Forty per cent of the food that is prepared in North America is wasted.
We throw away nearly half our edibles 鈥� food that would gratefully be used efficiently elsewhere.
We have arbitrary best before dates that, in reality, mean nothing unless the package is damaged. We toss unwanted cuts of meat and vegetables. We throw bruised fruit and, of course, a lot of old cheese and stale breads are rejected.
A nutritionist I listened to last week, explained how food scraps can make great meals, and we鈥檙e not talking about left-over turkey here. We can turn it into dog food, or a tasty meat loaf. The choice is ours.
One person鈥檚 waste is another person鈥檚 dinner.
She said if we were more careful with so-called 鈥渨aste foods,鈥� we could also be reducing greenhouse gases.
I often maintain there is no global food shortage. Our problem seems to be in marketing and transportation. Now we can add the waste element. There鈥檚 lots of food dear diary, but not enough people are out there who will buy it for the poor and not enough transporters to get it to them cost-effectively.
So take away the yuk factor with food waste and turn it into an yum factor.
Changing topics now.
This past week our city had to say goodbye to a couple more of our community pegs.
More recent residents of Energy City may not have known Jeanne Perry and Bob Larter, but believe me, these people helped make things happen in Estevan for decades. They moved the pegs on the bar upward a few notches.
Larter, an ambitious and clever businessman and an elected MLA, vacated his seat so Grant Devine, a PC party leader, could represent Estevan in the legislature. He was acknowledged with an appointment as a business envoy to London, representing Saskatchewan鈥檚 interests on several international business and cultural fronts. Estevan was always in his sights and mind. I was fortunate enough to know Bob at the height of his influence-bearing years and later, during his declining years he put to good use with pleasant ambles through our neighbourhood. Always a gentleman with spirit.
Jeanne was also filled with good spirit, a wry smile and wicked sense of humour. She was a woman with plenty of skills on the domestic and community front. Not only could she get the cultural ball rolling on numerous files, she could see projects through to completion with a finishing touch.
Yep, Jeanne has been another one of our city鈥檚 Grand Dames who moved us forward while never seeking spotlights.
I can recall two entertaining, but also rather frustrating chats with Jeanne, a native of Ystradgynlais, Wales, (try saying that after three shots of rum and Diet Pepsi) after I learned she had been engaged within the well known WWII, Bletchley Park decoding team, associated with the wonderful Enigma story. She downplayed her role.
鈥淚 was just a lowly secretary, doing a job for the eggheads, and Bletchley was a roughly hewn, wretchedly built place to work,鈥� she said and yes, she often talked like that.
I countered with the fact that with her language skills (unpronounceable Welsh) and German, she might have been a key factor.
鈥淣ope, we were young girls on the lookout for handsome young men and they weren鈥檛 in Bletchley. I just did my job,鈥� she would say with a quiet chuckle and that smile..
She met her man, Allan, a Canadian and fortunately that liaison brought her here.
Say goodbye Estevan to a couple more of our foundational rocks.
