Last week, Los Angeles Times columnist David Lazarus penned this op-ed calling for more leftover sharing by restaurants, hotels and caterers. He even suggested making it mandatory for these food businesses to tell customers that they can donate the unserved food.

For the clients who choose to donate the food, the restaurant, hotel or caterer would then list the leftovers online in a so-called Craigslist for cuisine, that would match donors and recipients.

The piece prompted some objections, like this response from a local caterer.

What the saga really shows is that there’s no reliable, large-scale food recovery group in LA. That seems unfathomable, but perhaps the city’s sprawl and traffic are partly to blame. If such a city-wide group did exist, it would alleviate the need to legislate solutions.

There have been some positive steps from the City of Angels. The L.A. City Council just approved member Jose Huizar’s proposal that all city departments adopt policies facilitating donation of leftover food from public programs and events to organizations that feed the hungry.

“I’m looking at the City of Los Angeles to be an example to others,” Huizar said. “Donating surplus food should be as common as recycling. It should be part of our everyday lives.”

Old friend State Senator Jenny Oropeza, who had her reasonable bill on food recovery shot down by the restaurant industry in 2008, has a new, even more modest proposal in the senate. Her bill would make the state Department of Food and Agriculture and the Department of Public Health put information on their sites about the (federal) Good Samaritan law. Doesn’t sound like too much to ask for.

I’ve seen refrigerator makers leverage keeping foods fresher, longer, but I’ve never seen such an overt discussion of how a fridge avoids waste (and saves bushels of cash!).

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Wait, there’s a composting operation in Las Vegas?! Things are looking up. Then again…A1 organics is generating complaints from neighbors (who moved into homes in an industrial area).

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UK food retailer Waitrose is stepping up its use of anaerobic digestion by diverting all food waste from its corporate headquarters to an AD facility. That’s a lot of tea bags. And it isn’t too surprising, given their commitment to the waste-to-energy technology.

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Here’s a thoughtful look at the balance of convenience and conservation with trayless dining at Stanford, where it hasn’t been adopted campus-wide (yet). The piece highlights the benefits, but also reminds us that sustainability is a big picture kind of thing:

“I think it’s ridiculous because here you are, making people feel guilty because you’re using trays … and at the same time every night at midnight you’ve got water spraying everywhere on the lawn,” said Julien Nakache, who is visiting from France.

A new effort by a San Francisco neighborhood group has diverted thousands of tons of fresh, local food from the compost pile to the mouths of many. How? Simply by asking.

The Wigg Party, a community group based in the neighborhoods around a bike route called The Wiggles The Wiggle, recently began rescuing foods from local growers by inquiring toward the end of farmer’s markets whether they had any food they planned to compost.

Similar efforts occur at farmer’s markets around the country. Where it gets a bit Bay Area funky is when the volunteers hold a Fresh Produce Free-For-All the next day to distribute their food to…anyone.

It’s a great idea and I love the name. I am curious about just who shows up to claim this free food at Hayes Valley Farm, an awesome, community-run urban farm carved from a former freeway exit.

There are some interesting discussions to be had on the intended and actual attendees of these free-for-alls. But we’ll save that for another time. No matter who ends up with this rescued food, the neat thing is that someone does.

(image courtesy of The Wigg Party)

Oh to have the problems of Palo Alto! The stately California town faces this conundrum: Turn a soon-to-be closed landfill into a park or an anaerobic digestion plant.

The city had earmarked the land to be used as a park when the landfill closes in the next two years. For the waste-t0-energy facility to happen, residents would have to vote to “undedicate” the land to the park.

Opponents say turning away from the park plan would be akin to a broken promise. But it would keep composting local; the city already has a compost facility (no surprise) on site at the landfill. If the AD plant doesn’t happen,  food and yard scraps would have to be shipped about an hour south if the park plan proceeds.

The Palo Alto city council commissioned an environmental impact report on the proposed AD plant, and it will come out in January. Until then, it’s one shade of green versus another. Who knows how this will end, but I’m definitely staying tuned.

There are so many factors at play here, which makes it a fascinating dilemma. If the same situation occurred in your town, which side do you reckon you’d be on?

It’s too bad both plans can’t coexist. If they could, picnic scraps could be composted quite quickly.

Huge news in the world of food waste: A new study out of the Univ. of Texas at Austin finds that the food America wastes represents about 2 percent of our total energy output. And, as the study’s authors note, it’s a conservative estimate because they use the 1995 estimate of 27 percent waste.

