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 add that environmental reason to reduce food waste to the existing list of ethical and economic ones.

But, wait–there’s more bad news! We individuals do not have as much agency as I’d hoped:

And by the time the food has reached you, the consumer, a lot of those emissions are already on their way to the atmosphere. Venkat says that nearly 80 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions come from producing and processing food.

Anyway, it’s quite helpful to have an estimate of food waste-related greenhouse gas emissions. If nothing else, it communicates that our waste impacts the environment.

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.

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Last night’s dinner can be today’s breakfast? Si, Senor!

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This piece on a chef-led, British campaign to bag food waste has two stunners. One, London diners are less likely than their New York counterparts to take food home? Two, “doggy boxes?”

(More on the campaign here.)

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On a similar note: Stop this ridiculous food waste!

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 the waste pile.  But in a majority of cases they can still be used.  Which is what I did. At the end of my workday I snatched the rejects and brought them into my studio to capture their good sides and make them appealing once more.

Now, the Lancaster, Pa. based photographer is looking to raise a modest amount of money to fund a January photo exhibit.

They really are fabulous pictures. I’m hoping Breimhurst gets the money he needs to launch what is sure to be a neat and necessary exhibit.

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 or computer for all the latest deals and swoop in while they last. And the deals are all local, as you enter your zip code on the opening screen.

Zero Percent will likely work better as a waste-avoider with certain foods and restaurants. For instance, does Dairy Queen really change its ice cream every night? (I’m guessing no, but I have no idea). My favorite thus far: Dunkin’ Donuts. You don’t see day-old do(ugh)nuts very often. At least I don’t…

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.

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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!

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If you’re looking to hear about food wastage in an Aussie accent, right this way!

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Finally, it’s too important to ignore the $5 Slow Food Challenge and the accompanying page of tips for cooking meals for $5 per person or less. Kudos to Mark Bittman and Slow Food USA for showing that cooking real food can cost less than fast food (especially when future health costs are factored in).

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 food waste:

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?

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“Were you eating this apple” he asked a moment later. Yup, he was pointing to my apple. I nodded.

“Come on down, pick it up and finish it,” he said.

The above exchange comes from a neat piece on the impact of food waste. It focuses on Canada, where we learn that that overall waste rate is 40% (just like their southern neighbors)!

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Gotta love this waste avoiding idea: an Oreo crumb tea bag to recreate that delicious post-cookie milk. Then again, whenever I’m faced with those black crumbs, they go straight atop some ice cream.

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The average Irish family discards 30% of the food they buy, at a cost of roughly€1000 euros per year. And in other news, I just learned where to find the Euro symbol.
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Finally, are you afraid of the odd bit?

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 I conducted for my book research. Here’s the crux of Dr. David Evans’ findings:

A lot of so-called proper food is perishable and so needs to be eaten within a pretty narrow timeframe. Our erratic working hours and leisure schedules make it…is perfectly understandable that people might forget or be too tired to cook the food that they have at home and so end up going for a takeaway and throwing out the food they had already purchased.

The solution? According to Dr. Evans, food opinion makers like celebrity chefs should help make it cool to eat the same meal two nights in a row. He also suggests more frozen veggies and kitchen cheating.

To that, I’d add: We need to be more realistic about our time and schedules. Making more frequent, smaller shopping trips will help, too. Plus, find some so-called Tuesday night cookbooks (quick, simple recipes) that speak to you (and hopefully have some ideas on how to repurpose leftovers).

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 short, “use-by” indicates food safety and “best-before” connotes freshness.

The full guidance communicates which items should carry which terms. It says:

…all food ready for delivery to the ultimate consumer or catering establishment that is not exempted under the FLR…should carry ‘an appropriate durability indication’, which would normally be a ‘best before’ date. For those foods which are highly perishable from a microbiological point of view, and are in consequence likely after a short period of time to pose an immediate danger to health, a ‘use by’ date must be used.



The rationale for the shift looks like this: If manufacturers use the terms appropriately, then consumers will understand what each really means, yielding less waste of perfectly-good food.

Unlike in the US, British food items are required by law to have some type of date label. This guidance helps distinguish what kind of label is best for each type of food. Also, it’s important to note that DEFRA has issued guidance–not changed the law–on “best-before” and “use-by” terms.

These changes have been promised for a long time, so it’s nice to see them come to fruition. After all, they’re all but guaranteed to reduce home and retail food waste.

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