This weekend was a wasted food feast over on NPR. First, The Splendid Table quiz asked: What is a Saudi restaurateur doing to reduce food waste? Head to the 32:00 mark for the question and answer. — — And over on A Praire Home Companion, Stephanie Davis sang the only gleaning song I’ve ever heard. “Give [...]
There’s a new app to help New Yorkers find and patronize restaurants that donate unused food to City Harvest. Perfect! — — Food deserts present a real problem these days. This piece addresses the different solutions, from Walmart to urban agriculture to food recovery. — — You want tips on how to avoid waste and [...]
“Clean your plate, there are children starving [somewhere].” That saying is problematic, partly because it guilts us into overeating. But a burgeoning non-profit called Halfsies has a better idea. At participating restaurants, customers can select a Halfsies version of a dish, giving them less food and ensuring that the value of the unserved half goes [...]
Six years ago, I went gleaning for the first time, gathering sweet potatoes in rural North Carolina. A year ago, I went through a brief training so as to coordinate future gleaning outings. Yesterday, I got to supervise one such outing–gleaning sweet potatoes, of course (it is North Carolina). The volunteers were mostly a troupe [...]
USA! USA! Oh, wait–first place is bad here. Not surprisingly, the United States owns ‘most wasteful nation’ status with food. (Although I am confused by the data source…) — — In case you were curious, here’s what curbside composting looks like in Portland, with their tasteful brown kitchen caddies… — — Sticking in Oregon, here’s [...]
In the wake of recent disasters, the Mississippi Gulf Coast communities came together to create a plan for sustainability. One aspect of the plan centers on food and one particular document provides a Recipe for a Sustainable Coast. That study, much to my delight, lists the amount of wasted food as a major obstacle to [...]
In case you missed it, there was a fabulous op-ed in Friday’s Times. Its two authors looked at global food waste and characterized it as an opportunity to feed the 925 million undernourished people on this earth. The authors do a nice job conveying the scale of our waste. But it also gets beyond the numbers, illustrating [...]
California, not content with having achieved the goal set in 1989 of recycling 50 percent of its waste stream, just passed a bill requiring the state to keep 75 percent of its trash out of the landfill. Way to set the bar high, Cali! — — The Occupy Wall Street gang gets plenty of donated [...]
Thanks to this editorial, I just learned about the practice of celebrating UCSB soccer goals and wins by tossing tortillas on the field. To wit: Here’s an opposing editorial on why tortilla tossing is great, which includes this gem: Tortillas represent the Argentinian Cowboys, the Gauchos. It’s a feeling of who the Gauchos are, and [...]
1.5 percent. That’s the percentage of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions stemming from wasted food, according to CleanMetrics. It’s not a massive figure, but consider this: The average person’s food waste contributes almost 5 percent of the emissions of the typical car. And 1.5 percent is a conservative estimate, as it doesn’t include restaurant waste. So [...]
