Check your fridge

Take a deep breath before you read this! According to the University of Western Sydney's Urban Research Centre, Sydney households throw out more than $600 million worth of fresh produce every year - and that does not include leftovers, which account for another $182 million in the bin. This can feed a small African nation while garbage bins can sustain a family or two.

The $603 million fresh food waste is close to the $660 million combined income of all the farms in the metropolitan basin.

This is for sure not restricted to Sydney but all rich consumer societies everywhere! Fresh food, vegetables and fruits and meat, is bought with good intentions but busy lives take over and people end up eating out more than at home. Three weeks later it is time to clean up the fridge of all ‘biological experiments’!

Sydney residents spent about $6.5 billion last year - or more than a third of total household food and beverage budgets - on takeaway, alcohol or dining out, which was 36 times what they spent on fresh vegetables grown within the basin.

Local produce and organic food lose significance. That is where community pooling up makes sense. The buying power of supermarket chains that do not rely on local produce works against the farmers.

Much as people are aware of the benefits of fresh food, the luxuries of life which include hours of watching television robs all good intentions. And you have all the food going down the drain. With that goes so much energy and water used to produce them.

How much food goes waste in your homes? What do we need to do? Buy less? Cook more often and in small measures?

In this connection, check out this interesting video that talks about how our food supplies shaped cities. From ancient times when certain markets were located based on how easy it was to get food to those areas to how cities expanded with the advent of trains, Steel shows us how urban planning revolves really around how we eat.

And more importantly, how we eat could be made more healthy and sustainable by a revisioning of cityscapes. Cities need to be revamped for sustainable, independent food supplies, for decreased reliance on fossil-fueled transportation and increased walk and bike-friendliness, and for energy efficiency.