The numbers are terrifying. Experts estimate that only a third of 100kg of vegetables grown in Austria are on the plate. The rest ends up in the bin.
The farmer is annoyed that only a part of the around 400 tons of carrots he is harvesting is eaten this year. It shows that a food today no longer has the value it had 50 years ago. Many of his carrots don't come to the supermarket because their shape or size doesn't fit. For those who find their way into the refrigerator of the consumer, waste is produced for other reasons. If we could sell the carrots unwashed, they would be a third cheaper and would last three times as long in the fridge. There are also many visual criteria that ensure that food is disposed of. The outer skin of onions often doesn't fit, the Chinese cabbage is too little green and the celery is sometimes too big. Dozens of tons of vegetables end up in domestic biogas plants week after week. And sometimes, vegetables aren’t even harvested because the price is not right or the market is saturated. |