Something we actually agree on mate, it pisses me off, that we export our veg from half way round the world. Like you say, how we are going to get people to change their way of thinking is another matter. I've no problem reducing my meat consumption, I only say I would not give it up, it's about having a sensible public discussion on this and coming to balanced decisions. I currently refuse to accept lab grown meat, but that's going to be more an ethics thing, and a lack of understanding of it. As for going totally Vegan, they can fook off, again I'm happy to reach a balance. I also think supermarkets should go back to selling produce loose, and tell the farmers to stop growing so much. I dread to think how much veg waste in every UK household there is every day.
A quick google search on food waste: Food waste facts. While there are many provisions in place to reduce food waste, the UK produces the highest amount of food waste in Europe. Over ⅓ of all food produced globally goes to waste. The UK throws away around 9.5 million tonnes of food waste in a single year – even though 8.4 million people in the UK are in food poverty. Billions of pounds are wasted each year when food is disposed of unnecessarily. https://www.businesswaste.co.uk/food-waste-2022-the-facts/ 1/3 of ALL food produced globally goes to waste ! Criminal really.
Some of the waste will be down to packaging and supermarket pricing. Let's use the carrots you mentioned earlier an an example, You will go to a supermarket (or online) and pick up a kilo bag of carrots for say 50p, but a half kilo will be 40p, so the consumer thinks, well its only 10p more, for twice the amount - thing is though, that will be the same customer that will bin whats turned, because they bought more than they needed. That same supermarket will sell loose carrots (don't think they do online), but we've got lazy and pick up the convenience. In short we are all a bunch of shhites.
Yep, the supermarkets drive to 'upsell' all of the time needs to be stopped. Buy 2 get one free deals. You only went in there to buy one, so you don't need three ffs. We've also lost the ability to plan ahead for meals. If you've got a lot of something, then batch cook it and freeze some portions. Or like in the example of the carrots. Make some carrot soup. Too many people just lobbing it all away.
I refuse to lob anything away, so the meals get planned around of what needs using first. Hence why sometimes something like pot & carrot mash will get done at the end of the week, to ensure what's left don't go to waste. You can literally throw anything in that type of meal, parsnips, brussels etc. Beef mince is useful for using up things like mushrooms, red peppers. Onions keep for ages, ignore any dates on them. None of these meals take long to prepare and cook, even for a busy family. Just chop them up, lob them in, job done.
Yep we do the same here. Lots of soup lol. And stir fried rice or Risotto is a good one for lobbing in mushrooms, peppers, courgettes, broccoli, carrots etc On the sell by date thing. Food is always good for at least a few days after the date. And like you say, things like Onions I'll use even when they've sprouted a 6 inch long stem lol. They are good until they start going soft and soggy basically. I think Morrisons have actually done away with the sell by date on their milk as so much was getting thrown away. Milk is good until you can smell that it's gone off. We've forgotten to use our noses, and rely on a little stamp on the label, which is a best guess at best.
"If people stopped being people and we could control weather and geology, theoretically we may be able to do this"
Lol, Geology has nothing to do with it. Weather is increasingly affected by human behaviour and people's habits are determined by the infrastructure that's put in place to feed them. Yes it's ambitious. But it kind of needs to be right ?
Volcanos are fairly rare events though and extremely difficult to predict when they will erupt. If you're talking about long term planning for crop production, then unless you live right next to an active one, then I'd say it's a fairly safe bet you're not really factoring in Volcanic eruptions. Even then, once a Volcano has become dormant again, the mineral deposits from volcanic ash are rich in magnesium and potassium, which are great for fertilising soil
If pinkies rock guy what's Ern? Red flag guy? Im weed guy I guess Fosse is **** joke guy Brb is the ban guy Tobes is the welch guy Luv is the rum guy Spurlys the barber guy Ect
Good read on farming and meat consumption affecting the planet. I'd add water to that. Or natural freshwater I should say. I remember seeing a documentary on how much water is being taken out of the soil to grow certain things - the big one being cotton. I remember seeing the impact on water consumption of growing a field of cotton was ridiculous. They literally showed maps of places around the world showing land change over decades due to soil water consumption in places where cotton was being grown. Places that were green with vegetation turned into deserts. Not to mention freshwater is a valuable commodity in itself for the human race and for most life to survive.
Covered a little bit of this earlier on the milk discussion. Windy was saying he uses Almond milk, but Almonds use huge amounts of water to grow. Something like 7500 litres to grow 1lb. 80% of the world’s almonds are grown in California where drought is becoming more and more of a problem, adding to increasing wildfire problems.
lol, the worst world wide famines have been caused by volcanoes, so 'living next door to one' is fairly moot if the sun doesn't shine properly for over 1 year+ across most of the globe. Safe-guarding against the effects of such a natural disasters is one of the main reasons we massively over-produce, and why huge subsidies are paid to ensure that over-production.
The last time something like that happened though was around 200 years ago in Indonesia. There are far more pressing concerns with regard to climate change, soil depletion, deforestation, drought, flood , wildfire etc that has an immediate effect on crop production.
Would cause a bit of Earth indigestion though and probably result in a huge burp of methane from the Polar regions So no.
