Powerless to Prevent Waste?

With power outages, many in the Mid-Atlantic states are in a bind: hoping to keep their perishable food cold and unsure when to discard it.

That’s why this piece from The Washington Post is helpful. It includes useful food safety advice and tips to prevent food loss:

  • Transfer foods from the fridge to a small cooler with ice, dry ice or gel packs
  • Freezers will keep food safe for 2-4 days, depending on how full they are
  • Keep the freezer closed and hope power returns!
  • Partially-defrosted foods will be safe if they still have ice crystals in them.
  • Those optional refrigeration foods–peanut butter, pickles, olives, etc.–will be safe.

Another fabulous bit of advice comes from Jeremy of Compost Cab via Twitter (@compostcab): “Leverage community. We have power, and have been hosting friends (& their food) without. Less waste, stronger friendships!”

And then there’s the question of how to know when to toss foods. While it’s sad and expensive to say goodbye to entire fridges worth of food, nobody wants to get sick from eating bad food. The Post article has some good tips, but the simplest strategy is to go by temperature. Most perishables need to be kept below 40 degrees F and shouldn’t be above that for more than two hours.

Depending on what the food item in question, that may be a conservative estimate and there’s a bit of leeway. With foods that you’re not sure about, cooking it helps kill bacteria. But lacking power, many can’t do that. Here’s where the gas range or grill outside is a huge help.

Unfortunately, an increasingly familiar scene from these massive power outages is similar to the one in Charleston, W.Va.–rolling out the big Dumpsters to toss food.

Please share any stories or tips you might have!

July 2, 2012 | Posted in Household | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

In the UK, the quasi-governmental agency WRAP launched the Hospitality and Food Services Agreement, which allows restaurants to pledge a 5% food and packaging waste reduction by 2015. Domino’s, McDonald’s, Unilever and 2o-odd others have signed on in Britain. Exciting news, but I fear that the companies will focus on packaging (which would be useful, but not as beneficial as tackling food waste).

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This week, both The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times ran A-section articles on Portland composting. OK, fine–if you want to split hairs–they were primarily about the every-other-week trash collection designed to encourage composting. But still…Portland Composts!

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This CNN piece features the One Third project that I so enjoy, but also has a good collection of data. For example: This study finding that 40% of the food thrown away in Europe is still in its original packaging!

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Yesterday, I took part in a fabulous panel discussion–organized by the Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition and Nourishing the Planet–on how to feed and nourish a planet of 7 billion. The event was a launch party for the fascinating new book, Eating Planet. It’s a recommended read, especially for only 4 bucks.

June 29, 2012 | Posted in Composting, Friday Buffet, International, Personal, Restaurant, Waste Stream | Comments closed

Tracking Our Trash

Where the heck does my trash go? If you’ve ever had that thought, you’ll be interested in Trash Track.

This MIT project aims to map the travels of our day-to-day household trash using GPS and “CDMA cell-tower trilateration.” As you can see in the image tracking Seattle-based waste, our garbage has a complicated journey to its final resting or recycling place.

It’s unclear if the Trash Track project has an agenda or goal, but simply raising awareness will allow us to draw our own conclusions. Given the maps, it would seem that creating less trash is a pretty sound goal.

June 25, 2012 | Posted in Waste Stream | Comments closed

Food Recovery Clears Another Farm Bill Hurdle

The Senate version of the Farm Bill passed on Thursday with the tiniest of nods to gleaning, or food recovery.

While there’s no joy in seeing cuts in per-family food assistance, there’s a glimmer of hope that this next Farm Bill would include a microloan program for food rescue groups. This amendment proposed by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) was part of the bill that passed today.

The amendment uses the term ‘gleaning’ synonymously with food recovery. The question remains whether this amendment can be recovered after the House proposes their own farm bill in July.

Few really know what will be in that House version, but I’m hopeful that the idea of recovering food that would otherwise be tossed is a bipartisan one. And since the amendment would merely have the government support a microloan program, it wouldn’t add much to the bottom line of what is now a $1 trillion dollar bill.

If we’re going to cut food assistance in a time when food prices are increasing and jobs are scarce, the least we could do is support non-profits that are preventing food from being trashed and getting it to those in need. Seems pretty simple.

June 22, 2012 | Posted in Food Recovery, Legislation | Comments closed

Writing Gleaning into the Farm Bill?

Exciting times for preventing food waste! While world environmental leaders are discussing food loss at Rio+20 (and at a side event), Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) is making an attempt to get funding for gleaning/food recovery into the Farm Bill.

Wyden’s proposed Amendment 2442 to the Farm Bill (S. 3240) would help provide microloans to gleaning operations, like Urban Gleaners in his district.

The amendment will likely be voted on soon–check in here for updates.

UPDATE: Wyden’s amendment passed and will be in the Senate version of the Farm Bill. Now, whether it makes it into the House version is another story. But there’s some hope of a compromise in this Fall’s sausage making.

And here’s the full text, for those who speak lawyerese:

SA 2442. Mr. WYDEN submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill S. 3240, to reauthorize agricultural programs through 2017, and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

At the end of section 3201 of the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act (as added by section 5001), add the following:

“(e) Pilot Loan Program to Support Healthy Foods for the Hungry.–

“(1) DEFINITION OF GLEANER.–In this subsection, the term `gleaner’ means an entity that–

“(A) collects edible, surplus food that would be thrown away and distributes the food to agencies or nonprofit organizations that feed the hungry; or

“(B) harvests for free distribution to the needy, or for donation to agencies or nonprofit organizations for ultimate distribution to the needy, an agricultural crop that has been donated by the owner of the crop.

