This Week in Food News: The Gluttonous Edition

1 Written by Marisa Miyasaki on June 29, 2012 – 5:00 am

Photo by McDonaldsCorp

From wasted food to stolen food, a common thread of gluttony can be seen in many of this week’s food news stories. Read below for the news highlights!

Austrian artist Klaus Pichler has released a new series entitled “One Third” to expose the public to the worldwide waste issue. The title, which took inspiration from a 2011 U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization report, reflects the statistic that a third of all food products—or 1.3 billion tons of food—are wasted worldwide. The food industry creates an approximate 30% of the world’s annual carbon emissions, and carbon emissions continue to generate from food once it’s discarded into landfills. Reportedly, every ton of wasted food and drink results in 3.8 tons of greenhouse gas emissions. According to Dr. Ulf Sonesson of the Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology, as the “price of food in industrialized nations continues to drop…there’s less incentive to think about what’s in the fridge, or make an effort to avoid cooking more than we need.” In addition, supermarkets’ practice of buying a surplus of food and pressuring food producers to discard less-than-perfect products leads to a great deal of waste. Menuism readers, how do you avoid wasting food?

In London, the biggest-ever McDonald’s restaurant is being built for the 2012 Olympics. As a top Olympics sponsor, the two-story mega-McDonald’s restaurant has a prime location next to Olympic Stadium. Spanning a 3,000 sq. ft., the building has enough space to seat 1,500 diners and serve 14,000 people a day. The pop-up restaurant features special waste-sorting facilities as well as recycled timber, which will be used for other McDonald’s restaurants after the restaurant is dismantled following the Olympic games.

On Wednesday, Austrian police busted a major garlic heist. Three overloaded vans were about to cross from Austria into Hungary when they were stopped by the police. From the pungent smell wafting through the doors, the policemen were able to easily identify the stolen goods. After questioning the five men involved the in the heist, the police charged them on suspicion of receiving $37,500 worth of stolen garlic.

With California’s foie gras ban effective on July 1^st, chefs, purveyors and consumers are looking for loopholes in the legislation. In an effort to undermine the ban, chefs have begun offering complimentary foie gras and offering to cook legally-obtained foie gras supplied by the customer. As chef Ludo Lefebvre revealed, “If I don’t charge for it, it’s not a crime.” Even the Los Angeles Police Department as disclosed that they would not likely investigate any such crime. What are your thoughts on the foie gras ban?

Have a wonderful weekend!