Socially Inefficient

Isn't it great to know just how socially conscious the Dining Services are? It's too bad that they're undermining their own efforts to show students how wasteful we are. What's the problem? The food, of course.

Food waste comes in all shapes and sizes. Yes, Food Czar Michael P. Berry must be stymied by the fact that students just don't want to eat the chicken bones that come their way at least three times a week. And why, dining hall personnel must wonder, are we so reluctant to gobble up our banana peels, orange rinds, and apple cores? Odds are that these items are included in our daily food waste tallies. It's difficult to picture someone separating the grapefruit peel from the half-eaten doughnut.

We'd sure have a lot less waste if the dining halls stopped serving chicken and fruit, those socially inefficient goods. Nevertheless, other, more insidious culprits contribute to waste.

Take, for example, mushy tomatoes. Yes, those tomato slices look so firm and juicy when you plop them on your salad, but are soon revealed to be watery, tasteless fakes. Of course they're left on our plates at the end of the meal; eating them could put you off tomatoes for life.

In any case, this waste-cutting week should be accompanied by a period of serious self-examination in the dining halls. Dining service buyers must ask themselves, "Is boneless chicken's price justified by the decreased loss to society?" Students must in turn ask, "Is that honey-mustard boneless chicken?"