“(2) PROGRAM.–Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this subsection, the Secretary shall establish, within the operating loan program established under this chapter, a pilot program under which the Secretary makes loans available to eligible entities to assist the entities in providing food to the hungry.

“(3) ELIGIBILITY.–In addition to any other person eligible under the terms and conditions of the operating loan program established under this chapter, gleaners shall be eligible to receive loans under this subsection.

“(4) LOAN AMOUNT.–

“(A) IN GENERAL.–Each loan issued under the program shall be in an amount of not less than $500 and not more than $5,000.

“(B) REDISTRIBUTION.–If the eligible recipients in a State do not use the full allocation of loans that are available to eligible recipients in the State under this subsection, the Secretary may use any unused amounts to make loans available to eligible entities in other States in accordance with this subsection.

“(5) LOAN PROCESSING.–

“(A) IN GENERAL.–The Secretary shall process any loan application submitted under the program not later than 30 days after the date on which the application was submitted.

“(B) EXPEDITING APPLICATIONS.–The Secretary shall take any measure the Secretary determines necessary to expedite any application submitted under the program.

“(6) PAPERWORK REDUCTION.–The Secretary shall take measures to reduce any paperwork requirements for loans under the program.

“(7) PROGRAM INTEGRITY.–The Secretary shall take such actions as are necessary to ensure the integrity of the program established under this subsection.

“(8) MAXIMUM AMOUNT.–Of funds that are made available to carry out this chapter, the Secretary shall use to carry out this subsection a total amount of not more than $500,000.

“(9) REPORT.–Not later than 180 days after the maximum amount of funds are used to carry out this subsection under paragraph (8), the Secretary shall submit to the Committee on Agriculture of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry of the Senate a report that describes the results of the pilot program and the feasibility of expanding the program.

June 20, 2012 | Posted in Legislation | Comments closed

Just the Facts…

Recently, I worked with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization to create a fact sheet on food waste. Or rather, on food wastage, a term we created to incorporate food losses and waste. Ah, semantics!

I think the final product turned out pretty well. It’s informative and attractive (thanks to the designers). Anyone looking for a four-page briefing on global food waste could do a lot worse than Food Wastage Footprints.

Most of the photos we used were mine, but I wanted to give a shout out to Mirra Fine (of the excellent Perennial Plate) for allowing us to use her haunting shot of fish bycatch.

This food waste fact sheet is part of a useful series on a variety of ag topics. Worth a look!

June 18, 2012 | Posted in International, Personal | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization continues to tackle waste with the SAVE FOOD initiative.

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The anaerobic digestion hit parade continues, as the California Energy Commission just awarded a $6 million grant to a Sacramento food waste-to-energy facility. That’ll definitely cover their shovel costs.

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The EPA recently recognized several New England restaurant groups and colleges for their food waste reducing efforts.

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In an interesting piece, Recycling Today focuses on getting Beyond the Yuck Factor and getting real about food waste disposal.

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Finally, it’s great to see young people like Camille Posard rewarded for their passion in fighting hunger.

June 15, 2012 | Posted in College, Energy, Friday Buffet, Hunger, International | Comments closed

Meet J Cuke

Next up in this burgeoning series of alphabet cucumbers, is this fabulous J. Or, as I call him, J Cuke.

I'm thinking of putting this on a gold chain and wearing it around my neck.

Given my first name, I’m quite fond of this cuke. I’m going to have a hard time bringing myself to cut into it. Then again–who am I kidding?–it won’t be that hard.

This curved cuke, just like the previous ‘C cuke‘ highlight the delicious quirks local food–be it homegrown or from a farmers’ market, like this one. Supermarkets would likely never sell these kind of cucumbers. Yet, not only are they delicious, they can help your kids learn the alphabet!

June 13, 2012 | Posted in Alphabet Produce, Farmers' Market, Household, Personal | Comments closed

Farmers’ Market Food Recovery

A personal update: I recently began working with a local non-profit called Farmer Foodshare. It’s a neat organization that redistributes farmers’ market excess to those in need while supporting small farmers.

Here’s how it works: Market shoppers donate money (or food). We use that money to buy from farmers. At the end of the market, farmers give us what they won’t be able to sell. We channel both the purchased and donated food to local soup kitchens.

I’m managing the Farmer Foodshare’s Donation Stations, which are set up at farmers’ markets all around the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area. As part of that, I’m getting to know more and more local farmers and the people tied to local food. So far, so great.

It’s amazing to witness such generosity–from farmers and shoppers alike. Yet it does yield one question: What happens to the excess food at your farmers’ market??

June 11, 2012 | Posted in Farmers' Market, Food Recovery, Personal | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

In case you haven’t heard of it, the Save Food initiative is doing important work to reduce and raise awareness about food waste.

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One of the less discussed byproducts of reduced food waste–reduced trash hauling costs. A Pennsylvania ShopRite franchisee with 10 stores saved $20,000 in three months by donating edible but unsellable food to the hungry.

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Turning fish heads and chicken fat into energy is great. But…What, no gefilte fish or schmaltz?!

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Let me get this straight–this dude set out to cut his waste because he didn’t like paying so much for trash bags?! I guess all’s well that ends well…

June 8, 2012 | Posted in Energy, Friday Buffet, Household, Supermarket | Comments closed