Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal

Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal by Tristram Stuart

People in the world are starving, yet huge amounts of food go to waste. How can that be?  There are numerous competing priorities to lead to this predicament. Concerns about food safety often lead to overzealous one-size-fits-all regulations that lead to more waste. Economic concerns also lead to more waste. It is more economical to produce extra that is later discarded than to not have enough for what is desired by customers. There are also competing uses for food. Biofuels help reduce fossil-fuel carbon emissions, yet they often use the same crops used to produce food.

How do resolve food waste problems? The easiest is to start with separation of food waste from other waste. Composting food waste or using it for animal feed is much more efficient than sending it to the dump. However, it is even better to make sure that it is not wasted. Serving smaller portions and then letting people have more is an effective way to limit discards. This meshes with some cultural norms, but goes strongly against others.

The best use of food is as actual food. Grocery stores can mark down or give away food near the end of its shelf life. This ensures more food can be consumed rather than tossed. The author has experience "dumpster diving" for food. This can often be used to find good amounts of food. However, businesses have concerns about the mess it causes or the danger that could occur with bad food. Why not just give it away via a more legitimate means so that it does not go to waste? 

Sell by dates are also a big problem that needs to be addressed.  Some products may be unsafe after the date. Others may be fine to eat decades after the date. One size fits all is not good.

In the less developed world, there are different challenges. Many crops end up going to waste in the storage or transportation process. 

Waste is a huge problem. It is easy to describe, but hard to resolve.

Mariam’s Dream: The Story of Mariam Al-Shaar and Her Food Truck of Hope

Mariam’s Dream: The Story of Mariam Al-Shaar and Her Food Truck of Hope by Leila Boukarim, illustrated by Sona Avedikian

A girl living in a Middle Eastern refugee camp will not take no for an answer. She wants to do something and make the people in the camp happy. She finds that the women enjoy cooking. They start to cook and want to expand to a food truck. She must go through a lot of challenges, especially as she navigates through bureaucracy. After years of work, she finally gets the food truck launched. It is an aspiring story of persistence as well as a look at the challenges faced by refugees.

Vegetables

Vegetables by Sara Anderson

This board book has pictures of various vegetables with the name of the vegetable. There are a couple of extra details like "corn so sweet". After reading this we bought some artichokes to show what those were.

The Secret History of Food: Strange but True Stories About the Origins of Everything We Eat

The Secret History of Food: Strange but True Stories About the Origins of Everything We Eat by Matt Siegel

I was expecting more from this food book. It didn't come close to covering "everything" and most of the stories were fairly pedestrian. Peppers make chemicals to keep us away. However, we are attracted to them and bread them to be even hotter. Corn once had a very strong husk that was bread away. Natives would use corn, squash and beans together to get full nutrition and help the soil. We have focussed on corn alone and throw chemicals on our soil (and need to supplement nutrition.) Corn is in seemingly everything we eat. There were other lesser known stories about food, but they did not stick out well. The book tried to have a hard, hip tone, but it just came off as ridiculous. There are better food books.

Just Food

Just Food: Where Locavores Get It Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly by James McWilliams

Eating local will not do much to help the environment. Going vegetarian will. That sums up this book. There are a lot of other details in here to think about. We need to be able to feed a vast population of the earth. Eating some local produce may be nice, but easily feed the world. Local food can also consume more energy than food produced far away (even when transportation is considered.) Local eating has also been co-opted by other entities, resulting in less beneficial results. People may be encouraged to eat "local" Iowa food, even if it is trucked across the state.

There are a number of other discussions of spurious agricultural practices. Fear of genetically modified crops was spurred by bad butterfly research. Fertilizer is helpful when consumed by crops, but detrimental when it runs off to waterways. Preventing overflow by applying the right amount of fertilizer can help reduce the negative impacts, while still allowing high levels of production. Organic agriculture tends not to be scalable (and has it's own list of "approved" chemicals.) Eliminating tilling can be very helpful. The author is very keen on Aquaculture when done right. (but could "proper" aquaculture really be scaled appropriately?) Deforestation for meat production is a significant issue in the world.

The big takeaway is that we have to consider both the local impact of food as well as the global impact of our food choices.

