Minette Marrin
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to The Sunday Times
Every week the finger of public blame points to something new. Last week it fixed upon the feckless wastrels of the kitchen, meaning nearly all of us.
According to a government-backed survey – although how anybody really knows, I cannot imagine – each household wastes more than £600 a year by throwing out food. This is not counting whatever it is that toddler hooligans leave on the sides of their plates. It is merely what goes straight from the fridge to the rubbish bin, or down the guzzler in the sink. Unconscionable waste! Be ashamed! Be very ashamed! That is the “message” our masters want to “send out”.
They have failed with me, at least. I don’t believe I waste anywhere near £600 worth of food a year in my kitchen, but even if I did I wouldn’t be at all ashamed. For one thing such waste is as nothing compared with the armfuls of unnecessary, nondegradable, landfill-guzzling waste that I throw out each week in the form of supermarket packaging.
The squandering of a few mouldy pears is hardly to be compared to the unavoidable waste of the plastic box, pear-shaped internal plastic mouldings and sealed plastic covering in which they arrived. And if one is bewailing the waste of the world’s resources, how about the thousands of lights in the huge supermarket where the pears were stored, which burn night and day, blazing from countless other shops and high-rise offices up and down the land? What about the mountains of food thrown out daily by restaurants, cafes and shops?
When blame and guilt are being apportioned, the usual procedure is to blame the wrong person. The poor struggling individual is the wrong person. There is nothing reprehensible, in a rich and peaceful country, about a little extravagance on the domestic front in the name of convenience or flexible catering or high standards in cooking.
I rarely know for certain how many people will be coming to supper each day, or whether we ourselves will definitely be at home. The number could be anything from two to eight or nine. Shopping every day might solve this problem, but I don’t have the time to do it and neither do most people: they are too busy earning the wherewithal. Flexible catering cannot be entirely frugal, nor can serious cooking.
However, the real truth is that I like waste. Bring it on, as Wendy Alexander said about the Scottish referendum. Thrift may be a virtue but it is one I grew to hate when I was a child and I reacted strongly against it by embracing waste. The women of my childhood - friends, relations and teachers - were still in the anxious grip of war-time parsimony. Even though the hardships of war were behind them - rationing was over and people were getting richer - they remained excessively economical, especially in the kitchen.
It was depressing. My childhood memory of sandwich-making is of a faceless woman grimly smearing a little butter onto a thin slice of bread and then equally grimly scraping most of it off again. Margarine was infinitely more virtuous but even that had to be applied sparingly. Sandwich fillings had to be as scant as possible, too, preferably of something nasty like paste, rather than something nice like fresh ham.
Biscuits were doled out sparingly. Stews were watery, with little meat; portions were small; and demanding more was frowned on. “Those that ask don’t get,” said Miss Erskine (not her real name), my mother’s dour Scottish friend who helped in the holidays. At school I was hungry at times.
The point of cooking seemed to be to use the least and cheapest possible amount of anything. The point of food appeared to be to have less than you wanted, unless you disliked it, in which case you had to have more and finish what was on your plate.
My mother was quite different. She believed in producing good food in large quantities, partly because she had lived in abundant California just after the war, but even she had not escaped the tyranny of thrift. She taught me that no part of the vegetable must be wasted; that meant saving and cooking the yellowing, wormy outer leaves of sprouts and cabbages and spinach, cutting off the rotten parts of potatoes, using the whole of a leek or spring onion, including the bitter green parts, and eating the good half of a maggoty peach. Squeamish meant spoilt; there were many children in the world who were poor and would be grateful for anything, even my reheated sprouts.
What I hated most was having to swallow lettuce leaves that only recently had sheltered slugs and snails that I had seen with my own eyes. “Extra meat rations,” Miss Erskine would say briskly when I found one. “Put it on the side of your plate” – where it would slither about. Milk that was going sour was pronounced perfectly all right. Worst of all, the fridge was filled with nasty-smelling little pots of unidentifiable leftovers, covered with saucers; nothing could be thrown away and these unappetising bits and pieces were added to whatever was cooking that day.
The struggle against waste seemed to me revolting, especially when it came to washing up Miss Erskine’s way. To avoid wasting hot water, she would wash up an entire meal in only one plastic bowlful. Before long the few suds had disappeared in a tepid brown Windsor soup in which she wrestled barehanded with all the glasses, plates and pots – plastic gloves were an unnecessary extravagance; cloths were unhygienic. Rinsing was wasteful; they were left to fester on the draining board.
That was thrift for the war generation and long afterwards. If it conjures up a golden era of good housekeeping, waste-free motherhood and apple pie, then include me out. It is hardly surprising that I was tempted into extravagance, not to mention plastic gloves. It was a joy, when I was first married and in charge of my own fridge, to throw food away recklessly. When I tore the heart out of a lettuce and dumped the rest in the bin, I felt I had come of age.
