[RE] Wasting Food

Here I've got a quote from a post on the Blog of Vivian Nguyen. She brings up the topic of wasting food.

[W]asting food [is] pretty much disrespectful. It [is] rude to not eat or finish your food. The food on your plate costs money and you are fortunate to have food to eat. […] I also get ticked off when people just toss their food away like it's worthless. It might not seem like a big deal, but it bothers me. In my opinion, throwing away precious food is like throwing away money in the trash.

While I can say that wasting food is never a good thing to do, I have conflicted views regarding the act as "disrespectful". I figure each person should be able to gauge how much s/he is able to eat. Measure out your ingredients accordingly; feel free to deviate from a recipe and cut it in half. I think that's half the fun - experimenting with food, cooking, and science.

If you're cooking for a family dinner and cannot gauge the appropriate amount of food to prepare, cook the food and execute proper portion control. Once you present the food at the dinner table, only take what you know you can eat. You always have the opportunity to get some more; don't be inclined to collect all your food on the first pass. This way, no food is trashed simply because someone decided to pick up a fillet of fish s/he couldn't finish and any food that is disposed isn't done so in worthlessness.

Many leftover food items can be refrigerated to be used in another dish, or reheated again for a separate meal.

What if this thought is one of the contributing factors of obesity in America? Because everyone is told to eat everything on his plate or she should not waste the precious food because it is seen as throwing away money...

The topics may not be completely unrelated - but I'm not a nutritional anthropologist, so it's not my place to speak of the matter.

So what attracted me to respond to this post?
It actually was a quote to which Vivian was responding that caught my eye:

We had to eat every single grain of rice as a symbol of thanks to the farmers and the workers that had to plant, collect, and produce the grain.

It's a fair point. Eating all the rice is a sign of gratitude for the farmers that toil daily to provide the grains for your meal, and I respect that. However, different cultures finds that having empty bowls with all the rice eaten (or whatever meal was prepared) is a sign of disrespect to the host/hostess. It is a sign that s/he did not make enough food to serve everyone. Conversely, eating all the food can be seen as respectful in that the meal was delicious and everyone enjoyed it.

So.... in the end, cultural mixes and personal perspectives can blur the matter of wasting food. Changing the methodology in which someone prepares or serves food may help limit the amount of food trashed.