Category Archives: Legislation

Report from Congressional Food Waste Hearing

The following article by Jonathan appeared in BioCycle‘s June 2016 issue.  — On May 25, the House Agriculture Committee held hearings on the issue of food waste. Based on their tone, committee members sounded determined to use government to prompt change in the food waste status quo. Or at the very least, help remove bureaucratic [...]

June 17, 2016 | Posted in Legislation | Comments closed

5 Things Learned Lobbying Congress on Food Waste

This article by Jonathan originally appeared on Civil Eats on June 8, 2016.  — When I wrote a book about food waste six years ago, I never imagined attending a White House roundtable or lobbying Congress on the issue. But I recently had the chance to do both, with only the latter being somewhat on the record. [...]

June 13, 2016 | Posted in Legislation | Comments closed

Dear Wasted Food Dude–Date Label Hell(p)

Here’s the latest installment of my food waste advice column, Dear Wasted Food Dude. The column will run on BioCycle‘s website and in BioCycle Food Recycling News, their fledgling e-bulletin that all “wasted foodies” should sign up for pronto! I will also crosspost the columns here on Wasted Food. One thing any advice column needs inquiries. That means you need [...]

May 26, 2016 | Also posted in Food Safety, Household, Leftovers, Wasted Food Dude | Comments closed

Legislating Date Labels

America’s date label status quo has expired. Lack of a national standard on date labels combined with a jumble of state laws on the subject causes a jumble of confusing terms. A recent Harvard/Hopkins survey (PDF) documented the extent of that confusion. In that haze, we often throw out perfectly good food. That confusion causes [...]

May 19, 2016 | Also posted in Food Safety | Comments closed

Required Watching: EXPIRED?

The Harvard Food Policy and Law Clinic (FLPC) just released a fabulous short film on date labels called EXPIRED? You can watch it below and don’t miss their stout op-ed in the LA Times. I’m pretty sure you won’t spend a better 5 minutes online today. EXPIRED? is part of a neat companion site with plenty of [...]

February 11, 2016 | Also posted in Campaigns, Food Safety, Household | Comments closed

Awareness to Action: Rep. Pingree’s Food Recovery Act

Yesterday was a special day in the fight against wasted food. Congresswoman Chellie Pingree’s introduction of the Food Recovery Act marked a culmination and a commencement. It was a culmination of what I’ll call the wasted food awareness phase. For decades, wasted food was a problem hiding in plain site. Something so obvious, yet unseeable. Yet thanks [...]

December 8, 2015 | Also posted in Personal | Comments closed

Looking Back, Then Ahead

2014 has been a banner year for fighting food waste. There many successes to celebrate, including those on the policy level: Massachusetts’ ban on commercial food waste to landfills went into effect on October 1, The Milan Protocol included a goal of 50 percent reduction in food waste by 2020, and the USDA streamlined procedures for [...]

December 31, 2014 | Also posted in International, Waste Ban | Comments closed

Mass Change: Massachusetts Food Waste Ban Begins

Last week, Massachusetts took a major step toward becoming a state where no food waste hits the landfill. As of October 1, any entity producing more than 1 ton of food waste per week isn’t allowed to simply throw it away. That applies to restaurants, universities, hospitals and a variety of other operations. If all [...]

October 6, 2014 | Also posted in Anaerobic Digestion, Composting, Energy, Waste Ban | Comments closed

School Lunches Healthier, Just as Wasteful

Last week, a Harvard School of Public Health study exploring the impact of recent changes to school lunch came out with mixed news: students are eating more fruits and vegetables, but waste remains a problem. After the passage of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, new federal standards went into effect for the start of the 2012-2013 [...]

March 12, 2014 | Also posted in Institutional, School, Stats | Comments closed

Better Luck Next Year

Figuring out the EU food waste stance has never been easy. There’s the European Parliament, European Commission, EU FUSIONS and more. Yet, I thought I had one thing figured out: 2014 was going to be a key year. It was going to be the European Year Against Food Waste. Wrong. While keeping track of the exact details is [...]

February 17, 2014 | Also posted in International | Comments closed