Category Archives: Farm

Friday Buffet

In case you haven’t read it, check out this incredibly sensible Michael Pollan op-ed on the farm bill. He argues that the long-standing federal farm policy subsidizes fats and sugars, increasing obesity rates and making processed foods cheaper. — — An employee at Panera Bread blogged about sandwich shop food waste. OK, so maybe I […]

November 9, 2007 | Also posted in College, Friday Buffet, Institutional, Restaurant | Comments closed

Trouble in Paradise

Maui is facing a food waste crisis. A local pig farmer who took 3 tons of restaurant and hotel garbage daily lost his lease, forcing the island’s hospitality industry to find an alternate destination for their food waste. The stakes are high, as the county-operated Central Maui landfill cannot safely accept the combination of liquid […]

November 7, 2007 | Also posted in Waste Stream | Comments closed

Loss of Lamb

Today’s post is a sad one: 500,000 lambs will be killed in Scotland and Wales with none of the animals being used as food. Sending lambs to the slaughter is sad enough when it’s done to feed people. When it’s done for no real reason… From what I understand, foot and mouth regulations prevent much movement of flocks. […]

October 31, 2007 | Also posted in International | Comments closed

Drought and Waste

I can’t remember the last time it really rained here in North Carolina. We got a few drops last week, but that was all. While it’s not as bad as this Aral Sea photo, there’s an “exceptional” drought in much of the Southeast. There was an interesting article in The News & Observer today about […]

October 23, 2007 | Posted in Farm | Comments closed

Farm Aid Food Rescue

In addition to funding family farmers, this month’s Farm Aid also helped the hungry. How? The good people at City Harvest held a food drive and, more germane to this site, recovered food from the backstage caterers. While the canned food drive collected 2,000 pounds, City Harvest gathered an additional 5,000 pounds of primo food, the same […]

September 20, 2007 | Also posted in Food Recovery | Comments closed

Ag (Against) Waste

Last week I visited Ag Against Hunger, a food recovery operation in Salinas, Calif. What makes their operation unique is that it receives donations primarily from the large-scale farms. In Salinas, known as “Salad Bowl of America,” most of the big farms are packers and shippers, too. The majority of the donations Ag Against Hunger receives […]

September 18, 2007 | Also posted in Food Recovery | Comments closed

Grim Reaping

For those of you new to the site, I’ve been researching the food wasted in America’s food chain for more than two years. The work has its highs (food donation research at a Bob Dylan show) and lows (working in a supermarket produce section), but seldom gets boring. That’s because there’s so many areas in our food chain […]

August 28, 2007 | Posted in Farm | Comments closed

Who Needs Humans?

Picking tree fruit is a tricky business. Timing is vital, as apples, pears, etc. must be picked before they’re ripe. If not, they won’t survive cross-country shipping and great quantities of fruit are wasted.  Making matters worse, orchard owners have a hard time finding pickers. In addition to standing on 15-foot ladders while balancing 35-pound bags of fruit, […]

August 14, 2007 | Also posted in Technology | Comments closed

Nova Scotia News

A few blips from Nova Scotia crossed my desk last week. This article gave a behind-the-scenes look at fast food restaurants there. From reading it, I learned that the Canadian province has three distinct waste streams–trash, recyclables and organics. Some restaurants may be scandalously combining the three, but at least it’s an exception to the […]

August 7, 2007 | Also posted in International, Waste Stream | Comments closed

About that 27 percent

Whenever the discussion of food waste comes up, the 27 percent figure soon follows. According to the USDA’s helpful research wing–the Economic Research Service (ERS)–that amount of the edible food available for human consumption in the US at retail, restaurant and consumer levels is “lost to human use.” My 3 cents: 1. It’s incomplete. It […]

June 21, 2007 | Also posted in Processing Plants, Restaurant, Stats, Supermarket | Comments closed