World Travel: An Irreverent Guide

World Travel: An Irreverent Guide by Anthony Bourdain and Laurie Woolever

Anthony Bourdain traveled the world in search of unique and good food. This book was started before his suicide and published after he died. It is part travel guide and part food description. It goes place by place to explore many cities that he has visited on his shows. There is a quick synopsis of a city and why he loves it. (He loves just about every city for a different reason.) There is an opinionated description of how to get from the airport to the city and the hotel that he often stayed at. Then he explores some of the food places he likes. They are often small dive places that exemplify the local cuisine of the area. The descriptions include details of the restaurant and proprietors and why he liked the food and viewed the place as important. He traveled a lot and has his own views which seem to be at home with the upper class luxury as well as working stiffs. He does love meat, but finds India produces "good" vegetarian.

Milk Street: Cookish

Milk Street: Cookish: Throw It Together: Big Flavors. Simple Techniques. 200 Ways to Reinvent Dinner by Christopher Kimball

This cookbook looks pretty good. It aims for 6-ingredient or less recipes that can be compared in less than 30 minutes. However, rather than being a "put a box of mix in the oven" of some books, it looks for cooking "good" food. It looks for areas outside of northern europe for ways of cooking that bring out flavor and make tasty food.

The Book of Difficult Fruit: Arguments for the Tart, Tender, and Unruly (with Recipes)

The Book of Difficult Fruit: Arguments for the Tart, Tender, and Unruly (with Recipes) by Kate Lebo

This book identifies a "difficult" fruit for each letter of the alphabet from A-Z. Some of the "fruits" are acknowledged as not really fruit (such as sugar cane). You have to make some compromises to get every letter. The reason for difficulty differ from fruit to fruit. Sugar requires elaborate preparation. Huckleberries have not been cultivated and must be foraged in the appropriate region. Blackberries are invasive and thorny. Pomegranates take significant effort to extract the arils. The author has lived primarily in the Pacific Northwest and those of the region are most represented. However, there are plenty from other areas (like durian aka stinky fruit.) The author includes personal experiences with the various fruits, which may be foraging, life experiences related to a recipe, or simply trying to find the fruit at an ethnic grocer.

Natural: How Faith in Nature's Goodness Leads to Harmful Fads, Unjust Laws, and Flawed Science

Natural: How Faith in Nature's Goodness Leads to Harmful Fads, Unjust Laws, and Flawed Science by Alan Levinovitz

Natural is better, right? But, what is natural? It is essentially meaningless as a food label. Even a term like "organic" with strict interpretation does not have a guarantee of meaning. Much of our "natural" produce has never occurred in nature. It is instead, the result of centuries of selective breeding and agricultural farming processes. 

There is also often a fetishization of primitive lifestyles and practices. Though these people will often adopt more modern practices when given a chance. Is the practice really better?

Today "natural" is often a means of exclusion. Expensive natural products can be sold as an alternative to the cheaper conventional products. Is natural really better? Or is it just made exclusive. The quest for "natural" has often been seen as more of a religious belief than a logical best practice.

There are often benefits and drawbacks to both natural and non-natural products. Sometimes the negatives take time to be discovered. We can find the best path forward by objectively evaluating the costs and benefits of both. That is the principle argument of this book. Don't let "natural" cloud judgement.

Big Hunger: The Unholy Alliance between Corporate America and Anti-Hunger Groups

Big Hunger: The Unholy Alliance between Corporate America and Anti-Hunger Groups by Andrew Fisher

The author of Big Hunger wants food banks to drop their focus on general-purpose progressive advocacy. He totally misses the point. Food banks succeed because they provide something valuable with minimal "baggage". You have a momentary crisis and need food? You go to the food bank. You are struggling long-term? You go to the food bank. It does not require asking questions are filling out forms. Involving the government and programs makes things more complicated and accidentally chases off people that really need programs. There is already a stigma involved in reaching out for food. We don't need to make it worse. 

There is a place for social advocacy and programs attacking root causes of conditions. There is also a need for highly targeted interventions that can be easily accessed. These should not be confused. Some food users would benefit from higher minimum wage. Others may lose their job if minimum wage is raised. Some others may not even be capable of working.

Other critiques in the book are more valuable, but also disjointed. People consuming food aid tend to eat more unhealthy diets. Some food benefits (like SNAP) are limited in what they can be used for. Should we replace food aid with cash aid that can be used for anything? Or should we tie down food aid so that it can only be used for the most healthy foods? How should the existing food programs be reformed?

Corporations currently are major donors to food programs. Do they exercise too much influence? Are we afraid of clamping down on sugary drinks because the drink producer may stop providing orange juice? Are the companies just dumping food that would not sell? Is that a problem? What do we do about food waste? When hungry, any food is better than none.

