Lost in my post-Christmas haze was National Leftovers Day in Australia. It makes plenty of sense, given the usual Christmas dinner abundance. And rest assured the Kiwis are onto the idea, too (in a Dec. 30 article I’m writing about on Dec. 29–a clear example of my soothsaying prowess).
In the U.S., we have the Friday after Thanksgiving for the same unofficial [...]

First off, Merry Christmas!
Many of us will enjoy a nice family dinner on Christmas–and I hope you do enjoy it! I also hope you make good use of your leftovers. As does my man Hilary Benn, UK Environment Secretary, who hit out at the practice of binning Christmas leftovers.
Meanwhile, in a related topic, the City of [...]

In case you missed this weekend’s A Prairie Home Companion, the Guy Noir segment (at around the 16 minute mark of the show) was a cracker. And best of all, it centered on food recovery.
Martin Sheen plays Louie Louie, who runs a food salvage business by snagging diners remains from fancy fund-raising dinners. He employs [...]

Since the buffet was closed on Friday and I had a few things I wanted to pass along, how about an ever-so-rare Monday Buffet? Here goes:
Wednesday’s Feeding the 5000 event prompted a nice editorial (not an op-ed!) in The Guardian about reducing food waste. While it’s not a surprise to see the liberal-ish paper take [...]

A few of you kind souls have sent this City Harvest PSA to me, all with the caveat that ‘no apples were wasted in the making of this ad.’

I was pretty skeptical. I mean, how’d they do it? By installing nets on the opposite subway track? By considering feeding rats not wasting?
Oh, right–CGI. [...]

Today, a coalition of cool people will feed a multitude of Londoners a free lunch in Trafalgar Square. Feeding the 5,000 is an event organized by Tristram Stuart in conjunction with a bunch of partners–FareShare, ActionAid, Save the Children and This is Rubbish.
The noon-time event won’t require any miracles, as in a past feeding of [...]

I’m now back in the USSR after a great trip to England. One of the highlights of my UK visit was getting an hour with Hilary Benn, the Secretary of State for the Environment. In that role, he heads Defra, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
In addition to being quite down to earth, [...]

While I was meeting with the woman who runs the Love Food, Hate Waste (LFHW) site in England, the dining services folks at UC Davis used that very slogan as the title for their report/how-to-manual/call to action. Good for them!
“Love Food, Hate Waste” is really worth browsing through, as it has a little bit of [...]

I’ve been excited to see the press that Kevin Hall et al’s study has received. You know, the one that found that America wastes 40 percent of its food.
It was featured in The Economist and then The New York Times “Idea of the Day” blog repeated the findings with a quote from the former.
They found [...]

Washington’s King County (home of Seattle) is pushing the envelope on food waste collection. Why should Thanksgiving be any different?
Monday, a neighborhood in Renton, Wash., dumped turkey carcasses and other Thanksgiving leftovers in a public location as part of a composting demo organized by the County recycling team. I’m guessing the county carted away the [...]