Category Archives: Personal

NPR Spotlights Food Donation

NPR’s All Things Considered ran a fabulous feature on food donation last night, A Squash’s Journey (Sort of sounds like a kids book, no?) The story focuses on Walmart’s impressive food donation program. Specifically, it traces the, yes, journey of a squash and an ear of corn from the retail shelf to food bank recipients’ […]

June 24, 2011 | Also posted in Food Recovery, Supermarket | Comments closed

Batali Beckons

Two quick personal notes today: Last year, I was on a panel with a mover and shaker in the Mario Batali empire. After kicking around the idea for a while, I can now say that this July I’ll be giving a few talks to the staff at Mario’s restaurants in L.A. and Las Vegas. I’m […]

June 15, 2011 | Posted in Personal | Comments closed

Austin Report: Jackpot!

Last night was a special one for me. American Wasteland, my second child, won an IACP award in the first ever Food Matters category. As a result, the certificate pictured below now has pride of place in my Austin Motel room. I also get to insert that neat winner’s badge in the sidebar. And call […]

June 3, 2011 | Posted in Personal | Comments closed

FearLess Friday

Posh UK retailer Marks & Spencer has cut food waste by 29% since 2007. And, the food waste they do discard is composted or turned into biofuels. — — Recycling is on the rise at US restaurants, not surprisingly. What is a bit surprising–13 percent of the restaurants polled say they compost . — — My […]

May 27, 2011 | Also posted in Composting, International | Comments closed

Fear Not

I haven’t found much to blog about today, so I may as well push my appearance on the FearLess Revolution web show tomorrow. Alex Bogusky, “the Elvis of advertising,” hosts the live web show each Thursday from beautiful Boulder. I’ll be appearing with Josh Kunau, producer of that great Dumpster-diving documentary, Dive! Given that link […]

May 25, 2011 | Posted in Personal | Comments closed

First Impression: Impressed

This summer, I’m living in Boulder, Colorado at my wife’s behest. Well, her job’s behest. I’m excited about the opportunity for two reasons: 1. Mountains 2. Composting While I’ve been composting for more than six years, this marks the first time I’ll have lived somewhere with municipal composting. As in–roll a bin of food waste […]

May 23, 2011 | Also posted in Composting | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Here’s the NYT Green blog’s take on the FAO food waste study. Amen: Further research in the area is urgent, especially considering that food security is a major concern in large parts of the developing world. — — This blog post on the FAO study is well done, but it overlooks the cost of unharvested […]

May 20, 2011 | Also posted in Composting, Environment, International | Comments closed

Log on and (hopefully) Learn

If you’ve ever wondered what a presentation on food waste would sound like, here’s your chance to stop wondering: I’m doing an EPA-coordinated webinar tomorrow (Tuesday). My online talk with accompanying slides begins at 12:30pm EST and there will be an opportunity to ask questions afterwards. In addition to providing some insight on squandered food, […]

May 2, 2011 | Posted in Personal | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Walmart recently announced that their California stores have reduced what they send to the landfill by 80 percent (since 2009). Food donations, composting and anaerobic digestion all play a role there, with their stated goal of eliminating landfill waste by 2025. — — A new UK study found that household food waste accounts for 3 […]

March 25, 2011 | Also posted in Friday Buffet, International, Supermarket, Waste Stream | Comments closed

Catching Up

I’m still getting mentally unpacked from a fabulous West Coast swing. (Thanks to all who came out to one event or another.) While I was away, I didn’t have the chance to pass along a link to this New York Times piece on expiration dates. It was neat to see such a major newspaper address […]

March 14, 2011 | Also posted in Food Safety, Household | Comments closed