Love Was Meant For Beauty Queens
For a while there, my family and I were living in Southern California. Often, during school breaks, we would drive down to Baja California. At the time it was a great place to vacation, an amazing seaside desert oasis. The views were striking, fresh and pristine. The radiant sunshine followed us everywhere, highlighting the whites of the sands and the blues of the sea. It was a perfect paradise, a playground ideal for “serious” exploration. Much delight was discovered within the rocky caves and cliffs by the sea and yet, somewhere within that picture perfect recollection, a crimson red cry threatens to blemish my memories. I can clearly recall sitting with my family in our car. As I finished the last of my Coke (shh…!), I simply chucked the empty “biodegradable” can out the car window!
Heck, it would only be a matter of some 80, maximum 500 years until it would turn back to dust….
Toss It!
We are a community of ample “disposable” means. Every which way we turn we are busy discarding our leftovers, never once hand me downs and other superfluous stuff. We hunger for more; hunting and gathering much like our ancestors, only we never stop. Eventually we become overwhelmed by our loot and need to retreat and regroup. We begin to sort and toss aside our trophies, keeping only the best of the best. Our most invested efforts always centered around “the what to’s” and hardly ever “the how to’s”.
Just toss it!
Overeating
We shop with our eyes. Behold! We see much beauty and cannot but not stop to take it in. We take it, all of it. Whether fashion, “toys”, pretty things or foodstuffs, we are overspent and squander our precious common resources….
“You are what you eat.” As a collective we eat much. We are a bunch of overachievers and overeaters. We have gone over the top! As we climb up, much is discarded and tossed aside along the way.
“Food, glorious food”, much of it is left by the wayside in the fields, on the trees or simply does not make the cut further down the line.
The fate of the defective produce, the ugly, the deformed, the puny, the gargantuan and the amputee (not to mention the bumper crop) is destined for but one design: the trash.
At the supermarket the selection continues. Wilted and tired produce is joined by the “expired” death row elderly.
Overspent
Behind the wheel of our shopping cart, we (surely the “yiddishe mama” amongst us) outdo ourselves time and time again. As if there were no tomorrow, we pile more and more into our carts. We arrive home to discover (duh!) that there is little or no room for our newest acquisitions. Overwhelmed and exhausted, we push, consolidate, organize and dig deep until we somehow find a way to successfully unpack.
Even though we are clearly short sighted, at mealtime our eyes lead the way yet again. In the best case scenario (nope – not so sure about that) at the meals’ end our leftovers will go to the doggie or perhaps find themselves a place of “honor”: standing room only in the refrigerator. The end, however, is in sight. The leftovers get left behind and, to no one’s surprise, exhaust their journey: dumped deep into the trash.
The statistics are disheartening.
Food wastage is in excess of one third of all food production. Imagine leaving the supermarket with three bags of groceries and arriving home with but two!
Such a colossal waste of resources, the food is but the tip of the iceberg. According to the data collected by The United Nations, the total volume of water loss is measured to be 250 cubic kilometers (km3) per year or an amount equivalent to three times the volume of Lake Geneva! Of course, this is but one example of one resource.
What of the land? The energy? The labor? … Additionally, a recent report published by the F.A.O. or The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations calculated that this waste could easily feed the close to 900 million souls who go hungry daily!!! Waste hardly begins to describe the depth of the debacle within our midst. “Waste not, want not” never rang truer.
The collective waste is dumped and trashed to become massive mountains of “what could have beens”. At these garbage dumps and landfills the natural decomposition is thwarted. When an apple core tossed in a field decays, it is due to the ethylene gas released by the fruit. This is the same gas which causes our fruits and vegetables to ripen. The same apple core when found deep within a landfill is unable to decay through normal aerobic means. As there is no oxygen, the decomposition is via anaerobic means. The bacteria thrive and methylene gas is formed. This is the number one source of greenhouse emissions via waste of any kind!
Rallying for Change
These are truly intriguing and inspiring times. Today’s modern world is a wonderland for social and environmental innovation. A resourceful and enterprising entrepreneur can easily connect to social media which will work overtime to support inspiring and passionate initiatives. At present there are any number of ingenious projects which are enjoying impressive support:
Have you heard about The Inglorious Fruits and Vegetables? This is a campaign led by the third largest supermarket chain in France. It was launched to rally support for the “Inglorious Fruits and Vegetables” which are consistently not selected for the team (or any team for that matter). The sales pitch has been colorful and downright exciting. Many a taste test have been set up on site to demonstrate that looks may be deceiving. There is no difference in taste to be found between the inglorious and glorious produce. The inglorious candidates are offered to shoppers at a whopping 30% discount. There is much demand and often supply is lacking. This successful campaign has sparked similar initiatives. Jamie Oliver recently began his “Beautiful on the Inside” campaign at an English supermarket chain.
At Fruta Feia in Portugal, a CSA (community supported agriculture) initiative, “inglorious” produce is purchased directly from farmers and boxed and delivered to members.
Even renowned and respected chefs have vested their efforts to prevent waste. Their challenge is to take these “misfits” and create gourmet platings dressed to dazzle and delight clientele with a five strong sensory team of support.
The “Food and Wine” magazine has launched a campaign of its own called “Love Ugly Food”. This was designed to showcase the “inglorious” food creations. To this date, over 900 photos have been shared on Instagram.
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What's Cooking?
Currently I am enrolled in another MK cooking class (Fundamentals of Plant-Based Cooking). Our homework at the end of the first week was to create a meal mostly based on scraps and leftovers. I created a gluten free vegan “cheeseburger”. What can you create with yours? Be creative and share!
This is an era of sales promotions and heavy discounts. When one can buy a pound of tomatoes for 99¢/lb., we are actually distorting the market forces of supply and demand and encouraging waste. Similarly, when there is no fine for waste nor incentive to save, we all too often make the wrong choices. Why make an effort? Don’t give up the fight to make our plant a cleaner and greener place.
Picture Perfect
While in high school one of my favorite singers was Janis Ian. I especially loved her song “At 17”. As a society we do much to support images of “picture perfect”. We are quick to snub, ignore and spurn those who are different and do not meet up to our ridiculous standards of beauty.
“I learned the truth at seventeen
That love was meant for beauty queens”
Let us embrace beauty born of diversity.
May I paraphrase my friend Gabi and say:
“A new creed of humanity stands united: people who love themselves and others as they are period.”
I would like to thank you for your patience in reading this post to its end.
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Thank you and have a great week!
I find these projects thrilling. It is exciting to see these innovative ideas being crowd sourced. I look forward to seeing more 🙂
Quite interesting.