Category Archives: General

Food Waste Stump Speech

I’ve always loved traveling to colleges and conferences to speak on the impact and opportunity of wasted food. There’s something special about meeting new folks, bringing together interested people and groups, making eye contact on a key point, and, occasionally, hearing a chuckle on a joke. The pandemic squashed that. Like we’ve all done, though, […]

April 5, 2021 | Posted in General | Comments closed

Dumpster, Guarded

When 12 police officers are guarding a food-laden Dumpster, it’s worth reassessing the chain of events. Here goes: Portland store loses power due to snow and ice storm. Store throws away lots of food. Word spreads in city where 300,000 lack power. People come to grab food from dumpster. Store employees prevent dumpster diving and […]

February 19, 2021 | Posted in General | Comments closed

Chatting on Food Waste Day

And you thought September 29 was just National (U.S.) Coffee Day! The UN declared this day to in fact be International Day of Awareness for Food Loss and Waste. Who am I to argue? Instead, I joined the UN FAO’s Twitter chat. While I’d appreciate a shorter acronym next time to alleviate the Twitter character […]

September 29, 2020 | Also posted in Environment, Food Recovery, International, Leftovers, Storage | Comments closed

State of the Food Waste Union

Ladies and gentlemen, I’m pleased to report that the state of our Food Waste Union is strong! I’m not really sure whether that conveys that we’re wasting a lot of food or making progress on the issue, but, oddly, both are true! The occasion of the actual State of the Union address provides the perfect […]

February 1, 2018 | Posted in General | Comments closed

Wasted Food Dude–Using Up Dressing

Here’s the latest installment of my food waste advice column, Dear Wasted Food Dude, which also runs on BioCycle‘s site and their e-bulletin, BioCycle Food Recycling News.  Related: send questions! All food-waste-related queries are welcome–big or small, true or false, named or anonymous. Send stuff to wastedfood {at} gmail or @wastedfood. — Dear Wasted Food Dude, It seems that we can’t get through more […]

November 7, 2016 | Also posted in Household, Wasted Food Dude | Comments closed

Loving the Leftover Sandwich

Thanksgiving dinner is great, but the days following are truly special. Because those few days after Thursday are a real rarity–a time when eating leftovers is not just merely tolerated, but celebrated. And while turkey soup may epitomize the economy of repurposing leftovers, the turkey sandwich rules the leftover roost. In my family, we’ve come […]

November 30, 2015 | Also posted in Household, Leftovers | Comments closed

Imperfect Implications

We all love the fun pictures of produce oddities, epitomized by the  @UglyFruitandVeg feed and sold in the East Bay by Imperfect.  Yet, a new study from Minnesota raises some interesting questions on how increased adoption of  “off-spec” fruits and vegetables might impact farmers’ bottom lines. On the plus side, new markets for produce with slightly […]

November 6, 2015 | Also posted in Farm, Stats | Comments closed

John Oliver Hates Food Waste (and Chard)

Sunday night, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver tackled food waste. For fans of the comedian and the show, that is a wonderful thing. For first-timers, know that there is plenty of explicit language. Last Week Tonight sure does a nice job of tricking us into learning. Their treatment of food waste did not disappoint. […]

July 21, 2015 | Posted in General | Comments closed

Love Food, Hate Wasting Money

You know what’s weird? We pay such close attention to saving a buck or two at the supermarket, but rarely consider how much money we’re throwing away through the food we waste.

May 7, 2015 | Also posted in Household, Supermarket | Comments closed

NYT Food For Tomorrow

Yesterday I was at Tomorrow. The Food For Tomorrow conference, to be more precise. Here’s the footage from the food waste panel I populated with Dana Gunders and Doug Rauch:

November 13, 2014 | Posted in General | Comments closed