Everybody loves having their theories confirmed. This bit of qualitative research from the University of Manchester did that for yours truly.
I’ve long believed this formula to be true:
Heightened expectations for cooking homemade meals + Busy lifestyles = More waste.
Now I have some sociological support for that theory, along with some interviews that I conducted for my book research. Here’s the crux of Dr. David Evans’ findings:
A lot of so-called proper food is perishable and so needs to be eaten within a pretty narrow timeframe. Our erratic working hours and leisure schedules make it…is perfectly understandable that people might forget or be too tired to cook the food that they have at home and so end up going for a takeaway and throwing out the food they had already purchased.
The solution? According to Dr. Evans, food opinion makers like celebrity chefs should help make it cool to eat the same meal two nights in a row. He also suggests more frozen veggies and kitchen cheating.
To that, I’d add: We need to be more realistic about our time and schedules. Making more frequent, smaller shopping trips will help, too. Plus, find some so-called Tuesday night cookbooks (quick, simple recipes) that speak to you (and hopefully have some ideas on how to repurpose leftovers).
Comments
5 responses to “Great Expectations”
I have always avoided getting the ever so trendy “CSA box” because I know myself well enough to understand that a large weekly box of surprise vegetables would be a recipe for disaster. That was, until my little sister started running her own CSA.
Although I haven’t officially joined up for her CSA, I have been the recipient of her veggies two weeks in a row, and I have to say that it is somewhat of a burden. Cucumbers became pickles, kale turned into pesto, beets got roasted, tomatoes made into sauce, lettuce in salads. But . . . a large amount of green beans are currently turning brown and slimy, and I feel awful about it. There was just no way I could stay on top of it.
I do best avoiding food waste when I buy my perishables for specific meals.
And now I have the research to back this up. Thanks!
Katy
Dr David Evans is a Lecturer and Research Fellow at the Sustainable Consumption Institute. A full listing of publications related to this article can be found below:
Evans, D. (under revision) Binning, gifting and recovery: the conduits of disposal in household food consumption Environment and Planning D: Society and Space (available from Author)
Evans, D. (2011) Beyond the throwaway society: ordinary domestic practice and a sociology of household food waste, Sociology (DOI:10.1177/0038038511416150)
Evans, D. (2011) Blaming the consumer – once again: the social and material contexts of everyday food waste practices in some English households (DOI: 10.1080/09581596.2011.608797)
Evans, D. (2011) Waste matters, Sociology 45(4): 707-712
Evans, D. (2011) Thrifty, green or frugal: reflections on sustainable consumption in a changing economic climate, Geoforum 42(5): 550-557
Evans, D. (2011) Consuming conventions: sustainable consumption, ecological citizenship and the worlds of worth Journal of Rural Studies 27(2): 109-115
Evans, D and Abrahamse, W (2009) Beyond rhetoric: the possibilities of and for ‘sustainable lifestyles’, Environmental Politics 18(4): 486-502.
Do people really not eat leftovers? It was something that I grew up with – my mom made dinner, and if there was anything left over, I could expect it for lunch the next day. Is this really unacceptable for most people? This is still how I limit food waste, plus it saves money and time. How can this not be popular?
Katy – my husband and I get an entire family share box from the CSA weekly, and while sometimes it is a struggle to use all of the veggies contained therein, I am more than happy to blanch & freeze, pickle, or otherwise save some for later. I know I’ll be thankful come the winter and I have lovely veggies to eat for a break from winter squash, potatoes, and onions. ^_^
P.S. Dilly beans are a quick and fun way to save those green beans.
Devlyn, believe it or not, some people just flat out dislike leftovers. I don’t really understand them, but I’ve tried to figure them out.
As for the CSA thing–it works really well for many people. But for others, like Katy, using everything up (or putting it up) can be a burden. Especially if you abhor waste, as I know Katy does. Also, getting a half share or splitting a CSA subscription with someone else are other options…
Thank you for those publication listings, Lynda. I’ll have to get in touch with Dr. Evans.
Hi Jonathan,
Thank you for this – and picking up what I was actually saying!
Thanks also Lynda for the plug 🙂
Leftovers are really interesting, I think, and the thing that came through time and time again in my study was that people genuinely do abhor waste and wasting. Further, they have every intention of using their leftovers [familiar story: things tucked away in the fridge and kept around on the grounds that they ‘might be used for something’… they are quietly forgotten and in the meantime, they ‘go bad’]. What the study also revealed is that people are not always able to find a use for their leftovers and this isn’t a matter of not liking them or not knowing what to do with them. For instance, many of the households I worked with tended to have a relatively fixed culinary repertoire and so were not readily amenable to ‘throwing things together’ out of leftovers, especially if other members in the household prefer tried and tested recipes. Households with a relatively egalitarian domestic division of labour as well as an interest in food and/or environmental issues (read: the sorts of households we most likely live in) are quite good at ‘improvising’ to avoid waste but we cannot assume this for all households.
Anyway,I could waffle on and on about this so I will zip it (for now)
Katy – you hit the nail on the head there…the issue is the difficulty we face in keeping on top of ingredients and Jonathan’s formula sums up very nicely indeed!
Jonathan: I really enjoyed your book btw and please do feel free to drop me an e-mail (I can’t seem to find your address to initiate contact), it would be good to be in touch…
all the best
D