Today’s Food Waste Friday is a spotlight on Lindsay Miles (@treadingmyownpath) – author, speaker + waste educator. Lindsay’s second book The Less Waste No Fuss Kitchen was released earlier this month. The following are the Lindsay’s responses to my food waste questions.
Q: Tell us a little bit about yourself.
A: I’m a writer, waste educator and zero waste / low waste living advocate. My lightbulb moment happened in 2012 when I signed up for a month long challenge to reduce plastic, and realised that filling my recycling bin to the top was not the only thing I could be doing! I give talks, run workshops and write about living with less waste. I believe that individuals have the power to create so much change, but too often we give that power away whilst we wait for ‘somebody else’ to do something. My goal is to help others take action to make changes in their own lives, however that works for them.
Q: What are your thoughts on our current food waste situation?
A: It’s terrible! We throw away 1/3 of all the food we produce. And yet corporations continue to clear land and displace people and destroy habitat to grow more food. Not to mention, millions of people do not have enough food to eat (even in ‘rich’ countries like the US, Australia and the UK). Our ‘modern’ food system isn’t working.
Q: What role do you believe you play in reducing people’s food waste?
A: Individuals can’t solve the problem alone, but we can support and strengthen better systems that treat people fairly and don’t waste resources. And we can not waste the food we buy an/or grow! I help people take action to reduce their food waste at home, think about their purchasing decisions, and make changes that matter. Yes we need businesses and governments on board too, but we don’t have to wait for them to act to start making changes ourselves.
Q: What do you suggest is the easiest action a person can make when i comes to reducing their food waste?
A: One person’s ‘easiest’ is another person’s ‘challenging’, so I can’t give one answer. Finding a way to avoid sending food scraps to landfill is a great stat. Set up a compost bin or worm farm at home, or find a local market or community garden to drop them to. Also, pay attention to your habits. What do you throw away, and why? Do you buy more than you need? Do your good intentions to cook from scratch never happen, so things go to waste? We all like to think we don’t waste food. The first step is to pay attention, and find out the truth about our habits! Then we can start to change them.
Check out my Instagram to enter a giveaway for Lindsay’s book!
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