Japanese Restaurant Fines Customers Who Don’t Finish Their Plate
What’s the Latest Development?
A restaurant near the Japanese city of Sapporo has begun requiring customers who do not eat all their food to make a financial donation to the restaurant. The new rule specifically pertains to the restaurant’s tsukko meshi dish, a bowl of rice topped with an endless supply of salmon roe, a salty caviar. “If you are unable to finish your food, you must give a donation. That is because the working conditions for fishermen are harsh and so dangerous that lives could be lost. This is only to show gratitude and appreciation for the food they provide.”
What’s the Big Idea?
The restaurant’s policy, by asking customers to show appreciation for the effort required to make good food, highlights the wastage that occurs all throughout the globe. Beyond edibles being wasted, the energy and land lost to cultivating food that is eventually thrown away aggravates the global food crisis. According to a new report from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in London, “the potential to provide 60 to 100 per cent more food by simply eliminating losses, while simultaneously freeing up land, energy and water resources for other use, is an opportunity that should not be ignored.”
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