Monday, 7 July 2008
A Clear Plate Means A Clear Conscience
Once again it's all our fault, and once again Gordo's striking a retro note. This is, of course, rich, especially as one of the prime wasters of food in the UK is the state, in the form of the NHS. Something like a third of hospital 'meals' come back untouched and are thrown away - that's how good the state is at catering. Then, of course, there are the supermarkets, throwing away vast amounts - often within its (often meaningless) date - as well as foisting quantities of stuff on us with its 3 for 2 offers, etc. And then there's the fact that a huge proportion of the food produced worldwide never even reaches the market, owing to crumbling or nonexistent infrastructure and endemic corruption which makes the free movement of goods impossible. Never mind that stuff, though - it's all our fault.
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Although I would think that the high wastage of food in the NHS might be be down to people not having much of an appetite. Cue images of countless nurses trying the 'Oh, come on, try just a little...' line on sick patients.
ReplyDeleteNot that I don't agree with the thrust of your argument, Nige. Everybody is green until they actually have to change their lifestyles. We are all our own worst enemies (except, of course, Judy -- she has no enemies).
Some time ago, I ran across a study which compared waste in Mexico and the United States. The authors discovered that the "throw-away society" of the United States was far more efficient than presumed and significantly less was wasted per capita than in the poorer society. I imagine that holds true for most industrialized nations.
ReplyDeleteOnce again ole' Sauron is sittin' at the door to the law, forgive him Franz, for he knows not what he does. He could actually start with the NHS, all of those plump nurses for instance. Will he expect Pressie to observe his edict No 6288/B/Rev5XQU44-C.
ReplyDeleteAmusing, as catering at my hospital consistently fail to deliver puree diets and SLO drinks to patients with swallowing problems. With purees, the patients can't eat anything else, so when catering yet again pretend not to have received the fax i sent them at noon, it means these (often critically ill) patients don't get to eat. This saga has been ongoing for 15 months at least, since i began working at my present job. Whenever i talk to the people in catering on the phone (generally when i ring them up to shout "why the fuck don't you prepare the puree diets we tell you to, you useless fucking morons?" they sound like apes, spectacularly ignorant apes at that.
ReplyDeleteSorry, had to get that off my chest. Hard not to get a bit worked up when patients in their nineties and eighties have to go without food for days because the kitchen staff can't be arsed doing their job.