Americans have become disconnected from their food. No longer do we know where it comes from, how it was grown or raised, or how it was even prepared. Well get your knives at the ready! Because the best place to meet your food is in the kitchen.
Readers! Answer the call of the Huffington Post and rise to the challenge of dining in!
Need some inspiration? Try on these numbers for size: the average American family spends 13.3 percent of their yearly budget on food. And 42 percent of that is spent in restaurants. In short, the more money Americans make, the more money they spend in restaurants.
According to Forbes, “The bottom fifth of earners spend a whopping 12% of their yearly budget on food at home, compared to 9% for the middle fifth, and 6% for the top fifth.”
This is a sad fact when you consider that the top fifth of earners are the ones who can most likely afford to pay more for organic, fresh, and local food.
And take it from an insider – I can attest to the fact that many restaurants are hugely wasteful and have a carbon foodprint the size of Texas. Well, maybe not quite that large, but restaurants are the biggest energy users in the retail sector. Nearly 80 percent of the money spent in buying these enormous quantities of energy is wasted due to inefficient cooking, holding and storage.
Considering water, electricity, and natural gas consumption, the average restaurant releases 490 tons of carbon emissions per year. Add that to food waste, and the 100,000 pounds of garbage per location per year and you’ve got yourself one hefty foodprint.
Spotted in the kitchen:
- Warm water running over frozen food for upwards of 30 minutes to defrost it.
- Runaway portion sizes where patrons manage to eat about half and the rest goes into the garbage.
- Plastic – EVERYWHERE. Wrapping food with plastic wrap, take-away containers, straws, cups, the list goes on.
- Paper wasting – when a restaurant uses paper placemats or menus, or else the energy used to wash enormous piles of linens.
- Rare recycling habits. Often, it can be hugely costly to a restaurant to recycle, so many simply don’t.
I could go on, but you get the point.
If you’re inspired to make use of your eat-in-kitchen, it doesn’t have to be a big labor-intensive production, and you don’t have to be a gourmet chef. Use a little innovation, some simple ingredients, and you might surprise yourself. Check out the Huffington Post challenge where you can find tons of tips, techniques, and recipes. Fire up those ovens, and eat in tonight!
Source: BecauseAction.com
