High Prices Equals Wasted Food

[pilgrim]

My local Kroger has a small section of discounted items in the veggie section, meat section and bakery. As prices have risen, so has the amount of food placed in these particular discounted sections. Sometimes the produce is still edible. Other times food sits at the inflated price and then when it has rotten or mold spots on it, then it is placed in the discount section. Last week when I checked out the discounted foods the section was so full I had to dig down to the bottom of many bagged items to see what was there. So much food that people aren't paying the inflated prices for, only to have it rot. I am not saying everything is in bad shape, but it makes me think that if only the price weren't so inflated, then people would be buying more of the items and it wouldn't have to go to the discounted area and hopefully someone will come along and buy it. Also, my hubby was in Wal-Mart on Sat. and he stopped a guy rolling two shopping baskets out piled high with pastries. When hubby asked if he was placing them on the discount rack, the employee replied that the rack was broken so he was told to dump all the pastries(?) They only have one rack? They could have set them in the shopping carts in the middle of the isles with the price marked down and those things would have gone like hotcakes.

[Shamrock1121]

Check the dumpsters outside the grocery store and you'll find the REAL wasted food and free groceries. * ;)

I rarely drink coffee, but I've always wondered what they did with the coffee beans that fall out of the bean dispenser, and could a person get the loose ones? *So what if the flavor is a mix? *The price might be right.

Find out when they shut out the deli department for the day. *You can often get cold cuts, cooked meats, and other things, for half-price. *A broasted chicken will make wonderful soup and meat for all kinds of things.

There's several organizations here in town that get the "old" bakery items from our grocery stores and they give them away to the needy at a few sites.

I always hit the discount produce. *Over-ripe fruit makes great fruit roll-ups. *Lots of veggies can be dehydrated.

I keep meat purchases to around $10-$12 a week out of my $50 budget. *The discount meat section is a way to stretch those dollars. *Nothing like a large rump roast.... 8) and all the meals I can squeeze out of it. *That's why I get to the store fairly early in the morning.

Our son is a "starving artist" in a liberal town. *He says he rarely has to pay to eat. *He knows where and when to show up at the back door of some eating establishments for freebies that they give out.

-Karen

* *

[leera]

The local Kroger here has the same marked down sections,but there is rarely anything in them.

I did find out that at the end of the day all the marked down breads and other bakery items go to the local homeless shelter,not in the dumpster.

At one time they were giving all the old produce to a local pig farmer,I don't know if they still do or not.

I do know that the local PepperRidge Farm store gives all their old bread to pig farmers rather than throw it out.Local farmers can sign up to get called when they have a truck load to be picked up.

[zachweiss]

Check the dumpsters outside the grocery store and you'll find the REAL wasted food and free groceries.

YES!

...and this also makes a great way to feed dogs, hogs, chickens...etc!

(...oops! I didnt see your post leera! :) )

[kawalekm]

The truth is that there is waste in every single link of the chain from the farmers field to your dining table.
Fruit or vegies that aren't just the right shape or color get left in the field. Once in the packing house they get screened again, and anything that fit through the machine goes in the trash can.

If it actually makes it to the grocery store, it sits under the lights till someone selects it, and it not, off to the dumpster. Finally, how many things have spoiled in the back of your crisper before you got around to cooking them. Realisticly, only about 1/3 to 1/2 half of the food that is produced in this country actually goes into someones mouth!

[MotherCharlotte]

Yes, the amount of waste these days is quite sickening. Close to my house is a small produce market which I often walk to. I feel sick when I see the employees out behind the store throwing box after box of produce that still looks perfectly good from where I am standing, into the dumpster.

The worst part is that after throwing 75 heads of Romaine lettuce into the dumpster, the employee then rearranges some boxes at the front so nobody can see that there is food in there. And at night I'm sure they lock it. >:(

[kawalekm]

I visited a corporate cantelope growing farm. It was a fully intergrated opperation, that is, workers in the field would load melons on a truck, the truck would drive to their packing house, then their machines would wash, dry, sort, then pack their fruit. The completed boxes were then loaded onto their trucks for delivery to wholesalers.

I asked one of the senior managers about those imperfect melons left in the field to rot. Anyone caught taking one out of the field was arrested for stealing! Their corporate attitude was they'd rather have people go hungery then let them take stuff left to rot.

[gregabob]

I visited a corporate cantelope growing farm. *It was a fully intergrated opperation, that is, workers in the field would load melons on a truck, the truck would drive to their packing house, then their machines would wash, dry, sort, then pack their fruit. *The completed boxes were then loaded onto their trucks for delivery to wholesalers.

I asked one of the senior managers about those imperfect melons left in the field to rot. *Anyone caught taking one out of the field was arrested for stealing! *Their corporate attitude was they'd rather have people go hungery then let them take stuff left to rot.
That's an irritating 'corporate attitude'! 20+ years ago I lived in the Salinas Valley in CA. Veggie crops were grown almost year 'round. After the pickers went thru, about 30 feet behind them were the 'gleaners'. There would be half a dozen cars at the side of the road, and happy folks carting off red tomatoes ( the pickers only chose the green ones), small cauliflowers, lettuce, broccoli, etc. No one ever ran us off---but you had to hurry, because they left the fields fallow for ony a few days before discing them. It was an honor system-wait till the pickers went thru, then you can get as much as you wanted. But wait for the pickers first! It seemed to work well. Sounds like this melon grower has a lawyer advising him-panicking about 'liability'.....a catch-all that causes a lot of waste in a lot of areas........

[Penny_Plinker]

My local Kroger has a small section of discounted items in the veggie section, meat section and bakery. *As prices have risen, so has the amount of food placed in these particular discounted sections. *Sometimes the produce is still edible. *Other times food sits at the inflated price and then when it has rotten or mold spots on it, then it is placed in the discount section. *Last week when I checked out the discounted foods the section was so full I had to dig down to the bottom of many bagged items to see what was there. *So much food that people aren't paying the inflated prices for, only to have it rot. *I am not saying everything is in bad shape, but it makes me think that if only the price weren't so inflated, then people would be buying more of the items and it wouldn't have to go to the discounted area and hopefully someone will come along and buy it. *Also, my hubby was in Wal-Mart on Sat. and he stopped a guy rolling two shopping baskets out piled high with pastries. *When hubby asked if he was placing them on the discount rack, the employee replied that the rack was broken so he was told to dump all the pastries(?) *They only have one rack? *They could have set them in the shopping carts in the middle of the isles with the price marked down and those things would have gone like hotcakes.

That's an interesting observation. They better be careful selling stuff with mold even if it is discounted. If someone's dumb enough to to eat the mold, that don't mean they're not smart enough to sue!

Penny

[Shamrock1121]

I visited a corporate cantelope growing farm. *It was a fully intergrated opperation, that is, workers in the field would load melons on a truck, the truck would drive to their packing house, then their machines would wash, dry, sort, then pack their fruit. *The completed boxes were then loaded onto their trucks for delivery to wholesalers.

I asked one of the senior managers about those imperfect melons left in the field to rot. *Anyone caught taking one out of the field was arrested for stealing! *Their corporate attitude was they'd rather have people go hungery then let them take stuff left to rot.

I have some friends who live in Arizona in the winter. They live close to a corporate farm and they used to be able to go in and pick leftovers from different crops, at the end of the season. They can't do that any longer because of potential bacterial contamination. Just think what we've experienced with E.coli in the lettuce and spinach...... It could even be a Homeland Security issue when you think about it!

-Karen