The devaluation of food

The devaluation of food is something that I've thought about for some time.

For the last while, we've grown a lot of food in our backyard garden, and we've bought meat direct from a farmer. When the zucchinis are growing fast and heavy, we would be hard-pressed to eat or freeze them all. But by-golly, I was going to hell first if I let them go to waste. And since we pay $1 or $2 more per pound for all our meat, and only buy it once a month, and know the farmer's first name, I find myself chewing a little more gristle than I would if I had bought a pork chop from the grocery store.

But I only came to these conclusions recently, mostly after spending time growing food myself, slaughtering a chicken and eating it, and eating more than a few meals sourced nearly 100% from our garden.

Over the last 20 years, our spending on food compared to income has dropped 7%, and at no time in recent history have American's spent less on food than we do now. Some of the reduction in cost is due to technology and efficiencies, but not most of the reduction. Instead of spending less for the same quality of food, we're spending less and getting less. Less nutrition, less variety, less quality. And what's worse is that most American consumers no longer place as much value on food as we rightly should. After all, what's more important than food?

So in addition to only delivering produce that my CSA subscribers actually want to eat (as opposed to some weird Asian root crop that suddenly shows up), I'm trying to ensure that, as much as possible, all of the food that I'm growing ultimately gets eaten. Here is a great interview with Johnathan Bloom who is pretty much an expert on food waste, particularly produce. It was certainly enjoyable to watch. Parts 1 & 3 are also good.



In summary, Bloom's advice to cut down on food waste are:

1. Make a weekly shopping list
2. Stick to that list
3. Serve smaller portions
4. Save leftovers
5. Eat those leftovers for lunch

So in addition to learning more about market gardening and providing fresh veggies to my CSA subscribers and restaurant buyers, one of my major goals is to, as much as possible, reduce the amount of food that I grow that ultimately goes to waste. If you have any ideas to help me accomplish this goal, I'm all ears.