Author Archives: Jonathan

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

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. — — 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. — — The EPA recently recognized several New England […]

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. 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, […]

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 […]

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. — — 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 […]

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