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A UK professor has the dirt on the EU’s strict standards for veggies.

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For those of you on Netflix–you can now instantly watch Dive! the quintessential American dumpster diving doc.

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No need for a caucus to determine that composting school food waste in Iowa makes sense!

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Wait, what?! A report out of LA says that 62% of students there don’t have enough time to eat all of their lunch? That can’t be good for food waste.

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Glad to hear that the city of Tacoma has given residents an early Christmas present–curbside composting, coming this spring.

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This article has it all: general green tips for the holidays, a discussion of
packaging waste vs food waste and minimizing holiday food waste.

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Similarly, here’s more on the topic of food packaging vs. food waste. Unfortunately, it can be one of the only times reducing food waste conflicts with another green cause.

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Token Hanukkah bit: I’ve been surprised by how seamlessly (If I do say so myself) I was able to sneak some leftover veggies into latkes. Just sayin…

Happy Holidays, folks!

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Not sure about the viability of replicating this school without Titanic/Avatar money, but it’s pretty neat–a zero waste elementary school in Malibu. Sure, they’re composting. But what I really want to see is the campus falconer in action.

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Food waste = money waste. Heck, yeah!

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Quote of the week:

“It’s a really awesome substrate to be digesting, because it’s extremely energy-rich.”

– US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) spokesperson Laura Moreno on using anaerobic digestion on food waste at East Bay Municipal Utility District’s wastewater plant.

Hopefully the Houston Independent School District does decide to allow students more choice in what lunch items they take. And just seeing the footage of the mass-produced school lunches makes one want to visit The Lunch Box.

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Good to know that some Arizona food scraps are going to hogs. I’ll be visiting a similar scheme in Las Vegas later in the summer.

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And here’s a followup from that same FAO world waste study–a report on post-harvest losses in sub-Saharan Africa.

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MSNBC weighed in with this piece on how ‘use-by’ dates prompt waste. Not shocking, but it contained this particularly useful passage:

There’s no magical threshold after which a certain food harvested on a certain date suddenly goes bad, Hurd said. “All food has bacteria in it all the time. As that bacteria grows, there’s a continuum along which food becomes more harmful.”

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An Oregon school slashed the amount of food it sends to the landfill by adopting–wait for it–a pig!

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During lunch with Jodi Bart, the woman behind the Tasty Touring blog, I tested out a new acronym to help folks trim their waste. Let me know what you think…

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So you’re saying porridge isn’t popular? In response to hefty wasting of the breakfast gruel, a UK hospital will stop serving porridge unless it’s specifically requested.

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Lunchroom changes at The Lawrenceville School in N.J. have led to 80% less food waste. Wow.

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Last year there were no commercial composters near St. Louis. Today, there are two.

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Pretty good April Fool’s joke about Lady Gaga’s new fashion line making use of discarded meat….

On visits to lunchrooms in Chicago public schools, the Tribune watched as vast quantities of unpeeled fruit, vegetables, milk cartons and other items got pitched into the garbage.

The piece cited some staggering numbers, detailing that one school tossed 334 pounds of uneaten whole food in one day. Sad. Yet, without knowing how many students attended the school, that amount is less useful.

Of course, this is far from a Chicago-specific problem. I remember the many, many cartons of unopened milk tossed into a waste bin when I visited a Mississippi school in the decidedly unaffluent Delta.

I’m so glad the Trib is examining the topic of school food waste. And highlighting possible solutions, like redistributing whole, unopened foods, especially fruit. Apparently, Seven Generations Ahead is increasingly making that a reality.

Plus, the idea of sharing tables sounds ideal, allowing students to leave foods they’re not going to eat for other students. And allowing some choice in school lunch will only help. Same goes for having lunch after recess.

About half of the $4.5 billion cost is financed by a cut in food stamps starting in several years.

In your best Jon Stewart voice: Wha-wha-what?!? So we’re making sure students eat better in school by ensuring that they eat worse at home?

…Mr. Obama tamped down concern by telling Democrats he would work with them to find other ways to pay for the bill, before the cuts in food stamps take effect.

OK, that’s cool…if he’s still in office.

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Composting is a fabulous way to handle the food waste that can’t be avoided, but I’m not sure I’d brag about having this much to compost:

The Whole Foods Store in Alpharetta, Georgia, disposes of over one thousand pounds of cuttings and food waste every day.

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Food waste is on the radar in Canada. Well, at least Canada.com tackled the topic.

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And speaking of Canada, I thought my interview on the CBC’s Q (on Dec. 1) was among the best radio discussions on the topic I’ve experienced thus far. [Here's the mp3 if that's better]

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Houston high schoolers turning food scraps into gasoline?? Great Scott, Marty! To the DeLorean!

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Here’s a good look at the anaerobic digester at Oakland’s East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD).

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And don’t forget–if you’re in DC, I have a reading tonight at Borders. See you there?

Unlike the traditional sweets and chips, fresh foods in vending machine provides new challenges to avoid waste. Namely, temperature and bruising.

It’d be easier if the new machines focused on whole fruits or fresh cut veggies. But since they sell both, with their differing temperature ranges, engineers have had to figure out how to keep the bananas at 57 degrees up top and carrots and celery at 34 degrees.

The solution includes keeping bananas up high, which brings bruising damage as every order requires a four or five-foot drop. Engineers created an angled wall to deflect the fall and placed cushions at the bottom.

Pretty soon, though, fruits displayed toward the top will get a luxurious ride down to the bottom in…an elevator. Hey, if grain gets elevators, why not fruit?

These new vending machines are certainly worthwhile, given the nutritional benefits. And the alternatives are frightening. But hopefully the makers will continue to work out the kinks to avoid waste. As one vending company head estimated:

I think the industry average is less than 10 percent product waste. But specific to fresh, it’s much higher than 10 percent.