Wasteful living

Three weeks ago I was invited to breakfast with several people joining us. One woman ordered a plate with eggs, beef tapa and rice. It was a long breakfast since friends from abroad talked to keep up with what they missed while they were away. It was late in the morning when we said goodbye. The woman with a full breakfast left on her plate about two spoonfuls of rice and left three slices of tapa. We were a bit scandalized because this woman did not even pay for her meal. I am certain the restaurant will throw away the leftover.

That was wasteful. What she left behind would just be feed to the hogs. It could have feed the beggars out in the street or even a hungry child.

This is not an unusual sight. We have all seen this wastefulness in every party, restaurant, even in the snacks after a funeral. People take more than they can eat and leave them behind to be thrown away while somewhere, perhaps nearby, someone had not taken a meal.

When I was training in Camp Lapu-lapu in Cebu, there was this notice at the mess hall: take what you want but eat what you take. Nobody was to leave anything on the plate except what cannot be eaten.

This wastefulness of food has been curved in some restaurant offering “eat all you can”. There is a message that the charge would be double if there is leftover. This should be a matter of course for all of us: take only what one can consume. We must keep in mind others have nothing to eat.

Fortunately this wasteful habit is changing a bit. Some instruct the waiter to wrap the food to “take out” and some parties have servers giving out the food rather than the guests getting them.

The most wasteful form of serving food is the plated one. People are given food they do not like or more than they can eat.

The encyclical of Pope Francis, “Laudato Si” tells us that by being wasteful in our ways we deprive so many of their food. The destruction of nature, the rape of the environment and the exploitation of the poor may not come to mind when we eat at table or drink our juices. However if one goes through the chain of food production, he can be amazed on how man wastes so much along the way. Wasted food is food taken from somebody's mouth.

In the Philippines, it is estimated that 20 percent of rice is lost from harvesting, to threshing, to drying, to milling and the series of transport for lack of government program and technology. This waste can run into millions of sacks of rice and yet we are importing 100,000 tons due to lack of supply.

Rice is wasted not only from production to the table chain but also in restaurants where people do not even touch the rice served. The mechanical way of serving rice or any kind of food is wasteful. When I go to the restaurant, I always tell the waiter or the server to give me just half because I cannot consume the amount they serve. That might be little but it is rice saved for others to take.

One of the most wasteful countries I have visited is the United States. I am certain Filipinos who have gone into that land of plenty have seen so much food left on the plate and how unsold food is thrown out rather than given. The reason: they are afraid the recipient might get sick and sue them. They would rather waste food than be sued and pay heavy fines.

This wastefulness is not without cost. Restaurants and hotels already input the cost of this waste into people's bill and makes food costly.

Pope Francis wrote, “We cannot afford the luxury of looking down on leftovers. We are living in a throw-away culture where we easily throw out not only things but people, too.”

Christ gives us an example on how to treat leftover food. When he fed 5,000 He instructed his disciples to “gather all that remains so that nothing is wasted.” Jesus did not pay for the food but he is conscious of its value. What do you think did Jesus do with 12 baskets-full of leftovers? I imagine he gave it all to those who are in need for their provision, for their baon. These people, the Bible said, came from afar.

Wastefulness is inhuman.*

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