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.
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