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According to Drawdown, reducing food waste is the top individual action one can take to reduce one’s impact on climate change. Buffets tend to be quite wastefu
by wtmt 7y ago
According to Drawdown, reducing food waste is the top individual action one can take to reduce one’s impact on climate change. Buffets tend to be quite wasteful and/or encourage serving older food a lot more than a la carte orders. There could be some exceptions, such as buffets in hotels where it’s included in the room rent and is a lot easier to plan for (the quantities) based on the number of guests and the guest demographics.
As a consumer, if you want value for money in a buffet, the best bets, IMO, are fresh foods and/or the ones that aren’t processed much. All the high sugar and high fat processed foods tend to be made with low quality ingredients while also being terrible for health. Also focus on enjoying the variety with smaller quantities of everything you’d like to eat rather than trying to eat a lot more than your usual appetite.
- learnstats2 7y agoIt's unclear to me why buffets would be more wasteful than other restaurants, particularly in climate change terms. There's some contradiction in what you've said about minimising waste and demanding fresh foods. If we stick to only the freshest foods, then we waste a lot more. Surely being able to serve in quantity creates positive economies of scale.
- wtmt 7y agoIn my observation, buffet customers tend to attempt to eat a lot more by filling their plates with a lot more than they can handle. This is because they’ve already paid for it and believe that eating more is the way to get more value for money. Once they’re in the middle of the meal, they realize that they cannot finish it and that gets wasted. With a la carte, you’d at least have the option of taking the leftovers home.
- noisem4ker 7y agoSome places have a nominal "no leftovers" policy. I'm not sure if and how they enforce it, but the idea is that if there's something significant left on your plate, you should take it with you as you leave paying as if it were something you ordered from the menu.
- fortran77 7y agoObesity has been linked to climate change in many studies. Here's a summary of one typical example: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/another-reason-to-combat-the-obesity-epidemic-these-scientists-say-overeating-contributes-to-climate-change-2019-12-26 https://www.marketwatch.com/story/another-reason-to-combat-t... People in developed countries eating more food than they need is very wasteful, not just in food production, but the extra fuel needed to transport these people, the extra material needed to clothe these people, etc. Anybody who's overweight or obese can't be credible if they act concerned about climate change and won't do something as simple (and without cost) as eating less food.
- dbmueller 7y ago> Anybody who's overweight or obese can't be credible if they act concerned about climate change and won't do something as simple (and without cost) as eating less food. For one, I don't think it's "as simple", and for two, the pattern "if you don't do X, you're not serious/credible/honest/worthy" is unhelpful.
- fortran77 7y agoWould you be skeptical to what a billionaire CEO would have to say about Income Inequality? Or what a dairy farmer would say about Oat Milk?