Monthly Archives: August 2010

Old Edamame

We did a little fridge cleaning this weekend. And I unearthed this bag of frozen edamame that have been in our freezer since the Bush administration. Probably the son. Not surprisingly, they looked bad. Really bad. A few had freezer burn, many were shriveled. I reluctantly made peace with putting them out to pasture (in […]

August 30, 2010 | Posted in Household, Personal | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Iowa State’s University Extension urges students to reduce waste as part of its Spend Smart, Eat Smart campaign. It includes a useful run-down on expiration date definitions. — — I am in no way surprised that a Portland culinary school teaches students to be smart about waste. I am a bit surprised that the Art […]

August 27, 2010 | Posted in Airline, Composting, Friday Buffet, International | Comments closed

Judging by its cover…

Last month, I linked to the Amazon page for my book. And I did the same on Facebook, where I gave a little disclaimer that the cover would change a bit. And so it has! Folks, here’s the final final version: And because I’m trying to bolster my Facebook “likers,” you can visit my page […]

August 25, 2010 | Posted in Personal | Comments closed

Taking the Temperature

It’s happened again. Our British friends at WRAP released another food waste study, this time on Reducing Waste Through the Chill Chain. (Here’s the abbreviated version.) While their “chill chain” may be our cold one, the study is quite useful on either side of the Atlantic. It found that many folks’ refrigerator temperatures are often […]

August 23, 2010 | Posted in Food Safety, Household, International | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

More fallout from Monday’s topic of energy lost in food waste. In her Discover blog, Sheril Kirshenbaum asks ‘how do we change attitudes and behavior on waste?’ Well, I hope it starts with a book. — — Not that you’d ever think of wasting peanut butter, but just in case…here are 10 other uses for […]

August 20, 2010 | Posted in College, Environment, Friday Buffet, Hunger | Comments closed

Who Needs Morning Edition…

…when there’s NPR’s Intern Edition?? The end-of-summer web collection of  intern-produced radio content produced some excellent segments. To wit: I tweeted about this piece last week, but I’m embedding the audio slide show because it’s just that good. The photos alone tell a story about food recovery and food waste. And the (intern) journalist Alexandria […]

August 18, 2010 | Posted in Food Recovery | Comments closed

Wasted Energy

What if I told you our food waste represents 2 percent of our national energy use? And then what if I told you that figure was based on the prehistoric (OK, mid 90s) figure that we waste 27 percent of our food? Is that something that might interest you? The above tidbits come from a […]

August 16, 2010 | Posted in Energy, General | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Beginning of the end or end of the beginning? Euro robots can power up on food waste. Crazy stuff! What’s next–humans that can turn bytes into bites?! — — A few weeks back, I linked to Eureka Recycling’s cool bike composting program, but here’s an updated report on the Minnesota project via Treehugger. — — […]

August 13, 2010 | Posted in Composting, Energy, Friday Buffet, History and Culture, International | Comments closed

U.S. Snapshot

The Guardian ran an excellent piece on U.S. food waste yesterday. And I’m not just saying that because I spoke with its writer and am mentioned in it briefly. The article does a nice job summarizing the problem of food waste while explaining why it matters. I wasn’t surprised, as I had a great chat […]

August 11, 2010 | Posted in General | Comments closed

Interesting Times in LA

Last week, Los Angeles Times columnist David Lazarus penned this op-ed calling for more leftover sharing by restaurants, hotels and caterers. He even suggested making it mandatory for these food businesses to tell customers that they can donate the unserved food. For the clients who choose to donate the food, the restaurant, hotel or caterer […]

August 9, 2010 | Posted in Events, Food Recovery, Restaurant | Comments closed