Austin Report: Jackpot!

Last night was a special one for me. American Wasteland, my second child, won an IACP award in the first ever Food Matters category. As a result, the certificate pictured below now has pride of place in my Austin Motel room.

CBA Winner Badge

I also get to insert that neat winner’s badge in the sidebar. And call me crazy, but I’m putting it in this post, too, just for the heck of it!

My book was the joint winner with Deborah Krasner’s Good Meat. But since Krasner wasn’t there, I had the stage to myself at the awards ceremony.  The moment was thrilling and an honor and humbling and a blur. I can’t remember exactly what I said, but they didn’t have to usher me off with the ‘hint, hint’ music.

Anyway, a sincere thanks to all the readers of this blog, for contributing in small and large ways to last night’s moment.

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In the last few days I’ve learned about a bunch of exciting new ideas and ventures. I’ll have more on those in the weeks ahead. In the meantime, have an unwasteful weekend!

June 3, 2011 | Posted in Personal | Comments closed

The Secret Life of Eggs

I’m not a fan of expiration dates in general–see yesterday’s post–but if stamping them on eggs (along with the batch number) saves half a billion eggs per year at Walmart alone…I can stomach them.

Yes, the Walmart video below is a nice bit of propaganda, but it’s a result of a genuine effort by that retailer to reduce their waste. And that effort is paying dividends.

The video contains some fabulous illustrations of the resources embedded in our eggs (and food supply). Plus, it features an image of a Manhattan-sized omelette!

June 1, 2011 | Posted in Food Safety, Supermarket, Technology | Comments closed

Expiration Dates Debunked

There’s a good amount of discussion on whether expiration dates are bogus. I’m sure you can guess where I stand on the topic.

My dismissal of most expiration dates stems from personal experience and knowing how much caution is built into those dates. Still, it’s nice to have the backing of some hard science mixed with journalistic experimentation, as in this piece from the (UK) Daily Mail.

In the experiment, journalist Tom Rawstorne bought identical food items, then tested each one on the date of purchase, the day indicated by the date stamp, a week after the expiry of the date stamp, and two weeks after it. A food safety expert and an independent lab also tested the items. Of all the items, raw chicken was the only food that was questionable a week after its supposed expiration date.

Thanks to its scientific rigor, the article is useful. Yet, it has just the right amount of sensationalism (‘I ate a meal comprised of items two weeks past their “use-by” or “best before” dates and I’m still alive’). Plus, there’s fun art.

The piece even contains its own mini story arc–the transformation of Rawstorne from a complete “best before” truster to someone who concludes:

These results took me by surprise. I’m not suggesting we all live on a diet of old food, but these tests show that if you’re careful, using your taste and smell sensibly to assess food, there really is no need to be paranoid about date stamps.

Rawstorne also pushes for more common sense and less blind trust in expiration dates. His evidence: food date labels didn’t exist in Britain before 1980.

May 31, 2011 | Posted in Food Safety, International | Comments closed

FearLess Friday

Posh UK retailer Marks & Spencer has cut food waste by 29% since 2007. And, the food waste they do discard is composted or turned into biofuels.

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Recycling is on the rise at US restaurants, not surprisingly. What is a bit surprising–13 percent of the restaurants polled say they compost .

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My native Massachusetts will soon see its first anaerobic digestion plant. The facility will convert food scraps and, mostly, manure to biogas and then energy.

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Finally, on Thursday I was on FearLess TV web show. If you have a spare hour, you can watch it here.

A few notes on the show:

  • I can definitely say it was the first time I’ve been interviewed in front of dumpster!
  • Also it was the first interview I’d done that involved eating. And no, I didn’t waste any food.
  • A dude standing 20 feet away Tweeted a question straight to Alex’s iPad. A new form of audience interaction…
  • I’m now trying to figure out what to do with the print of the artwork they featured at the beginning of the show.
May 27, 2011 | Posted in Composting, International, Personal | Comments closed

Fear Not

I haven’t found much to blog about today, so I may as well push my appearance on the FearLess Revolution web show tomorrow. Alex Bogusky, “the Elvis of advertising,” hosts the live web show each Thursday from beautiful Boulder.

I’ll be appearing with Josh Kunau, producer of that great Dumpster-diving documentary, Dive! Given that link to “eating trash” and just what ends up in our waste stream, I’m sure the discussion will take some interesting turns. So if you’re bored (at work), log on and tune in tomorrow at 2pm EST.

UPDATE: You can now watch the show in its entirety.