Overall this book was a disappointment. It had detailed citations, but was jumbled in its argument. The author would clearly like all social organizations to rally behind a single progressive agenda. Luckily, we continue to have diverse group of organizations and programs.

Eating to Extinction: The World's Rarest Foods and Why We Need to Save Them

Eating to Extinction: The World's Rarest Foods and Why We Need to Save Them by Dan Saladino

For Millennia, people have harvested and cultivated various plants for foods. In recent years, food sources have been concentrated in a small number of plants and animals. This poses a number of issues. These plants were originally adapted for certain climates. Growing them in other locations can be challenging.  Since they are the same plants, they are susceptible to the same pests, leaving to potential widespread devastation. 

This looks at some of the missing foods. Some crops that we see as singular actually have a wide degree of variety. We can usually look to the area where the crop was eventually cultivated to find the variety. In the process, we can also find versions with special nutritional value, hardinest to extreme climates and even unique tastes. Alas, many of these unique species are fading away. Fields of diverse crops are plowed over for common varieties that can be more easily sold in world markets. We don't know which ones have genes that are critical for our future. It is a race against time to find these species before they disappear. 

Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees

Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

Throughout the world, there are a number of different foods. They have specific roles in a local culture, but may by considered exotic in other areas. This book explores various foods. The author explores foods and the culture around them. Mangos were important to her. Other foods such as pecans and shave ice have their own role.

Bigger Isn't Always Better: Choosing Your Portions (Kids & Obesity)

Bigger Isn't Always Better: Choosing Your Portions (Kids & Obesity) by Rae Simons

This is a short kids book that blasts Americans for always wanting things bigger. Even if a big car or house is the same price as a small one, it is a worse deal because it will cost more to use over the long term. Similarly food portion sizes have grown in size. Today's small fries at McDonalds is larger than the regular fries in the past. And now there are additional fries larger than the small. Bagels and other foods have also grown bigger. (Interestingly, pizza is one food mentioned as holding on.) The book is a small picture book with a target audience of tweens. It tries to avoid fat-shaming while instructing kids to get enough exercise and eat appropriate portions. Interesting, it mentions the author has ghostwritten several books on dieting and obesity, while also writing numerous young adult books.

Should We Eat Meat?: Evolution and Consequences of Modern Carnivory

Should We Eat Meat?: Evolution and Consequences of Modern Carnivory by Vaclav Smil

This is a very thorough analysis of the costs and benefits of meat consumption. The author tries to take a balanced approach to looking at meat. There is benefit in consumption. People tend to increase meat consumption as they gain economically. There are a healthy vegetarians as well as healthy meat eaters. 

The author provides numerous citations as he investigates the energy and land use needed to provide meat. There is also analysis of the welfare of animals and the process of meat consumption. There are costs and benefits of the various systems. Smaller animals tend to produce meat faster than larger animals. Crop use for animals requires significant energy inputs. There are also land concerns - especially with free ranging animals.

In conclusion, he advocates a reduction in meat consumption. Rich countries are already at their saturation point. It is time to move towards a less environmentally impacting form of food consumption. This would be together with a more humane treatment of animals. Meat may still play reduced role in the diet.

Endangered Eating: America's Vanishing Foods

 Endangered Eating: America's Vanishing Foods by Sarah Lohman

There are a lot of foods that are "endangered" because they are not being produced or consumed much anymore. This book covers a number of those foods in the USA. One case is a different breed of peanuts. It was popular, but has been all but taken over by the common one. There have been attempts to bring it back. However, in the early stages, it costs much more than regular peanuts, and thus has been slow to be adopted. Other stories are of animals and other foods that are "non-commercial" in nature and endangered.

Ten Tomatoes That Changed the World: A History

Ten Tomatoes That Changed the World: A History by William Alexander

Tomatoes were a new world plant that had a big impact on the old world. At first, people were reluctant to consume the tomato. However, they eventually became a significant part of the diet. They first infiltrated Spain, and later Italy. In many places, the name is a variation of the Aztec tomatl. However, in Italy, they were pomodoro (golden apple). Another German variation was "apple of paradise".

Tomatoes went on to be a part associated with Italian pasta. (Today, we still use the Italian names, because "vermicelli" sounds better than "little worms".) Later, they became an integral part of pizza. Naples is the birthplace of pizza and has many pizzerias, but a strict style for pizza. However, pizza as we know it was much more the works of Italian immigrants in New York, and didn't really catch on until after World War II.

