I’m not much for cooking shows. I can’t stomach all those wasted ingredients as they switch from the mixing bowl to the version finishing in the oven. Plus, they make me hungry.
But I wanted to give credit where it’s due to an obscure host named Rachael Ray. You may have seen her on your box of Wheat Thins or […]

Wow, cookbooks sure have changed!
This 1916 beauty is actually a freebie distributed by Fred Scott Coal. Can you imagine anything like it today? And it’s not like Scott had any vested interest in people not wasting.
More to the point, World War I was raging and while the U.S. hadn’t yet entered, Americans were encouraged to […]

Most Mondays, I offer advice on how to avoid waste. Today, listening to this NPR piece on the Japanese idea of Mottainai will be more helpful than any of my specific recommendations.
Mottainai means, roughly, ‘don’t waste.’ The concept is part of Japan’s cultural DNA, but it had recently been losing out to consumerism (sound familiar, my fellow […]

The articles on Ramadan food waste continue to roll in here at Wasted Food Headquarters. This article in Qatar’s Gulf-Times provides an Upstairs, Downstairs-like, behind-the-scenes insight on how breaking the Ramadan fast leads to food waste:
Contrary to the essence and spirit of fasting, which is meant to incorporate piety and kindheartedness in those observing them, people have […]

Last night I spoke to a local group of young professionals about food waste. As much as I like blogging to you discerning readers, the talk was a nice opportunity to converse with an audience that could and did ask questions and challenge some assumptions. 
Some attendees were curious about the statistic that we don’t eat a quarter of the food […]

Yesterday we talked about how the desire for flawless produce leads to much waste. Pushing the issue further, who’s to blame for this desire?
While Wayne Roberts’ article impugned food magazines, I’d also blame most supermarkets, especially Whole Foods. Most retailers make a point of having bountiful, beautiful displays. Doing so means throwing out imperfect, nonuniform produce.
As Whole […]

Wayne Roberts, a Toronto journalist and occasional farmer has written a fascinating article in the current issue of Canadian publication NOW on how glossy magazines instill a desire for perfect looking produce. This causes unrealistic expecatations, and ultimately, waste.
…most of the food we toss, perhaps one-fifth of the harvest, is wasted simply because it disappoints visual expectations […]

I just read this nice tribute to Clayton Taub, a real mensch who was essentially a one-man food recovery operation.
The column describes Taub as having “an intolerance for waste and a passion for helping others.” Is it just me, or are there fewer and fewer folks in America’s younger generations who fit that first description?
Your thoughts, please.

Kottke.org brings the bread menu holder to our attention. Le Pain Quotidien, a Belgian chain with franchises in N.Y. and L.A, uses bread with slices to store menus.
“Cool idea” is the prevailing sentiment in the commentary below Jason Kottke’s photo of the menu holder on flickr. I have to disagree. While it’s by no means the most flagrant wasting I’ve seen, it sets a […]

This piece provides a little culinary exploration into the origins of traditional African American foods and a bit of watermelon history. In it, there’s a nice nugget about thrift:
Nothing was ever wasted in the African American kitchen. Leftover fish became croquettes (by adding an egg, cornmeal or flour, seasonings and breaded then deep-fried). Stale bread became […]