Frugality is a harsh discipline; there cannot be many people who are even capable of it these days. For one thing, most people can’t or won’t cook. I am grateful that for now, at least, we can in this country afford to be wasteful. Let’s hope they think of someone else to blame this week.
Minette Marrin is a journalist, broadcaster and fiction writer. She is a columnist for The Sunday Times, and has also written for The Sunday and Daily Telegraphs and The Spectator and The Asian Wall Street Journal. She regularly contributes to television and radio programmes
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It' s completely immoral to waste food in a world where lots of people are dying of hunger, whoever does not feel for these people, isn' t a human being, and by the way, people in this country will have to learn to be frugal, because the axis of wealth is changing rapidly, so, get used to it.
Victor, London, UK
Tony , Dartford, U.K
When fruit drops off the tree - it is either eaten by passing animals, or the seed grows to produce more fruit trees and replace ageing ones, or the rotted flesh of the fruit keeps bacteria and insects alive and fertilises the ground.
How much do you do for nature?
Tina, Dusseldorf, Germany
OK, from our high income household what do you want? Us to spend less time at work, care less about convenience & lower our incomes. Or for us to work our long ours & get a nice wadge of cash from us via the tax man? You get one or the other, its not possible to do both without a nervous breakdown
Claire, London,
It's only waste if we want to plough all our resources into subsidising the procreation of human beings until we spill into the sea. Why is it that the environmentalists refuse to recognise that the main problem is too many people? Fewer people means less energy consumption, amongst other things!
Brian Williams, Dover, UK
Waste is inevitable no matter how frugal one is. Further, the consequences sickness, treatment cost, and lost of other resources to mention a few of eating stale or decay food far outweigh the cost of throwing it away. This is the issue not all the rumblings about frugality.
Oops £600 a week. There are three things about statistics what remembering a lie, damn lie and statistics.
Deji, Hamilton, Bermuda
No dear you got the order wrong the glasses were always washed first and I hope that lots of people have learned a few good ecofriendly and debt friendly tips herein.
YR, Ely, UK
It's just so trendily fashionable to say you can afford waste isn't it ?...and oh how smug..but there will be a day when you can't..I was brought up not to waste food..at school and at home.. I shop and eat frugally, and very well.. shopping at markets, produce is cheap and fresh and no sell by date
Jules, Amersham, uk
The author also delights in presenting false choices: consuming bad food or discarding good; addressing individual waste or commercial. Food is wasted for two reasons: it was never good; or more was procured than could be timely consumed. At the household level, the solutions are simple.
AgathaX, Norfolk,
Let me try and get this straight in my mind. I'm supposed to work hard, pay tax on my earnings and then throw part of the rest into the bin and waste it in general.
Let me go and check if I really do look like a moron. ....
Nope. Phew.
Tina, Dusseldorf, Germany
Ms Marrin confuses frugality with the widespread British suspicion of pleasure in everyday cooking.
In that way she's making the same mistake as her mother. True cooks cherish their ingredients, and love making the most of them. Bad, tasteless food and food waste are two sides of the same problem
Emma, London,
What a depressing attitude the author has. I shop at a supermarket but all my produce bar strawberries comes loose. The thriftiness of my family means I shall inherit a huge bundle and live very comfortably on the bundle I've saved by being thrifty, too. And I have a good life.
Tina, Dusseldorf, Germany
Well, if one has no regard for posterity then one assumes it is OK. Live for the moment, mess up the planet and dissipate its resources - it doesn't matter. But does it? It's a philosophy of sorts but scarcely an admirable one.
Richard Payne, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Nature wastes far more than man, if fruit is not picked it will fall to the floor and rot. Man's inventiveness has made it possible to preserve all manner of food for a long time. Some of the food wasted by man was harvested last year or the year before so I cannot see what all the fuss is about.
Tony , Dartford, U.K
Being frugal is a personal preference that no one could interfere. Frugality with a purpose is such a noblest intention that every human being could do to please the almighty. It is a burden that makes an individual regulates or control wastage of one's resources which leads real values to emerge.
amado bautista , Maria Aurora, Aurora , Philippines
Of course, thrift is a virtue. But what if we eat the mouldy food and it do harm to our health? I believe in producing good food in moderate quantities. As to the thousands of lights blazing from countless shops and high-rise offices up and down the land, maybe we should do something to change.
Bonnie, Jinhua, China
If one pays for something one has the right to do what one likes with it.
It's a free(ish) country and if I want to go to Sains-Tesc-Asda and then tip the whole lot into my dustbin uneaten that is my right as a free person.
