Respecting Food !

[Hezam]

Konbawa Minasan

I watch alot of American-European movies,serieses and i saw some people throwing the food ( Especially bread ) into the garbage ! or maybe trample on it !

Can someone clear it for me please ! :?

Here we respect the food very much,when we eat food we sit down,it's kind of respect.

And Is it the same in Japan ??

Thank you.

 

[Half-n-Half]

Hmm...what movie/TV series was it? Usually what you see being done on TV is not what is done in real life. I've never seen anyone trample on food, but people do throw their food into the garbage. It really depends on the person, though. Some people like to keep leftovers, others just dump it right after they eat it.

 

[RolandtheHeadless]

If food spoils, bread gets moldy, meat becomes tainted, and so on, we throw it away. You don't eat bad food, do you?

But Hezam, you do have a point. In my own family (traditional Christian), we were taught that food should be respected and that it's a sin to waste it. My parents made us finish our food, reminding us that there are starving people in the world who would love to have it.

I still feel guilty about not eating all the food on my plate or when throwing away food that has spoiled. I am still troubled when I see people filling their plates, and eating only half of it.

 

[Tsuyoiko]

A lot of food gets wasted here, a third of what we buy apparently. The government are running an advertising campaign to raise public awareness:
Love Food Hate Waste

I do throw some food away, but I try to prevent waste where I can. For example, if I cut up onions and peppers for a pasta sauce, I will use half and freeze the other half for another day. I try to keep an eye on use-by dates and eat stuff up before it expires. I sometimes eat stuff that's out of date if it looks OK.

Next year our council is giving us composting bins for food waste, so that at least what we throw away can be put to some use.

 

[Hezam]

People here waste alot of rice,If we have food more than what we need we call a person to take them for animals/birds..ect.
There is a system for the waste food ( Bread ),there are special boxes for it besides the garbage boxes.
Green boxes for bread,yellow boxes for garbage because we never put garbage with bread/rice since the garbage contains dirt.

 

[bakaKanadajin]

Western culture is wasteful, plain and simple. It's a commercial culture based on high volume/low prices. It's the reason companies like Monsantos have the ability to go around hijacking the wheat industry in order to produce more and more for lower cost. All those rolls, buns, all that rice, all the noodles that just sit there untouched at buffets as 'side dishes' and eventually get thrown out because people are too busy stuffing their faces with steaks and ice cream, it just makes me sick.

I've taken up a small habit recently now that I've been living on my own the last little while. Whenever possible I say grace before eating. It's not traditional grace or a prayer, but it's more like an acknowledgment of, or reflection on, the fact that 1) I'm eating well and others in the world aren't and 2) for this to happen great resources were used.

For example I try to picture the fish that was born, grew up, swam around, lived and died and now I'm eating it. ..or the chicken that laid the egg, sitting in its chicken house day-in and day-out just laying eggs all day. The farmer who relies on selling those eggs to feed his family. (In Japan farming is not big-industry like in the West, it's all but impossible that some individual farmer DID pick that egg in many cases!) and so on. The farmer who cultivated, planted, picked the carrot. The sun and water, numerous days/weeks/months it took for that one carrot to grow.

Takes about a full 30-seconds for all that to flash through my head.
This all sounds really hippy-ish and airy-fairy to most I'd imagine but quite honestly when the truth of it all sets in, when you realize the extreme amount of time, resources and energy it took just so you could stuff your face and go about your day, for me anyway it creates a noticeable change in my attitude towards eating. After I think about my meal many times I can't sit in front of the TV eating anymore, I have to eat more consciously and so I enjoy the meal more, my perspective has changed.

I'm not trying to sound 'holier than thou', there are others in the world who respect food way more than me, get involved in organic farming, lobby gov't, etc. But as a non-religious individual average dude I think taking a little time is the least I can do.

 

[Emoni]

I generally try to not waste food, simply because my budget is limited. There are those that waste food, but they tend to be people who are generally wasteful overall I've seen.

I'm not sure what shows you are watching, but I don't usually notice "waste the bread!" scenes in many shows... lol

 

[Red5]

Hezam , over the world there is respecting for every thing even foods but it's what our parents tough us .
you see some guy if they see in th floor bread, they carry it, but when they see aubergine, they kick it .

5 years ago, I worked at a store for food ( rice, sugar and other things) and because of big numbers of Kilograms when walked on them ...