Monthly Archives: April 2008

Jack Groh Q & A

In February, I gushed about food recovery during Super Bowl week. The NFL Environmental Program teamed with the Arizona non-profit Waste Not to collect more than 93,000 pounds of sanitary, delicious leftovers. After overseeing Pro Bowl activities in Honolulu (poor guy!) and getting started on next year’s Super Bowl, Jack Groh, director of the NFL […]

April 15, 2008 | Posted in Events, Food Recovery, Q & A | Comments closed

Food’s Violent Inflation

Food prices are on the rise domestically (especially for pizza) and even more so in the developing world. While that may prompt home budget adjusting for some, it causes others to go hungry and/or take to the streets. This weekend in Haiti, unrest caused by inflation brought violence and death. The Prime Minister (but not the […]

April 14, 2008 | Posted in Household, Hunger, International | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Tigers and Strawberries continues its series on avoiding restaurant food waste, discussing efficient storeroom procedures and utilizing surplus. — — You cartographers and map lovers will enjoy the compost path at Vermont’s Green Mountain College. The school feeds two pigs with the prep waste (kitchen scraps) and composts the plate waste (what students discard). — […]

April 11, 2008 | Posted in College, Friday Buffet, Restaurant | Comments closed

Pakistani Bliss?

As I learned in this post on All Things Pakistan, there’s a great deal of food waste at Pakistani weddings. This isn’t shocking, nor is it much different in the U.S., but the post provides some food for thought. In what will be familiar to anyone who has planned a wedding or large event, Syed […]

April 10, 2008 | Posted in Events, International | Comments closed

Fridges Fingered

I was at a sustainable energy conference yesterday and someone threw out this statistic: From 1974 to 2003, the average refrigerator volume increased from 17.5 to 22.5 cubic feet. (Sorry, I don’t have a link right now.) On the plus side, refrigerators’ energy efficiency has increased by 74 percent. The average 1974 ‘fridge used 1825 […]

April 9, 2008 | Posted in Energy, Household, Stats | Comments closed

Apple Frittered

Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) released a staggering figure the other day: 4.4 million whole apples are being thrown away every day in Britain. That’s 12 double decker buses full. These apples are termed “avoidable losses,” meaning perfectly good fruit that could have been consumed. You know the old saying: An apple a day…gets thrown away. Or […]

April 8, 2008 | Posted in Household, Stats | Comments closed

Game for Grain

Who wouldn’t want to aid the hungry by playing a game? That’s what Free Rice does, with the UN World Food Program donating 20 grains of rice for every vocab word you successfully identify. Who says you can’t affect change in this global economy? Now is a great time to play, as rice prices are […]

April 7, 2008 | Posted in International | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

With Passover just around the corner, it seems ironic that Egyptian bread is in the news. The Financial Times of Germany (even more irony?) reported that 20 percent of Egyptian bread made with subsidized wheat is going to waste. The culprit: Corrupt bakers sell their cheap flour on the black market or deliberately ruin some […]

April 4, 2008 | Posted in College, Friday Buffet, International, Restaurant, Supermarket, Trayless | Comments closed

Catch O’ the Day: Waste

Shifting gears a bit, let’s talk about fishing. In a real quirk of conservation, an attempt to preserve falling fish stocks leads to waste in the British fishing industry. To comply with the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy (and prevent a tragedy of the commons), commercial fishing boats in waters near Britain must throw back tons […]

April 3, 2008 | Posted in International | Comments closed

Sprout On

Last week, I wrote about having to buy a half-pound bag of bean sprouts when I just needed a handful. This week, in making an encore entree out of cold sesame noodles, I went to the Asian grocer nearby and bought just the right amount. Not only did I preclude any extra sprouts, which I […]

April 2, 2008 | Posted in History and Culture, Household, Supermarket | Comments closed