FOOD WASTE

February 7, 2010

Wasting food, resources

Heinz Food Corp. boasts about selling 11 billion packets of ketchup per year. The company is proud of its new packaging, which is plastic-encased and made from petroleum.

Millions of tomatoes and other food ingredients are used for processing ketchup while the world suffers from diminishing oil and lack of food. Most packets are never used, but wind up in the trash or on the streets. What a waste!

Denise D’Anne, San Francisco

INCREMENTAL DESTRUCTION

It is no laughing matter when we look around to see that we have bought into our throwaway society. An egregious example is the 11 billion packets of condiments produced every year. These condiments are casually given to people, needed or not, and most wind up in the trash or on our streets.

The oil used to encase food in plastic that is literally needed by the starving masses is a crime of incalculable portions. At a time when oil is destroying our ocean systems we need to take some measure to eliminate the waste of a finite resources - oil.

We are not helpless; the first thing to do is loudly say NO when we buy prepared food products wrapped in plastic. And somehow we need to get our legislatures to ban, reduce, tax excessive packaging. If we can ban smoking, Styrofoam and even plastic bags, why is it not possible to ban condiment packaging and other items from food to electronics swaddled in earth destroying material?

Most of us ignore the little things we use in life. In fact, we become so used to items that were invented post 1945 that they have become integral to our life experience. We survived for econs without packaging material and all we have to say is "How do I survive without such and such." We can do better.