nature, it becomes compost. That’s completely different from our society, which has a waste mindset. We can see it in the way we deal with trash, water, food, human beings, technology, and so on… Even ideas and values sometimes go to waste because of corrupted minds trying to remain in power and profit above everything else.

Since I mostly talk about food, fatherhood, and philosophy, I will restrict the idea of this article to that field.

In my area, scarcity has been used to increase the value of products — while at the same time, tons of food go to waste in restaurants. Not only from customers’ leftovers but also in the kitchen. A lot goes to waste because of operational mistakes, expired products, out-of-standard items, and so many other practices. That’s especially true in Brazil. It’s ironic: we are one of the biggest food producers in the world, and also one of the biggest food wasters.

This is something I admire in European classical cuisine. They always had to find a way to use everything, to get the most out of each ingredient. They never had such abundance, and so many wars definitely taught them how to deal with scarcity. Anything — peels, odd-shaped or discolored vegetables — could be turned into soups, broths, pies, and so on. To avoid waste and prepare for less abundant seasons, they also fermented their food: pickles, sauerkraut, salamis, dry-aged meats…

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