The other week in my sermon at York, I talked a bit about potatoes.
In last month’s newsletter I commented on a number of things that took place in September, from mushroom month to ginger cat day. Every time I think I’ve found all the events, another relevant one pops up, or in this case, two. Turns out the whole of the month was Second Hand September – not that it makes a lot of difference to me as I’m charity shop mad every month – and Sept 29th was International Day of Awareness of Food Waste. The website of Too Good To Go, an app which helps shops and restaurants sell off surplus food at bargain prices at the end of the day, explains it this way:
“From water to land to electricity, it takes a lot of resources to produce enough food for billions of humans to eat. But when we waste more than a ⅓ of all food we produce, the environmental impact is worse than it needs to be. By fighting food waste, we can shrink the global demand for food, using fewer resources, clearing less land, and reducing overall emissions. The impact of this would be so significant, that Project Drawdown has labelled ‘reducing food waste’ as the number one thing individuals can do to fight climate change.
To put a spotlight on the issue, the United Nations has declared September 29th as the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss & Waste.”
My older relatives would tell me that they don’t need to be made aware of food waste. Saving leftovers and eating local are second nature if you remember the war or rationing. A ministry of food leaflet reminds us that “there is no vegetable more useful than the homely potato… they are a cheap source of energy and one of the foods that help to protect us from illness. They contain the same vitamin as oranges and ¾lb of potatoes daily will give over half the amount of this vitamin needed to prevent fatigue and help fight infection. Potatoes, which are home-grown, give us the same kind of energy-food as cereals, which are imported. Eat them in place of bread and other cereals wherever possible, and you help to save shipping space.”
Today this appeared in the news:
Will coffee drinkers plump for potato milk?
What do you think? Where will potatoes turn up next? And would you put them in your coffee?