In the US, tomatoes were initially shunned, but then started to catch on in the late 1800s. There were heirloom varieties at the time. They appeared in abundant quantities when in season, then disappeared. Florida tomatoes soon changed that. They were available year round and could be shipped great distances. However, they were bred for durability, not taste. This lead to the bland, tasteless tomatoes.

Ketchup was initially a Chinese sauce. Later a tomato-based version was made using discarded tomatoes. Heinz had a significant hold of the market. However, when regulators begin to criticize some of the preservatives, they looked to reformulate. Using fresh tomatoes along with the vinegar and sugar allowed the ketchup to be preserved without additional preservatives. This became the standard formulation, with Heinz continuing to dominate.

The book takes time to explore different types of tomatoes and how different usages of tomatoes came to take hold in the world. It is replete with many "non-tomato" insights into the related foods.

The Bad Food Bible: Why You Can (and Maybe Should) Eat Everything You Thought You Couldn't

The Bad Food Bible: Why You Can (and Maybe Should) Eat Everything You Thought You Couldn't by Aaron E. Carroll 

Eat whatever you want, it is probably not as bad for you as you think. But watch out for sugar, that probably is worse for you than you think. That pretty much sums up this book. The author spent time looking at various studies and found faults with most of them. Substances are often identified as "bad" after rats were fed an amount many times larger than humans consume. However, rats are not humans, and humans would not consume that much alone. Other times confounding factors are missing. Seems an easy option is to just eat appropriate quantities of what makes you feel good as long as it is not too heavily processed. 

Eight Flavors: The Untold Story of American Cuisine

Eight Flavors: The Untold Story of American Cuisine by Sarah Lohman

American cooking has various inspirations. Spices from around the world make it to America. Some may start up as exotic before being "Americanized" and adopted as local spices. This book explores 8 flavors: black pepper, vanilla, curry powder, chili powder, soy sauce, garlic, MSG, and Sriracha. It also looks at flavors that may be the next "future" American flavor. 

The book explores origins of the usage and popularity of spices as well as having associated recipes. Black pepper was popular in the colonies. However, it took some effort to find the source to be able to import it directly into the USA. (Once it was imported, there was a lot of money to be made.) MSG is defended as a basic chemical that naturally results from other preparation. The research into the "Chinese restaurant syndrome" was likely due to other parts of food preparation.

It is interesting that many of these flavors were heavily associated with ethnic groups before they were seen as "American", making it a true melting pot.

Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human

Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human by Richard Wrangham

Humans adopted cooking. Then evolution move to favor those that cooked food. Cooking food allowed humans to devote fewer resources to the digestive system and more to other areas. This helped humans to later dominate. Today there are some people that advocate "raw" diets. However, these diets are rare and often result in caloric deficiencies. They also often require use of food that has been processed in some ways. Humanity's ancestors were likely able to live on this raw food, but today, people are quick to move towards cooking.

Change Your Diet, Change Your Mind: A Powerful Plan to Improve Mood, Overcome Anxiety, and Protect Memory for a Lifetime of Optimal Mental Health

Change Your Diet, Change Your Mind: A Powerful Plan to Improve Mood, Overcome Anxiety, and Protect Memory for a Lifetime of Optimal Mental Health by Dr. Georgia Ede MD

I had hopes that this book would be a good analysis of diet and mental health. Alas, it was a diet book pushing the keto diet. The author would proclaim that we cannot trust any epidemiological studies because they are not good randomized, controlled studies. We also could not trust pronouncements of the benefits of certain diets because they had not been studied enough. Instead, we should just focus on an all-meat diet because it is "natural". We should trust that it is good because there have been no big studies on it. Wait? Didn't we just criticize other diets as being bad because there were problems with the studies? Oh, but for keto diets, the problems with the studies mean that they missed out on it being good. It just comes across as selective analysis to push a certain diet. 

There are some good points, but even they are not without issue. It is easier to get the nutrition we eat while just consuming meat without supplementation. But if the world would do that, we would probably be driven to cannibalism after we had used up all land and driven wild game to extinction. The author tries to spin other studies on their head. The compounds that plants produce that are supposed to help us fend off bad things? Well, plants make them to fend off pests, so they must be bad for us also.

At times the author does try to be balanced. There are even some attempts at vegetarian-type keto diets. But, it does feel half-hearted. The key point is that super-processed food is not so great for us. Beyond this book just schills a diet with confused and contradictory scientific logic.