Author Archives: Jonathan

Friday Buffet

Hot off the press: New data on retail and home produce waste from our friends at the USDA’s Economic Research Service. I’ll break this down further in a future post, but in the meantime, take a gander. — — Exciting News: The NY Times Online reports that The Grocery Manufacturers Association is planning a three-year initiative to […]

September 16, 2011 | Posted in Composting, Energy, Friday Buffet, Household, Personal, Supermarket | Comments closed

Giving Composting the Old College Try

Forget football, the real news coming out of State College, Penn., this fall could be composting touching down. The borough is considering a move to the two bin system: compostable organics and other trash. State College will host a public hearing to gauge opinion on the proposal in early October. In addition to keeping organics […]

September 14, 2011 | Posted in Composting, Freegan | Comments closed

Germany to Waste: Halt!

On Friday, Germany’s Minister of Food Agriculture and Consumer Protection announced it will conduct a study on food waste. In other words, they aim to find out how much waste can be halted. The move came in conjunction with Slow Food founder Carlo Petrini’s visit to Germany. Slow Food is increasingly emphasizing waste reduction, in […]

September 12, 2011 | Posted in Food Recovery, International | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

In a UK survey, 82 percent of those surveyed believed it was important to reduce restaurant food waste. And about that same amount said they’d even do something about it! 80 percent said they’d opt to not receive items they knew they wouldn’t eat. There are some other interesting findings in the report, which Unilever […]

September 9, 2011 | Posted in College, Friday Buffet, International, Restaurant | Comments closed

Kitchen Reading: Wildly Affordable Organic

With Wildly Affordable Organic, author Linda Watson communicates that organic/sustainable isn’t necessarily synonymous with expensive when it comes to food. As the subtitle puts it: Eat Fabulous Food, Get Healthy, and Save the Planet. Hard to argue with that. WAO carves out a neat niche in the crowded cookbook world. That’s partly because it is a […]

September 8, 2011 | Posted in Household | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Despite having a bit of a hangover from yesterday’s Paperback Party, I wouldn’t want to leave your Friday Buffetless. Here goes: — — You know composting is spreading when you see a federal prison in Texas puts out an RFP for food waste removal. — — Just so we’re clear–pythons should not be composted. And […]

September 2, 2011 | Posted in General | Comments closed

Paperback Party

Hey there! Come on in–make yourself at home. Help yourself to a drink and there’s food over there. Just don’t take more than you’ll eat! You know…because it’s a party for a book about…yeah, you know. — This day is a happy one–celebrating the release of American Wasteland in paperback. Or as I like to […]

September 1, 2011 | Posted in Personal | Comments closed

Mr. Potato Head(s)

This Saturday at the super duper Durham Farmer’s Market, I volunteered with Farmer Foodshare. This innovative program collects donations of food from farmers and edibles or currency from shoppers. Volunteers take the donated money and buy produce from the local growers (win-win-win!). Anyway, we try to stretch the money to get as much food as we can for […]

August 29, 2011 | Posted in General | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

In a town near Vancouver, curbside compost collection is attracting bears, which, sadly, usually doesn’t end well for bears. Mixing newspaper in with the compost or keeping food scraps in the freezer before collection are two suggested solutions… — — The Stop Food Waste campaign run by the Irish EPA found that 30% of what Irish […]

August 26, 2011 | Posted in Composting, Energy, International | Comments closed

Double the Waste?

This summer’s new school lunch guidelines that accompanied the updated federal food icon–MyPlate–push for larger portions of fruit and vegetables. Sounds great, right? There’s only one problem: fruit and vegetables are already the most wasted items in school lunches. Serving more of them to each student will only mean more food in the trash. Cue […]

August 22, 2011 | Posted in General | Comments closed