Category Archives: History and Culture

Bloody Good?

We’re all familiar with that Dracula line: “I vaant to suck your blood!” But these days, the non-Twilight set may be more interested in eating it. No, it’s not a post-Halloween joke: many cultures use animal blood as part of their cuisine. You have blood pancakes, blood pudding and blood porridge. And blood is used [...]

November 1, 2012 | Also posted in International | Comments closed

Hooray for Food Day!

Happy Food Day, y’all! While the rest of the globe celebrated World Food Day earlier this month, we independent Americans are sticking with our own version (for some reason). Regardless, it’s a good day to be mindful about our food. That mindfulness can take many forms. It can mean “eating real.” Hopefully, that will also include [...]

October 24, 2012 | Posted in History and Culture | Comments closed

Food *Waste* Revolution?

Fresh off tackling obesity, Jamie Oliver will now turn his attention to food waste with his next TV project. At least that’s what his pal, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, he of the valiant Fish Fight campaign, announced for at a recent press conference. It’s not clear whether this would be on US or UK television, but I’d bet on [...]

October 17, 2012 | Also posted in College, International | Comments closed

Taking the Pulse: Perfection

Wednesday’s The New York Times offered a few takes on one topic: the appearance of our food. First, this fascinating piece on food photographer Laura Letinsky details her subversion of glistening food perfection. I’m particularly interested in her propensity to photograph a meal’s aftermath, leftovers included. I was even more interested in this quote from [...]

October 10, 2012 | Posted in History and Culture | Comments closed

Giving the Gift of Reduced Waste

With the holidays fast approaching, I wanted to pass on a few quick tips to help you minimize holiday food waste: 1. Don’t cook too much food. Thanksgiving celebrates abundance. As far as I know, none of the winter holidays do. Get a good guest count and try not to go overboard. After all, we can [...]

December 19, 2011 | Also posted in Household | Comments closed

Post-Turkey-Day Buffet

Happy (de facto) National Leftover Day! Join the crowd and enjoy the world’s best sandwich–the turkey-stuffing-cranberry goodness. Gravy and mayo are optional, but at least one is recommended. — — Don’t throw out that carcass! First, you can make a great soup with it. Then, if you’re in Rhode Island, you can compost it via [...]

November 25, 2011 | Also posted in Household, International | Comments closed

Music for a Good Dumpster Dive

If you could use a little pick-me-up this morning or some inspiration for hitting the Dumpsters, you could do worse than the Black Lips’ Dumpster Dive. Perhaps fittingly, it’s the last track on their MySpace site and their album… I ain’t seen some good trash since I…since I don’t know when… While I can’t make out [...]

June 20, 2011 | Also posted in Freegan | Comments closed

Illustrating Abundance

Whenever I’m asked why we waste so much food, ‘abundance’ is one of the first words I utter. We grow far more food than we need, averaging 3900 calories per person per day.* One result of our abundance is that we’re inundated with food. Supermarkets have a seemingly bottomless supply of food (When was the [...]

January 19, 2011 | Posted in History and Culture | Comments closed

Naval Gazing

I recently came across an amazing collection of vintage Navy posters dealing with–you guessed it–food waste. Avoiding waste, to be more specific. I’d only previously seen one of these posters, so you can imagine my excitement–especially as I’m a bit of a propaganda geek. The Navy’s Bureau of Supplies and Accounts produced this set of [...]

January 10, 2011 | Posted in History and Culture | Comments closed

Clean Plate Club?

As we ease into 2011, it’s a decent time to revisit the ‘clean your plate’ ethic, as this Kansas City Star columnist does. In this obesity-heavy era, it’s easy to scoff at the idea that we should eat all that’s on our plates. There are the eating disorder worries. And with today’s portion sizes so [...]

January 3, 2011 | Also posted in Household | Comments closed