Unforgiveable - €1bn in food waste

THERE are far too many ways we can confirm our lunacy — belated and half-hearted efforts to confront global warming; half of the world’s population is obese while the other half goes huungry and our destruction of the great natural food resources offered by the world’s seas.

Some people argue that our inability, whether genetically hardwired in our DNA or cultural, to better control an escalating world population is the single greatest manifestation of human weakness.

However, the suggestion that we waste over over one million tonnes of food every year is as shocking as it is shameful. In monetary terms this stands at something around €1bn, in environmental terms it is simply bonkers and in moral terms it is as wrong as wrong can be. This is an expression of materialism gone mad or, as those of a generation who struggled to feed their children as well as they might have wished would say: a sign that we have more money than sense. It is also an indication that even in this time-poor world, it is essential to teach children how to cook and how to do something as plain but enriching as managing a kitchen wisely.