New Scientist used those findings to claim that we expend more energy in the food we discard than is available via offshore drilling. That may or may not be an exaggeration.

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Not quite as surprising, but still…A UK study found that Britons waste cheaper food more readily. It also showed that single people tend to waste more food than families.

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As a follow-up to Monday’s post, here’s some more on the former Trader Joe’s President who’s on a mission to reduce food waste.

My one beef with the article’s logic is that Trader Joe’s packaging produce doesn’t reduce waste, it increases it. If one of three peppers is off, the whole package is tossed. Plus, it often forces single people to buy too much. (Hence, the increased waste for one-person households.)

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If you’re considering composting for the first time, Annie Hauck Lawson has some tips for you. Here’s a pretty good how-to video on turning kitchen scraps to black gold.

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It looks like Ann Arbor’s composting will begin in the fall.

I came across this brief piece on Doug Rauch, the former Trader Joe’s head who is now at Harvard strategizing on how to end food waste.

It’s the first I hear about it, but I was excited to hear that someone with that much industry know-how is studying the issue. I’m curious to hear what his strategies may be, but I’m intrigued by the idea of using trucks or vans that may be returning empty after making deliveries.

The UK group FareShare is already employing that strategy. But they’re calling on food industry trucks, not the unrelated UPS, Fed Ex or postal trucks. But either way, I’m excited about this development and will keep track of it as it develops.

Update: This one slipped by me, but Diana F. tipped me off to the great news that the LA City Council voted to make city departments create policies for donating leftover food from events.

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Excessive food waste in the House of Commons tea rooms means there are fat mice in the halls of Parliament.

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Given all the food waste created by MPs (and the rest of the country), it’s not too surprising that Biogen Greenfinch wants more curbside food waste collection in the UK, which the company can convert to energy via anaerobic digestion. I visited their Ludlow facility last year and I’d second their sentiment.

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Uh, oh. Maggot bins. A prime example of why food waste collection really needs to be weekly (but trash pickup can be every other week, to save cities money)

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And no maggots, but locals are blaming Washington’s Cedar Grove composting plant for some foul smells. But is the criticism unfair?

Sorry for the shamelessness I don’t feel too bad about shamelessly sharing these two bits of info. This won’t be new to those of you who follow my Twitter feed or this site’s Facebook page.  (more shamelessness–likely too much)

Anyway, my book is now available for pre-order on Amazon. In addition to being really, really heartening, it’s proof that American Wasteland will actually be a tangible thing one day (most likely in September).

In addition, I recently took part in this Mother Jones forum on how food affects the environment. The panelists–including Jonathan Safran Foer, Anna Lappé and Joel Salatin–were asked this question: Is vegetarianism always better for the planet than eating meat?

My take? You’ll just have to click over there to see. While you’re at that page, you may want to join in the healthy conversation happening there.

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P.S. The book cover is likely to change a bit, but the general concept will likely stay the same.

This is my first year growing carrots and I’ve been surprised by how verdant the greens have remained through the North Carolina heat. Sunday, I dug up a few carrots, leaving me with a mass of tops.

Not one to casually discard anything even possibly edible, I wondered what one could do with these carrot greens. After reading this Times’ piece, I was afraid to go near them. Indeed many folks say carrot tops are toxic (much like the like-named comedian’s routine).

But if the World Carrot Museum says they’re edible, that’s good enough for me. After consulting a few food sites, it seems like the main options are:

• salad filler
• juicer fodder
• cooked into soups
• parsley substitute

I’m not a juicer owner or a fan of summer soups, so I’ve only tried the latter two. And, frankly, I was not impressed. This excerpt from a Chowhound thread summed it up for me:

I used to have rabbits, and even *they* wouldn’t eat carrot greens. They had pretty good taste.

My question to you, dear reader: Any ideas?? Have you found a good use for carrot tops?

(image by Carly & Art via Creative Commons)

Courtesy of the NY Times’  City Room Blog, Answers from a Garbologist Part I and Part II. Here’s the best line from first part:

Products most often discarded without being used: vegetables.

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The people have spoken on the 5-Second Rule. Well, at least they’ve participated in a poll.

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Dan Sullivan kills it with his piece on college composting with an assist from the cool COMFOOD list-serv.

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A fun read with a theory on littering that will please all of you Oregon Trail fans (my hand is raised).  Only semi-waste-related, but worth a few minutes.