Australian group Do Something received lots of media attention by drawing attention to Christmas food waste. Both television and print media ran stories about how food waste during the holidays harms the environment.
Not surprisingly, the reaction hasn’t been that positive. As you can see here, commenters are frustrated that enviornmentalists are trying to tell them how to celebrate their Christmas. And that’s one of the nicer comments.
I can see both sides here. Christmas, and, ahem, Thanksgiving, are times when the media is prone to pay more attention to the issue of food waste and hunger. If you want to get the message out, it’s a good time to do so.
Then again, it’s kind of a bah-humbug approach to single out the environmental effect of Christmas food waste. And while guilt is an effective motivator, it’s not a great way to go.
My take is that you should use the attention of a holiday to prompt folks to make changes for the rest of the year, which will have such a larger impact and won’t piss people off.
Does that piss you off? What’s your take on the topic?
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