February Challenge - Day 19 & 20: Food shortages and waste

Every so often, I can be known to be serious and talk about a subject other than myself and my struggle this month with food. Having just come home from the grocery store, I am still in sticker shock. For the past couple of weeks, I've only had to spend about $60 bucks/week at the grocery store on food. Okay, I had to pick up some more staples this time around, but I walked out of the grocery store with a $100 receipt and a feeling that I was just robbed.

Now, I shouldn't complain. Most people with families would have laughed at me and said, "you only spent $100/week?" - I can imagine how much a family shopping at Costco must feel after they leave that place with $300 - $400 less than they had before they went in. However, rising food prices here in Canada are just something to complain about, in other parts of the world, people are fighting, starving and dying over the rise in prices.

Several factors have contributed to food shortages around the world including: population growth, climate change, monoculture that has led to poor soil health, over-production of food crops that have led to waste, increase of protein in human diets that has led to the diversion of food crops for human consumption to animal feed, bio-fuel production, and the list goes on. We all see pictures of famine stricken third world nations on our news channels, but food shortages are hitting closer and closer to home. Our own farmers have struggled with producing enough crops for local consumption.

Food shortages and rising food prices are one of the main factors in the political uprisings in the Middle East. The populus there are protesting how a basic need has now become out of reach as wheat price increases are preventing them from buying bread to feed their families. While most people around the world think that the main issue is about overthrowing dictators and installing democracy to this region, they fail to realize that most uprisings start with citizens upset that their governments are not providing them with their basic everyday needs. The French Revolution started with the same thing - as the lower class protested at the palace gates, Marie Antoinette asked why they were so angry, to which one of her advisors said, "they want bread, " and to which she famously (and cluelessly) responded, "bread? let them eat cake!" Good thing for Hosni Mubarek and Ben-Ali that they didn't meet the same fate as Miss Marie.

Back in 2008, the Washington Post and other news organizations did a big feature on world food shortages (click here to read more) it's first article is an eerie prediction of what is happening in the Middle East - food shortages sparking unrest from country to country. Of course, there are more factors that leads to the passionate revolutions that are happening, but food is still at the base of it.

Another reason for food shortages are the extreme consumption that is happening now more than ever. You might ask, wait, more consumption should mean that there is more food correct? Yes, that is correct. Food production has increased but consumption has increased more than production. Obesity in Western countries is a sign of this overconsumption. Not only limited to the North American continent, the UK and Australia are also up there on the list of the fattest countries in the world. And what country will soon join them on that list? China - as the most populous country in the world, is starting to consume goods in the same fashion as the Western world. It's also started to see a new social problem developing in the form of obese children, overfed by their parents and living sedentary lives in front of televisions and computer devices.

Overconsumption also leads to food wastage (surprisingly). In order to keep up with the demand for food, farmers, manufacturers and groceries pump out more perishable foods like eggs, milk, cakes, produce - those foods that do not get purchased gets dumped in garbage bins, food that could have gone to feeding those that are hungry. In homes, consumers buy more food to stock up their fridges and every week, people go through the ritual of dumping out the rotting food in their fridge.

So what? - you might be asking. With all of these macro issues, what can I do to make a difference? Well, two things I can think of are the two things I've been struggling to do this month: portion control and buying only the food you need, not what you want.

Portion control is something that has been lost since food has become more and more available. Everything is now in Econopack or Club Sized formats that we're encouraged to consume more with consequences to both our weights and our wallets. We're often surprised at nutrition labels and the portions we see that contribute to the calorie count. How can anyone live off those portions? But those are regular servings and we've been conditioned to think that they are not enough.

Buying only the food you need is another way you can limit your food wastage. Go shopping on a full stomach, not on an empty one as you normally buy more than you require.

Small steps to take while governments go about trying to solve the larger issues.