Monday 7 July 2008

"Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted."



The heading is a quote from John 6:12, and the full passage is taken from the report of the Feeding of the Five Thousand which reads “When they had all had enough to eat, He said to His disciples, "Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted." So what’s that got to do with the image on this post?

All those Kiwi fruit that you see in the image, 520 in all, have to be trashed; they can’t even be given away due to EU (European Union) regulations! They are perfectly wholesome but they are too small… yes, approx 1mm in diameter too small…

Grown in Chile, transported in refrigerated conditions half way round the world, and dumped into landfill in the UK, “The inspector's decision is consistent with RPA's commitment to protect consumers” said the man who enforced the decision, “Let nothing be wasted” He said.

Still can't believe it? ... see the BBC report here.

3 comments:

Angela Nazworth said...

Simply awful

Kati said...

Yet another discusting display of how wasteful we've become, as a society. More proof that we've had far too much excess for too long, esp. in regards to food. Oooooh, I think of the smoothies that could have been made with those bitty kiwi-fruit. *wry smile*

homebrewlibrarian said...

So, if it's illegal to donate them, couldn't they put the fruits outside where freegans or food bank folks could "discover" them? Especially if store personnel "happened" to let them know about it first?

I find it odd that perfectly good, imperfectly sized produce can't be given to soup kitchens and food banks. Even if in a less than legal fashion.

Kerri in AK