Category Archives: Personal

Learning from ‘Lo Spreco’

I recently had the opportunity to help lead a Penn course on sustainability and the food-water-energy nexus, with an emphasis on food waste. The bulk of the course consisted of a week-long trip to Italy. Why Italy? First, why ever not? Second, course instructor Steve Finn wanted to explore food waste through the lens of […]

May 9, 2017 | Also posted in Campaigns, History and Culture, International | 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 Legislation | Comments closed

A Protocol Worth Pushing

I spent the last few days in Milan at the Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition 2014 Forum on Food and Nutrition (you can watch the food waste panel). It was thrilling to be a part of a gathering with the humble little goal of reforming our global food system. How does the BCFN plan to […]

December 5, 2014 | Also posted in Environment, International | Comments closed

Keep Your Waste Stream Relatively Clean In 2014

Happy New Year, y’all! As we make a boatload of resolutions for the year ahead, let’s put wasting less food at or near the top of our lists. Providing inspiration, the European Union has made noises about declaring 2014 the “European Year Against Food Waste.” At least the European Parliament urged the European Commission to […]

January 1, 2014 | Also posted in Household | Comments closed

Waste Weigh Friday

Last Friday, I helped oversee a cafeteria waste audit at Bucknell. It was my last day at the school and it was a nice culmination to a week of food waste awareness. It felt like a final exam–to gauge the impact of the week’s conversations, the posters in the cafeteria and a previous waste weigh. […]

April 15, 2013 | Also posted in College, General, Worth a Thousand Words | Comments closed

(Almost) Zero Waste

As part of my visit to Bucknell University this week, I organized a Zero Waste Dinner for a group of interested students. The idea was to create a meal that would produce no waste of any kind–be it food, paper or plastic. In addition to enjoying what they cooked, teams of students were involved in […]

April 12, 2013 | Also posted in College, Waste Stream | Comments closed

Encouraging Signs

I’m back at Bucknell University for the third of four week-long stints as an expert-in-residence. I’ll be guest lecturing in a variety of classes, leading a zero waste dinner and facilitating a waste weigh. I always relish the chance to discuss food waste with young folks–be it through giving talks, teaching or other. But perhaps […]

April 8, 2013 | Also posted in College | Comments closed

Borderlands Bienvenue

I’m in Arizona now, for a class visit and book reading at the University of Arizona, where I learned about this neat community food recovery venture. But, excitingly, this trip is also an opportunity to do some research. Thanks to the assistance of the inimitable Gary Nabhan, I will finally get to the Mexican border […]

February 12, 2013 | Posted in Personal | Comments closed

Estonia Brainstorm: Just Did It

I spent a few days last week with about 50 other sustainability thinkers and doers on snowy, secluded Muhu Island in Estonia. We were there as part of the Clean World Brainstorm, an offshoot of the Let’s Do It! organization. Why Estonia? Because that’s the home of Let’s Do It!, which got its start by […]

February 4, 2013 | Also posted in Environment, Waste Stream | Comments closed

Positive Signs

During my previous trip to Bucknell, where I have a series of week-long engagements, I visited Nancy White’s Mindful Consumption class a few times. The students then had an assignment to create awareness-raising signs on food waste. To my great delight, these signs are now hanging in Bucknell’s (trayless) cafeteria, where John Cummins and his […]

December 12, 2012 | Also posted in College | Comments closed