{"id":9436,"date":"2020-04-16T09:00:28","date_gmt":"2020-04-16T13:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/?p=9436"},"modified":"2020-04-14T16:42:51","modified_gmt":"2020-04-14T20:42:51","slug":"control-alt-delete-musings-about-hoarding-and-food-waste","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/2020\/04\/16\/control-alt-delete-musings-about-hoarding-and-food-waste\/","title":{"rendered":"Control, Alt Delete: Musings about Hoarding and Food Waste"},"content":{"rendered":"

Students in Steve Finn’s spring special topics course on Food Waste (MET ML702 E1) are contributing this month’s blog posts. Today’s post is from Molly Breiling.<\/em><\/p>\n

How I operate as a culinary professional, does not necessarily mirror my day to day, household practices.\u00a0 When I have job for an individual, or group, I must design a menu based upon what the client desires, married with what makes sense for the particular season and setting.\u00a0 Cost and price are significant factors and staying with the plan is essential.\u00a0 I try to source ingredients on a wholesale basis, and begin preparations well prior to the event.\u00a0 When I am tasked with feeding the inhabitants of our home, I market daily and for the most part devise menus and food planning around what looks good to me.\u00a0 I place an emphasis on fresh vegetables and fruits, and moderate portions of proteins.\u00a0 I do keep a fairly well stocked pantry, even if stored in less than traditional spaces; the coat closet shelf is an overflow space.\u00a0 Impulses, at times, get the best of me, causing me to have more than ample supply of one item or another.\u00a0 Through creativity, this is rarely a difficulty, and does not often create waste.\u00a0 If it cannot be consumed by this crew, the item will be given to a friend or acquaintance who will benefit from the infusion.<\/p>\n

Fairly early into the appearance of Covid 19 in Massachusetts, I was at the market for a sortie.\u00a0 What I encountered was nothing less than astounding.\u00a0 I can safely say that I have never, ever, witnessed the behaviors to which I was exposed.\u00a0 Patrons had carts that were full to the brim, with items.\u00a0 Some patrons commanded two carts.\u00a0 Bare shelves abounded.\u00a0 No poultry products, virtually no dairy products, no paper products, cleaning supplies, first aid items, soups, or much in the way of fresh proteins existed.\u00a0 \"\"<\/p>\n

I was raised during the cold war.\u00a0 I have experienced the gas crisis in the early seventies which resulted in rationing and long lines.\u00a0 I recall when sugar was difficult to source, and when meat was both in short supply and highly priced.\u00a0 I was the parent of an infant living \u201cinside the Beltway\u201d on September 11, 2000, when there was a run on batteries, sterno, dry goods and the like.\u00a0 This experience couldn\u2019t compare to any of those.\u00a0 All at once it gave me pause, and reminded me of food shortage issues in Russia in the eighties, as well as stories told to me by relatives who lived during the depression, or World War I or World War II.\u00a0 The difference is that, currently, we do have choice in the matter!<\/p>\n

Adding insult to injury, I would bet the farm, if I had one, that a large percentage of the foods purchased, strike that hoarded, will end up wasted.\u00a0 Further, that they will likely land in the garbage.\u00a0 Panicked, impulse purchases, without any type of plan in place will not only lead to items expiring, or timing out in the case of some packaged goods, it will lead to foods in the freezer that may never be utilized.\u00a0 Emotional purchasing is not planned, well thought out, purchasing.\u00a0 Atop the gross quantity of waste in terms of time, resources and actual food, there is another uncomfortable reality.\u00a0 Food that is hoarded is now inaccessible to other persons, some of whom are food insecure, and\/or marginalized in some manner.\u00a0 These behaviors are harming the overall environment and exhibit \u00a0irresponsible use of resources. Further, such actions potentially place\u00a0 a neighbor in need at even further risk.\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Students in Steve Finn’s spring special topics course on Food Waste (MET ML702 E1) are contributing this month’s blog posts. Today’s post is from Molly Breiling. How I operate as a culinary professional, does not necessarily mirror my day to day, household practices.\u00a0 When I have job for an individual, or group, I must design […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2776,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9436"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2776"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9436"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9442,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9436\/revisions\/9442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}