Team up with a friend, family member, classmate, or co-worker and try out today’s “what can we do today?”. Or, explore on your own…
Today’s “What Can We Do Today?”
There are many parts of foods that are entirely edible but that get wasted or thrown away. Much fruit and vegetable waste is produced in the process of canning and processing, before they’ve even been bought at the store. But, if whole fruits and vegetables are purchased, they can be wasted at home too. And those wasted parts are some of the healthiest bits!
“The processing operations of fruits and vegetables produce significant wastes of by‐products, which constitute about 25% to 30% of a whole commodity group. The waste is composed mainly of seed, skin, rind, and pomace, containing good sources of potentially valuable bioactive compounds, such as carotenoids, polyphenols, dietary fibers, vitamins, enzymes, and oils, among others. … [beneficial health attributes of wasted parts of food may be] antibacterial, antitumor, antiviral, antimutagenic, and cardioprotective.” (Sagar, et. al)
It’s easy to reduce food waste by buying whole fruits and vegetables instead of processed ones. You can get it from nearby farms if that’s an option, to reduce waste during shipping and handling, and you can compost the bits you won’t eat.
But there are also good things like peels and skins that don’t need to be composted right away. Instead, you can take advantage of the nutrients and use what otherwise would have been wasted to make homemade vegetable broth. Of course, some of the nutrients will be destroyed in cooking, but it is a healthy and tasty addition to soups, stews, or casseroles. You can even make rice with vegetable stock instead of water! Want to know how to make it? Check out our post on our 30dayfoodblog!
The Drawdown Difference
“Drawdown” is the point in time when the amount of damaging elements in our atmosphere begins to drop on a year-to-year basis. Project Drawdown has developed realistic models for making this happen. Cool!
Today’s #whatcanwedotoday addresses some of the top 80 game changers for making drawdown happen:
• Number 3: Reduced Food Waste Using as much of your food as you can helps to reduce wasted food, which otherwise ends up uneaten, unused, and—if uncomposted—thrown into landfills, where it releases methane.
• Number 4: Plant-Rich Diet Homemade vegetable broth is a staple of a plant-rich diet, taking full advantage of the vegetables & onion/garlic peels you have on hand.