Get off my back and stop telling me what to do!
David, St Albans, UK
I was dressed from charity shops as a child, and still have a horror of second-hand clothes. So I can sympathise with MM. But the fact remains that lots of my friends kit themselves out much more stylishly than me at a tenth of the price, I pay dearly for my hang-up. As does MM.
Delilah, Washington DC, USA
Agree with much of the article. As to the comments, the better pears in particular come in trays. I suspect its to identify premium priced produce at the tills. Same with organic apples, carrots ,etc. My big gripe is sellbys. I noticed at xmas dates can be 10 days ahead. Rest of the year 3 or 4.
David B, Larkhall, UK
Whenever I raise such issues as the necessity of nuclear power and GM crops all my 'Green' aquaitances look horrified and promise to be frugal..next year. This commenced in around 1979.
Eric Skelton, Cardiff, Wales
During WW2 people had two bins-a "pig" bin and a "dust" bin.
Waste food was taken away, cooked and fed to pigs as swill - and recycled as sausages, bacon, etc.
The only thing they wasted was the squeal!
Townies in the countryside objecting to smells stopped that, later helped by IMPORTED F&M.
John, Woodbridge,
No, I'm sorry, it is called profligacy and you can't escape it by simply blaming others for being more cavalier than you yourself. You don't balance one unnecessary extremeby going to the other.
Maggie, South London, uk
I usually buy loose veg, but lately there's been less loose veg available in the supermarket and what there is, is pretty dire stuff. It's as if they keep the best stuff for packages on purpose and I end up buying a huge bag of carrots just to get two. I now go to the green grocers when I can.
Louise Gallagher, Brighton, UK
Supermarkets just provide the packaging that consumers demand. You can buy pears loose in all of the major supermarkets yet some people, including yourself, choose to buy them ready packaged. If everyone consumer only bought loose pears then the supermarkets would only sell them loose.
Sean Smith, Loughton, Bucks
Hate to break it to you, but nobody can make us feel guilt or shame... those feelings, along with anger and frustration are instinctive and our way of telling ourselves that we feel bad about our actions or inactions. We blame others to deflect the guilt, but the issue remains, until we face it.
Pat, Nottingham,
Brown hessian bags have come back into use. Plan your shopping and buy what you need for the week. Be imaginative with menus for unexpected guests. They come for your delightful company and the food is an embelishment. If you don't feel particularly charitable, squander what you save on Jimmy Choos.
M.Khan, Peterborough, UK
I have come to the conclusion that the middle classes have some sort of self flagellation built into their personalities. One by one all the good things in life are being targeted by the evangelist as the personification of evil and you buy into it and feel reciprocal angst.
Jon Faversham, Clapham, UK
You throw food away because you can afford to throw food away.
If the figures quoted are correct, just think, each family could have that £600 a year pay rise that they have been threatening to strike over.
Give me more money they shout! I want to throw it away under my own terms.
Jonathan, Cheshire, UK
The only food that is wasted in our house is the so called *fresh* produce from the supermarket that quickly goes yellow and smelly in it's sweaty packaging. In contrast, meat bought from the butchers on a Saturday is still edible on Thursday/Friday.
Vicki, Greater Manchester, UK
Takes all sorts, I suppose, and some are more real than others!
Lionel B Martin, Dundee, GB
Goodness. You buy individually boxed pears? How, um, extravagant.
I'll bet there are a few remarks about Burma and house repossessions in response, but I do agree with you on individuals being unfairly made to feel guilty at times. Carbon footprints are the worst; my Corolla isn't the enemy!
Paul, Perth, Australia
I definitely agree about being made to feel like I'm squandering the earth's resources every time I leave the water running when I brush my teeth. Over here, water is the big concern, but while they tighten restrictions ever further on individuals, businesses are often exempt in the name of jobs.
Ted, Townsville, Australia
I cook, I also use left overs. FUNNY how people always love to come to us for supper, strange, how I never have anything leftover from these supper parties!! I really hate waste, I could normally knock up a supper for ten, with things from the fridge/freezer, without over filling the fridge.
Frenchcountrygirl, London, England
My World War 2 era parents never wasted food. (Even in affluent old age, they'd bring half-eaten, congealed toasted sandwiches home, and wouldn't throw anything out unless years past its sell-by date.) But don't knock it - the savings they made ensured we never lacked tasty home-made goodies!
Janet Davis, Sydney, Australia
Ah, the nauseoustalgia! A hessian shopping bag bulging with fresh produce in brown paper bags or wrapped in newspaper(and the treats always came, for some reason, in an ostentatious white paper bag). Not a plastic bag or petrochemical plant in sight! But why did it taste better?
Mike L, Chippenham, Wilts