At first, when I heard the terms, rescued, and discarded, I immediately thought of dumpster diving, and picking through rotted, gross food to make a meal. I was half right. Surprisingly, the two filmmakers ate REMARKABLY well over the course of the project, and even often had an excess surplus of food, spending only $200 or so on culled goods that had an estimated worth of $20,000.
One of the most surprising parts of the film, however, were the staggering statistics of how much food we, as a nation, actually waste. The filmmakers are Canadian, but the U.S. is just as guilty, if not more so. In speaking to various farmers in the film, up to 40% or more of a given crop isn't even considered marketable due to ludicrous issues such as odd fruit size, color imperfections, or blemishing. What was even more staggering, was that the non-useable grown food often just goes to waste. Much is donated to food banks, but even they do not have the resources needed to keep and divvy up the glut of excess to the needy.
Full fields of celery stalks. Full truckloads of beautiful peaches. An entire rollaway dumpster full of fresh packaged hummus, still three weeks away from a sell by date.
Inexcusable.
This film was certainly very eye opening, and sobering. Quit wasting what you have. Every bit of wasted food also correlates to wasted resources needed to produce that food...water, fertilizer, labor, fuel. It all trickles down.
The film may be available online or on-demand, but we definitely recommend watching it if you get a chance.
http://www.foodwastemovie.com/