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> Clean your plate? An anecdote that I'm sure some here know well: you serve food of any amount to your kids and they eat some? Maybe a bite? Sometimes nothing

by grvdrm 4y ago

> Clean your plate? An anecdote that I'm sure some here know well: you serve food of any amount to your kids and they eat some? Maybe a bite? Sometimes nothing. It's not clear why. So as a parent, you get used to gathering up that food and eating much of what's left as a way of reducing waste, but also maybe you're hungry too. Welcome to every evening in my house! > The cultural dynamic in many places of serving more food than your guests can possibly eat–as a form of status or generosity–is persistent and wasteful. But it’s just a small part of a system that needs fixing. I'm curious. How often do folks get served much more than they can eat? I rarely get served plates of food that overwhelm me at first glance. Maybe I have a big appetite. Instead, is this issue better phrased as "ordering or asking for more than you can eat" - that's what I see happen all the time.

Swizec 4y ago
> How often do folks get served much more than they can eat? In Slovenia it is customary to feed guests until they can physically eat no more. Saying you’re full is met with “Oh but there's so much more! Eat eat. How about another X? Maybe a Z?”. You then have to sit back, grab your belly, look up with a sigh, and say “I’m so full I could burst”. This satisfies the social custom and the host can stop encouraging you to eat more. Then the dessert comes out. edit: I believe this is common in societies with a history of recent-ish food insecurity. You see Chinese and Spanish people doing similar. Large family feasts with a focus on the host showing off that they can not only feed everyone, but have food left over even after everyone’s full. As opposed to, say, France where the food is much less abundant and the custom is that you clean your plate and that’s it. Having my French girlfriend meet my Slovenian grandparents was very entertaining. They kept feeding her and she kept cleaning the plate and it was like a battle of who gives up first. I almost died laughing
- WrtCdEvrydy 4y ago
  > Having my French girlfriend meet my Slovenian grandparents was very entertaining. They kept feeding her and she kept cleaning the plate and it was like a battle of who gives up first. I almost died laughing South Korean Professor invites 4 hispanics PhD students to his house. His wife keeps putting food on our plate, we keep slamming it down. It's a great disrespect to leave anything on the plate... while it's a great disrespect to get an empty plate (it means you didn't feed your guests). I had to pull him aside and be like "get her to stop, please"
- grvdrm 4y ago
  Fair anecdote in return! I'm Italian-American - so as a kid my Italian grandparents shoved food in my face and forcefully said "mangia!" That's not happening these days! One aspect of this I forgot: when my parents eat with my kids (ages 1, 5) they are always trying to force the 5-year old to finish everything. And often serving big portions. Drives me nuts. I take a different approach and serve pretty small portions and let her ask for more if she's actually hungry - and often she's not.
- germinalphrase 4y ago
  “In Slovenia it is customary to feed guests until they can physically eat no more. Saying you’re full is met with “Oh but there's so much more! Eat eat. How about another X? Maybe a Z?”.” As a small person, and light eater, this dynamic has soured otherwise nice evenings for me.
burnished 4y ago
I think you missed their actual point >It all adds up, and it’s all out of the control of the typical citizen. Consumer food waste is less than a quarter of the total. That this is a systems level thing and not a policing your household thing. Re-read the last sentence in the second portion you quoted, I think their intent was to raise and dispel an objection in the same stroke. The article as a whole reads so strangely - on one hand it positions the problem as systemic and needing to be handled that way by pricing in externalities, on the other it trips over itself invoking the tried and trusted 'better blame yourself' rhetoric.
- grvdrm 4y ago
  I understood the point, but was simply commenting from a different angle. Otherwise, I agree with you - I found the rest of the article pretty unremarkable. Lots of blogger words without much substance.

by grvdrm 4y ago

Swizec 4y ago

> How often do folks get served much more than they can eat? In Slovenia it is customary to feed guests until they can physically eat no more. Saying you’re full is met with “Oh but there's so much more! Eat eat. How about another X? Maybe a Z?”. You then have to sit back, grab your belly, look up with a sigh, and say “I’m so full I could burst”. This satisfies the social custom and the host can stop encouraging you to eat more. Then the dessert comes out. edit: I believe this is common in societies with a history of recent-ish food insecurity. You see Chinese and Spanish people doing similar. Large family feasts with a focus on the host showing off that they can not only feed everyone, but have food left over even after everyone’s full. As opposed to, say, France where the food is much less abundant and the custom is that you clean your plate and that’s it. Having my French girlfriend meet my Slovenian grandparents was very entertaining. They kept feeding her and she kept cleaning the plate and it was like a battle of who gives up first. I almost died laughing

WrtCdEvrydy 4y ago
> Having my French girlfriend meet my Slovenian grandparents was very entertaining. They kept feeding her and she kept cleaning the plate and it was like a battle of who gives up first. I almost died laughing South Korean Professor invites 4 hispanics PhD students to his house. His wife keeps putting food on our plate, we keep slamming it down. It's a great disrespect to leave anything on the plate... while it's a great disrespect to get an empty plate (it means you didn't feed your guests). I had to pull him aside and be like "get her to stop, please"
grvdrm 4y ago
Fair anecdote in return! I'm Italian-American - so as a kid my Italian grandparents shoved food in my face and forcefully said "mangia!" That's not happening these days! One aspect of this I forgot: when my parents eat with my kids (ages 1, 5) they are always trying to force the 5-year old to finish everything. And often serving big portions. Drives me nuts. I take a different approach and serve pretty small portions and let her ask for more if she's actually hungry - and often she's not.
germinalphrase 4y ago
“In Slovenia it is customary to feed guests until they can physically eat no more. Saying you’re full is met with “Oh but there's so much more! Eat eat. How about another X? Maybe a Z?”.” As a small person, and light eater, this dynamic has soured otherwise nice evenings for me.

burnished 4y ago

I think you missed their actual point >It all adds up, and it’s all out of the control of the typical citizen. Consumer food waste is less than a quarter of the total. That this is a systems level thing and not a policing your household thing. Re-read the last sentence in the second portion you quoted, I think their intent was to raise and dispel an objection in the same stroke. The article as a whole reads so strangely - on one hand it positions the problem as systemic and needing to be handled that way by pricing in externalities, on the other it trips over itself invoking the tried and trusted 'better blame yourself' rhetoric.

grvdrm 4y ago
I understood the point, but was simply commenting from a different angle. Otherwise, I agree with you - I found the rest of the article pretty unremarkable. Lots of blogger words without much substance.