Customer Reviews

Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book points the finger in the right direction. There is plenty of food. Farmers have no problem to grow plenty but do have a problem to get a proper price because there is an oversupply.Food has never been cheaper in history than it is nowadays.
Due to oversupply and high outer quality standards, there is a lot of outgrade for second and third class and there is no appreciation for what we harvest, so we throw a lot away.
Just all this waste can feed us.To be aware what is really going on in food supply and where there is a solution, read this one.

This is such a mind-blowing book that everyone should be forced to read it and it should be part of the schools' curriculum.

The numbers alone suggest we grow and/or import stuff just to bin it; one billion tomatoes, nearly two billion bananas and how about nearly half a billion unopened yoghurt tubs. These are just a few of the statistics which pretty much amounts to £400 or more per year per household.

But this is certainly not just a list; the author informs how we can try to alleviate the problem. My own household has an almost empty wheelie bin, we compost everything and rarely discard newspapers but not everyone can do this. Lack of space is one reason and yet this problem, too, can be overcome.

However, rules and regulations stacked against manufacturers is a major part of the problem, too. The pages of who throws what away and why leaves this reader with the dreadful statistic that North America and Europe throw away enough to feed the world's undernourished several times over. Staggering.

It's a must read book of nearly 500 pages but don't be put off by a school-teacher approach that we must all eat our bread crusts; mine go to help feed the birds.

Having been brought up in an environment in which waste was never acceptable (we were at war with Germany) I find it totally abhorrent that not only do supermarkets and shops consider it to be satisfactory to deal in excessive quantities in order to maximise profit but more so is the shocking waste created by consumers, when thousands in the world and especially children and babies and dying for thr want of the simplest of food.

I found this book very absorbing and read it from cover to cover in a couple of days.

Tristram Stuart's style of writing is easily read and yet at the same time remains academic and factual. The facts are well cross referenced and where Stuart makes estimations, he clear that these are just such and explains how he has arrived at these.

The amount we as a society waste is certainly staggering. What makes the situation worse is that the fact that it has become harder and harder to use food waste to feed livestock such as pigs and chickens. As a consequence, not only does the calorific value of waste food get lost, we have to grow more food from scratch (such soya by cuttng down rain forest) to feed live stock in order to satisfy the every increasing demand in the world for meat.

Interestingly, this book is on my son's university course's suggested reading list, so it must carry some weight in the academic world too.

This book is an amazing piece of work by the author. It presents copious amounts of facts and figures on the amount of food waste that is generated (primarily in the UK but also worldwide). Tristram Stuart presents his argument through various types of food and how it is wasted throughout the food chain. For anyone who is concerned about food waste please read this. It will really make you change the way you think about food and how to reduce its wastage. The amount of research that has gone into this book is phenominal and it is a really good consolidation of information regarding the different types of food waste.

An interesting, informative and very challenging book which opens the lid on our world attitude to waste. Well worth a read!

Being a researcher for my own books and talks on waste reduction, I've read many a book on this subject, but it is this book by Tristram Stuart that really made me pull my finger out and decide to do something about my concerns over the amount of waste, food and other, that we are a prepared to dismiss as 'normal' or even 'acceptable'.

It is probably 10 years or more since I have allowed any food waste from my home to go to landfill. But reading 'Waste'has made me consider even the small amount of food that I waste (in the form of composting it) and I have found many ways to cut this down significantly. There's the added advantage, of course, of making significant money savings - much needed in this current climate of austerity, which maybe will end up doing us all some good.

Of course it is a global problem, but with the heightened sense of awareness from reading this book I firmly believe we can all do our bit to rethink our attitudes to waste. There is still so much room for improvement. Read this book and you will (I hope) find yourself compelled, like I did, to change and to demand change around you.

You won't believe some of the (recent) facts that this book eloquently presents to the reader about food waste. It will stir up a lot of feelings of injustice concerning the way that the food industry currently operates. It does not require any background knowledge on food waste, social policy or anything else. If everyone read this book I'm convinced that the food waste issue would immediately be reduced

Real answers are what this book contains. Everyday I am sickened by the food waste I see all around me and now this book has explained to me the impact that this waste has all over the world.

The information about swill feeding to pigs was an enlightenment to me and another bit of the puzzle to understanding the effects of feeding all this grain to our animals.

Like other reviewers have said, this is essential reading for anyone that eats food (or food products)!

Very highly recommended!!!

Every person who eats in order to live should read this book. The others, can skip it. It is a definite "must read".