Wasted Food — Jonathan Bloom on food waste and how it can be avoided

Category: Tree Gleaning

  • Pay It (Food) Forward

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    You know what’s hard to argue against? Rescuing food doomed for the landfill and redistributing it to those in need. Doing that with healthy produce is even more unassailable. Food Forward specializes in the latter, recovering fruit and veggies from backyard trees, farmers’ markets and wholesalers in the Los Angeles area. The group, around since…

  • Falling Fruit: Foraging Friend

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    Ever see a bunch of rotten apples at the bottom of a tree and wish you’d arrived earlier? If only you’d known about that tree a few weeks ago…if only there was a way to map “public fruit.” Soon, there will be an app for that. Falling Fruit, a resource for finding global urban edibles,…

  • Harvesting Hope

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    There are many valiant gleaning initiatives in the U.S., but I haven’t seen any that also count integrating refugees into American life as part of their mission. Except, that is, the Iskashitaa Refugee Network. Last month, I had the opportunity to visit with the Tucson, Ariz., operation and was impressed with their range of programs…

  • Gleaning Trees for (and with) Refugees

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    This video combines two of my favorite things–local news and tree gleaning. Here, Tucson’s KVOA tells us about Iskash*taa Refugee Harvesting network, which gleans backyard citrus trees to sweeten refugees’ lives. Plus, it’s awesome to see the recipients harvesting alongside others. That experience and interaction will benefit both recipients and volunteers. My one complaint: how…

  • Gone to Ground

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    I’m working like crazy to make my book deadline, but I’d hate to leave you in a lurch on Presidents’ Day. So, a few quick links: While doing some final research on the apple industry, I came across this article on apples gone to ground. An oldie but goodie, er, sort of. While we’re talking about apples…this may…

  • Grapefruit Gone to Ground

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    On my last day in Chile for this chef’s conference, I ran into some farm waste. A group of 50 of us were touring an avocado, grape and citrus farm called Desarrollo Agrario thanks to Hass Avocado (warning: awesome jingle at this site. Also, palta, not aguacate, is South American Spanish for avocado). On the…

  • Friday Buffet

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    Here’s a little drilling down on the cultural barriers to asking for doggy bags in the UK. — — Green Seal restaurant standards just received a nice boost in the form of national recognition (from ANSI). Not that I have a clue about design, but I’m still not wild about the Green Seal logo–it seems more blue…

  • Radio Daze

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    This morning, I was on WNPR’s Where We Live. As always, I had a good time talking waste (even though I’m not a morning person, which showed a few times). The hour really flew by and there were a few things I was hoping to get in but didn’t. For example, a caller mentioned how…

  • Friday Buffet

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    I’ve written about vacation rental food waste recovery (mouthful!) before, but here’s a recent news report on it (with video). This is one of my favorite ideas, as it allows families who’ve rented homes for a beach getaway to donate their vacation groceries before they leave town. — — Atta boy, Texas! — — From a review of…

  • Free Fallen Fruit

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    Among the originators of tree gleaning, L.A.’s Fallen Fruit have a different way of going about it. They bill themselves as an “activist art project.” The group started by mapping and gathering public fruit, “which is what we call all fruit on or overhanging public spaces such as sidewalks, streets or parking lots.” They now have a…