May 25, 2011 | Posted in Personal | Comments closed

First Impression: Impressed

This summer, I’m living in Boulder, Colorado at my wife’s behest. Well, her job’s behest.

I’m excited about the opportunity for two reasons:

1. Mountains

2. Composting

While I’ve been composting for more than six years, this marks the first time I’ll have lived somewhere with municipal composting. As in–roll a bin of food waste to the curb every week and the city takes it to a composting facility.

The city and county of Boulder have composting service built into their regular trash service. The City even has a waste reduction master plan and has declared itself a zero waste community.

I arrived on Friday, and realized I was in a different place the following day at the ridiculously vibrant farmers’ market. Composting (and recycling) stations abounded. (No word yet on whether a food recovery group rescuing food from the market a la Farmer Foodshare.)

Later this week, I will address the County’s Resource Conservation Advisory Board. I’m excited to talk (food) trash with such an enlightened bunch. Looking further ahead, this blog will reflect upon this summer’s experience.

May 23, 2011 | Posted in Composting, Personal | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Here’s the NYT Green blog’s take on the FAO food waste study. Amen:

Further research in the area is urgent, especially considering that food security is a major concern in large parts of the developing world.

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This blog post on the FAO study is well done, but it overlooks the cost of unharvested food–a real source of waste in the developed world.

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Here’s an AP article wherein I display my grammatical prowess. Nice piece, otherwise…

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This Simple Bites piece not only has money-saving tips for reducing waste, it features what I’d call home economics porn.

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Of course they’re making mushrooms out of food waste in the East Bay. Still neat, though.

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On a personal note, I’m headed to Boulder, Colo. today, where I’ll be spending the summer with my fam. If you’re in that area, drop me a line/tweet/FB message/etc.

May 20, 2011 | Posted in Composting, Environment, International, Personal | Comments closed

Aussie, Aussie, Oy!

A video of Australian celebrity chef Matt Moran berating an assistant for throwing away food has been making the rounds recently. It features some dicey language, but plays like a food waste lamenter’s dream.

As you may have suspected, the video was staged.

Yet, the nice part is that it wasn’t some self-serving hoax. Instead, it’s a fun way of preaching waste reduction and promoting the launch of REAP, a scheme expanding food rescue to other regions of Australia. That new service is part of the existing OzHarvest food rescue operation.

A second, longer version of the video ties it all up neatly:

May 16, 2011 | Posted in International | Comments closed

World Food Waste Study

Yesterday, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization released a very interesting report on global food waste. It contains mind-boggling new statistics, calls international attention to the issue and serves as a prelude to the SaveFood! conference next week in Germany.

Here’s the key line:

Roughly one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year — approximately 1.3 billion tonnes — gets lost or wasted…

As you might guess from the above, the report distinguishes between loss and waste. I disagree with the study’s premise here–that ‘loss’ occurs on farms or in processing and ‘waste’ occurs at retail and homes–because it assumes no culpability before food reaches the retail setting.

Also, the report found that the level of waste is about the same in the developed and developing world. In the latter, poor infrastructure, farmers’ limited access to markets and a lack of refrigeration are mostly to blame.

On the whole, the study is an extremely valuable resource. Oh, and the FAO used a few of my photos in it. In fact, three of the four cover shots are mine (all from the Portland Metro waste facility).

May 12, 2011 | Posted in International, Stats | Comments closed

Through the Lens of Poverty

The following commentary ran on the Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity site this Monday. It’s a bit longer than most posts, but hopefully it’s worth your time.

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An increasing number of Americans face poverty and, as a result, hunger. Meanwhile, we waste close to half of all food produced domestically.

It’s an American paradox. How can waste and hunger coexist? Two words: poor distribution.

From farm to fork, America squanders 40 percent of its food. Every day, Americans waste enough food to fill the 90,000-seat Rose Bowl. So much of the food that isn’t consumed is perfectly edible, yet we lack the will and the means to collect and distribute it to those in need. That must change.

Food insecurity is the highest it has been since the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) began tracking in 1995. In all, 15 percent of American households were “food insecure,” meaning they did not have the resources to obtain adequate nutrition and lead a healthy lifestyle.

Given the number of hungry Americans – and the environmental impact of waste, which is another story altogether – it’s high time we harness the food we now squander. While we struggle to feed everyone today, it won’t get any easier as national and global populations continue to grow. Read More »

May 11, 2011 | Posted in General, Hunger | Comments closed