Monthly Archives: June 2008

Picky, Picky

Fresh from the UK comes this food waste horror story: European Union sizing requirements required a British wholesaler to throw away 5,000 kiwis. Here’s a slightly less sensationalistic view of the story. An inspection of the fruit found that a number of the batch weighed 58 grams, with 62 grams the low-end limit. Tim Down, […]

June 30, 2008 | Posted in Farm, History and Culture, International, Supermarket | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Here’s a neat idea: six Seattle area families held a contest to see who could cut the most weight from their garbage. The winning family trimmed its trash by 82 percent in just six weeks. Sure, it helps that King County allows residents to put food waste in the yard waste bin that is collected, […]

June 27, 2008 | Posted in Composting, International, Technology | Comments closed

Rescued Brunch

I was reading this impassioned opinion piece on Philadelphia food security, I found myself nodding along. Then I got to the bottom and read this little disclaimer: Meghan McCracken is the Public Relations Associate at the Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger. She and her housemates run an underground secret café, serving handmade local seasonal and/or […]

June 26, 2008 | Posted in Food Recovery, Household, Restaurant | Comments closed

Refrigerator Recommendations

When people ask me how they can reduce their personal food waste, I often point them to five basic tips. But this recent piece in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette provides more specific advice on how best to use your fridge and handle food. For instance, this pointer: Expiration dates are most often “sell by” or […]

June 25, 2008 | Posted in Food Safety, Household | Comments closed

Today Day

In case you missed it, here is today’s Today segment on food waste that featured yours truly: It was downright thrilling to see the issue of food waste on national TV. And it was fun, yet surreal watching myself play the role of “talking head” as I experienced my 15 minutes 15 seconds 8 seconds […]

June 24, 2008 | Posted in Food Recovery, Household, Personal | Comments closed

Too Much Left Over?

Back in May, the Non-Consumer Advocate (Katy) threw down a “Waste No Food Challenge” on her blog. Since my life is one big “Waste No Food Challenge,” I loved it. Well, Katy updated us on her progress and noted that while she’s been saving her leftovers, she often just has too much of each dinner […]

June 23, 2008 | Posted in Household | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Don’t waste bananas–they might not be around much longer (at least not at $0.49/lb.) — — This just in: Australians waste $6 billion worth of food. Maybe it’s time Aussies *not* ‘put an extra shrimp on the barbie.’ Apparently those in the Australian capital of Canberra waste the most. Fortunately, Australia’s first food recovery operation, […]

June 20, 2008 | Posted in Composting, Food Recovery, Friday Buffet, Household, International, Restaurant | Comments closed

I Love L.A.

Cheer up, L.A. Your basketball team may have gotten smoked by the Celtics, but at least things are looking up on the food waste front. The City of Angels will launch a pilot program for household food waste composting in September. While the test program will only include 8,700 homes, let’s hope it catches hold […]

June 19, 2008 | Posted in Composting, Waste Stream | Comments closed

Israeli Food Recovery Q & A

Table to Table (T2T) is Israel’s leading food rescue organization. Joseph Gitler, an American immigrant from New York, founded the group in 2003. Five years and countless pounds of rescued food later, the group continues to feed hungry Israelis. Chief Operating Officer Gidi Kroch sat down with me (in an e-mail kind of way) to […]

June 18, 2008 | Posted in Food Recovery, International, Q & A | Comments closed

Guest Post/Call for Volunteers

Calling all academically inclined dumpster divers… 3.69 billion pounds of seafood to get to the bottom of! As a researcher for fish and seafood issues at Food & Water Watch, I’ve recently begun pondering how food waste is affecting our fish stocks. In the fish world, we’re constantly thinking about the limitations of our wild […]

June 17, 2008 | Posted in General | Comments closed