Project:The learner in Me

Food wastage and Fine

Food is vital for our life! With no food, the head hurts, body becomes energy less and memory power reduces. But too much food is also not good for the body and mind. So what should be done! Well its simple enough. Eat responsibly and eat well.

It has been just few days into this beautiful and carefree city of Switzerland otherwise known to outside world as Zurich. I am trying to grasp and understand at the same time, the functioning of domestic waste disposal mechanism, the traffic system and car driving norms to finding out the tram routes amongst other things.

While I am trying to make sense of these things, a certain article (rather I should say an initiative/campaign) caught my immediate attention. I have always believed that for anything to catch/or draw the attention; the thing/or object in the frame has to be either worthy enough or scandalous in nature. Well this article (or rather the act) definitely stood out for its daring and novel cause that perhaps has not gone too well with certain section of the society. But before I get into dissecting the article and sharing my own views on this act, let us together revisit the article of the hour.

The article whose headline reads out, “Swiss restaurant charges customers for not cleaning plates”, talks about a restaurant that in a bid to reduce food waste has implemented an unfinished food fine.

According to the local (an English daily) reported that a certain restaurant by name, “Patrizietta” who runs all you can eat buffets got fed up with customers taking more food then they could eat and then throwing the excess away. They therefore decided to cut back upon food wastage by charging 5 francs or about dollar 5.65, for leaving food on one’s plate. The idea as shared by the restaurant chef is not to offend or penalise the customers but to make people aware that food waste is a problem and it should be stopped for the betterment of economy, people and environment.

From the legal standpoint, charge for leaving too many leftovers is legal and customers are notified about the leftover fine on the menu card itself.

After reading this article and going through discussion forums, I wondered why so much of reaction on this good cause act. The benefit of this act is manifolds for e.g.

For the restaurant	For the people	For the environment
Economic utilisation of the resources and raw materials Less waste to dispose	Reduces unnecessary eating and therefore long term health benefits. Make people responsible for what/how much they eat.	Less waste so less dirt

 So in that regards, it makes a good BUSINESS CASE for the restaurant.

We also know and are aware of the food shortage being experienced by so many people across the globe. There are so many people both adult and children alike that are suffering from chronic undernourishment due to hunger that primarily stems from poverty including food shortage and inequitable distribution of food. It is well known fact to all of us that cause of hunger is much beyond food shortage and is deeply rooted into our political and economic functioning of the society at large. This can be seen as a small step in that direction.

Next time, if you see food being wasted or thrown away, think if there is some way to prevent the food waste.

Khushboo