Author Archives: Jonathan

Food Waste’s Emissions Impact

1.5 percent. That’s the percentage of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions stemming from wasted food, according to CleanMetrics. It’s not a massive figure, but consider this: The average person’s food waste contributes almost 5 percent of the emissions of the typical car. And 1.5 percent is a conservative estimate, as it doesn’t include restaurant waste. So […]

October 10, 2011 | Posted in Environment, Stats | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Here’s a detailed description of keeping worms to compost food that has the added bonus of being the first piece I’ve ever read that manages to combine vermiculture and The Wire. — — Last night’s dinner can be today’s breakfast? Si, Senor! — — This piece on a chef-led, British campaign to bag food waste has two stunners. […]

October 7, 2011 | Posted in Friday Buffet, International, Restaurant | Comments closed

Beautiful Waste?

Photographer Christopher Breimhurst worked in the food industry for 10 years, including some time at supermarkets. In his current work, Edibles, he finds the beauty in “unmarketable produce.” Instead of throwing these fruits and veggies out, Breimhurst photographed them to illustrate their remaining usefulness. As he puts it: The rejected food is typically destined for […]

October 5, 2011 | Posted in Supermarket | Comments closed

Zeroing Out

Zero Percent has an admirable goal–zero percent food waste. The just-launched site/app will allow participating restaurants to offer real time discounts as the end of the night approaches to avoid waste. The idea needs to gather restaurant interest, which will hopefully build momentum. Once Zero Percent gets rolling, you’d be able to check your phone […]

October 3, 2011 | Posted in Restaurant | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

What’s not to love about making beer from the otherwise-wasted abundance around us all? Fullsteam (brewery) makes me proud to live in Durham. — — Also in my city–there’s now a program that encourages people to leave food on their porch for raccoons volunteers to collect. Believe it or not, it works well! — — If […]

September 30, 2011 | Posted in Food Recovery, Friday Buffet, Hunger, International | Comments closed

Wednesday Trivia

Quick quiz: What are you looking at?? Leave your answer as a comment. First correct answer gets a make-believe handshake. And a Twitter shout out. Hint: The picture illustrates that fresh food doesn’t have to look uniform to taste great.

September 28, 2011 | Posted in Farmers' Market | Comments closed

A Step Closer to the Mr. Fusion

In Back to the Future, we were treated to the site of Doc Brown using a Mr. Fusion to power up his flying DeLorean with food waste. In real life, we’re inching closer to that possibility. While it wouldn’t be as seamless a process as the Mr. Fusion, Waste Management is close to creating fuel from […]

September 26, 2011 | Posted in General | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

The BBC caught wind of the study profiled here on Wednesday and interviewed the researcher and a TV chef, posing the slightly sensationalistic question: Do Celebrity Chefs Cause More Waste? — — “Were you eating this apple” he asked a moment later. Yup, he was pointing to my apple. I nodded. “Come on down, pick […]

September 23, 2011 | Posted in Friday Buffet, Household, International | Comments closed

Great Expectations

Everybody loves having their theories confirmed. This bit of qualitative research from the University of Manchester did that for yours truly. I’ve long believed this formula to be true: Heightened expectations for cooking homemade meals + Busy lifestyles = More waste. Now I have some sociological support for that theory, along with some interviews that […]

September 21, 2011 | Posted in Household, International | Comments closed

Date Labels Dissected in the UK

Late last week, the UK Government scrapped “sell-by” dates. Food items will no longer be allowed to carry that date label that’s aimed at retailers but confusing for consumers. At the same time, the Government, in the guise of the Dept. of Food, Environment and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), offered authoritative guidance to distinguish between “use-by” and “best-before” labels. In […]

September 19, 2011 | Posted in Household, International, Supermarket | Comments closed