Author Archives: Jonathan

Falling Fruit: Foraging Friend

Ever see a bunch of rotten apples at the bottom of a tree and wish you’d arrived earlier? If only you’d known about that tree a few weeks ago…if only there was a way to map “public fruit.” Soon, there will be an app for that. Falling Fruit, a resource for finding global urban edibles, […]

June 2, 2014 | Posted in Freegan, Technology, Tree Gleaning | Comments closed

Monday Roundup

Plenty of news from Food Waste World recently: There’s an increased likelihood of the EU banning “best before” labels on shelf-stable foods like grains, canned goods and frozen items. The Dutch and Swedish farming ministers sent a letter recommending that course of action to the EU Agriculture Council, who discussed the issue today (but didn’t […]

May 19, 2014 | Posted in Casino, College, Composting, Environment, International, Waste Ban | Comments closed

Swiss Buffet Banking on Waste

The global, national or even household cost of food waste can be difficult to quantify. Yet, sometimes it’s not too hard. At the Patrizietta restaurant in Switzerland, it costs 5 francs (roughly $5) per person. At the Ticino area restaurant you can take all you want from the 12 franc buffet, but not finishing it will […]

May 12, 2014 | Posted in Restaurant, Unfinished Food Charge | Comments closed

Webinar Questions Answered

I recently had the honor of giving the first ever webinar for Food Tank. At least that’s what I’m told happened. I just spoke into my computer and hoped that people were listening. And based on the array of questions, at least a few folks were! While we allotted 15 minutes for questions, that time just […]

May 2, 2014 | Posted in Composting, Energy, Environment, General | Comments closed

Redefining ‘Reduce’

Small bone to pick here: Several times a week I get excited by headlines like this one: Darden Restaurants Working to Reduce Food Waste. I leap into the story, looking for confirmation that a restaurant is actually trimming the amount of food waste their kitchen and/or customers are creating. Almost invariably, I realize that they’re not doing […]

May 1, 2014 | Posted in Restaurant | Comments closed

Blown Away by Waste Buffet

On Tuesday, I gave a talk at Keene State College in New Hampshire. In conjunction with the visit, the progressive folks of Keene State Dining created this amazing tableau of waste:  Dining workers pulled untouched and nearly untouched breakfast and lunch items from the plate return and assembled a visually appealing, yet haunting “waste buffet.” The […]

April 25, 2014 | Posted in College, Institutional | Comments closed

Documenting a Week of Waste

With their Waste in Focus project, the wonderful team of photographer Peter Menzel and writer Faith D’Aluisio are doing for waste what they did for food in Hungry Planet: What the World Eats. In the project, released last week and slated for an Earth Day exhibit in New York City’s Union Square, eight families of varying geography and backgrounds […]

April 15, 2014 | Posted in Environment, Household, Waste Stream | Comments closed

Putting a Price on Food Waste

The FAO Food Wastage Footprint project released their second video, and it’s a gem. This particular video focuses on trying to calculate the myriad costs of global food waste. Spoiler alert–it’s a lot of money! Nonetheless, the video makes for required viewing.

April 10, 2014 | Posted in Campaigns, International, Stats | Comments closed

Food for Thought

I just came across this recent EPA infographic on waste and particularly enjoyed this portion: That 95% statistic comes from the EPA’s Municipal Solid Waste report, which shows that composting levels have doubled from 2008 to 2012. (It went from 2.3% to 4.8%.) While those low amounts enable such dramatic improvement, at least we’re improving! I also […]

April 4, 2014 | Posted in Campaigns, Environment, Household, Stats | Comments closed

Expect Big Changes with US Food Waste

There’s MAJOR NEWS in the battle against food waste–President Obama plans to issue an Executive Order making it illegal to throw away food. The Executive Order, helped forward by First Lady Michelle Obama’s urging, will amount to a de facto national ban on food waste. An Obama administration official with knowledge of the plans said […]

April 1, 2014 | Posted in Energy, Environment, General | Comments closed