Hugh's War on Waste

honeythewitch

martinsurrey wrote: »

"Hugh is determined to try and help the farmers by getting the supermarkets to change their practices"

Hugh doesn't understand supply and demand, the farmers are dumping 30-40% of their produce as they don't meet standards, and the price they are paid has fallen.

He thinks that getting the supermarkets to accept the wonky veg will help the farmers, but all that will do is crash the price of veg, which would mean less for the farmers, its an oversupply problem...

The supermarkets dump a lot of unsold perfectly shaped fruit and vegetables. Probably because they charge too much for it.

martinsurrey

honeythewitch wrote: »

The supermarkets dump a lot of unsold perfectly shaped fruit and vegetables. Probably because they charge too much for it.

You can already get a kilo of carrots for 60p

http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=253560588

At 80g per portion for a five a day portion (and 20% peeling waste) thats 10 portions of carrots for 60p.

http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/5ADAY/Pages/Portionsizes.aspx

The people who claim veg is too expensive would still complain if they gave them away.

I'm all for reducing waste, but unfortunately in the UK a lot of waste is from over supply.

VfM4meplse

PasturesNew wrote: »

Ah yes... the Eton-educated rich boy who spent (probably) £1+million on his own farm so he could preach about eating food sourced locally and grown at home

I take no lessons from someone who wastes the most precious gift of all - LIFE - in this way. I'd rather he didn't rear livestock for his own consumption than worry about a few supermarket scraps.

katkin

martinsurrey wrote: »

The people who claim veg is too expensive would still complain if they gave them away.

I'm not convinced about this. When a whole generation of people have not been up-skilled or experienced in cooking and food preparation due to the popularity of convenience / pre-packaged and cheap takeaway foods, its no surprising there's wariness about eating fresh produce cooked from scratch.

I'm all for reducing waste, but unfortunately in the UK a lot of waste is from over supply.

The UK imports a massive amount of fruit and veg. With the right marketing, education and incentives we could be eating much more of our home grown produce. And eating it much more cheaply too.



Do you Martin, eat fresh veg, fruits and meals produced from raw UK produced ingredients?

honeythewitch

martinsurrey wrote: »

You can already get a kilo of carrots for 60p

http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=253560588

At 80g per portion for a five a day portion (and 20% peeling waste) thats 10 portions of carrots for 60p.

http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/5ADAY/Pages/Portionsizes.aspx

The people who claim veg is too expensive would still complain if they gave them away.

I'm all for reducing waste, but unfortunately in the UK a lot of waste is from over supply.

It all depends how much money you have. An awful lot of people cant afford to eat a decent amount of fruit and vegetables. Carrots might be cheaper, but try pricing the recommended "variety" of multicoloured produce, and comparing it to dole money or minimum wages.

Carrots are cheaper in both Lidl and Aldi.

katkin

An Iceland Meal For One Beef Lasagne (500g) is £1.00 as are a whole load of other types of traditional easy dinners that cost little to microwave and no time to prepare.

Think of the effort needed to prepare and cook fresh carrots, the cost of cooking them too. In comparison the return on investment cost, the satisfaction and filling cost, the calorie cost just isn't worth it for people on really low incomes.

60p for a kilo of carrots or a tasty, easy ready meal with loads of carbs and energy for the day....If you're skint the choice is easy.

Make the carrots 30p a kilo and maybe they're now worth considering to bulk out that meal. Never mind the health benefits from them. if you have no choice and food is limited, they are a cheap, filling extra.

This isn't just about food waste, which is appalling in iself, but about ensuring nutritious, healthy food (UK grown fruit / veg) is available and affordable for everyone.


Edit: consider what if you have no pans, no cooker (yep some folks don't), little electricity left, are depressed and down about your economic situation - would you be keen to prepare a kilo of carrots for very little calorific / taste value...

VfM4meplse

katkin wrote: »

would you be keen to prepare a kilo of carrots for very little calorific / taste value...

Carrot sticks are a great crunchy snack. I regularly peel and baton carrots, usually enough to last me 3 days at a time.

missbiggles1

katkin wrote: »

An Iceland Meal For One Beef Lasagne (500g) is £1.00 as are a whole load of other types of traditional easy dinners that cost little to microwave and no time to prepare.

Think of the effort needed to prepare and cook fresh carrots, the cost of cooking them too. In comparison the return on investment cost, the satisfaction and filling cost, the calorie cost just isn't worth it for people on really low incomes.

60p for a kilo of carrots or a tasty, easy ready meal with loads of carbs and energy for the day....If you're skint the choice is easy.

Make the carrots 30p a kilo and maybe they're now worth considering to bulk out that meal. Never mind the health benefits from them. if you have no choice and food is limited, they are a cheap, filling extra.

This isn't just about food waste, which is appalling in iself, but about ensuring nutritious, healthy food (UK grown fruit / veg) is available and affordable for everyone.


Edit: consider what if you have no pans, no cooker (yep some folks don't), little electricity left, are depressed and down about your economic situation - would you be keen to prepare a kilo of carrots for very little calorific / taste value...

I'm no great lover of cooked carrots but there's more flavour in them than in a £1 Iceland lasagne!

honeythewitch

VfM4meplse wrote: »

Carrot sticks are a great crunchy snack. I regularly peel and baton carrots, usually enough to last me 3 days at a time.

I like them too, but if I actually couldn't afford to eat enough (like many) I would spend the sixty pence on three packets of biscuits.

Caterina

Why can't we just be glad that someone very visible in the media is offering a good message? He did wonders with the sustainable fish issue, he is now trying to alert people about the reality of waste. Good messages.

Just because someone is a celebrity it does not mean that they should not campaign! Look at the late Linda McCartney, and the whole McCartney family, they have spread a great message about vegetarianism.

Jamie Oliver has caused the school meals revolution (I know it worked, my children were in one of the schools where he went) and now is campaigning to alert people of the danger of sugar overconsumption.

I think it is a really positive thing that high visibility people take up causes and campaign for them, instead of resting their !!!!!! on laurel.

The world is not made only of OSers (otherwise we would rule ok!) and there are millions of people who still need educating and informing about nutrition, environment, waste etc...

If a celeb can cause some positive change, asfar as I am concerned, bring it on! Who cares how privileged they are and where they went to school, I care about results.