Catching Up

I’m still getting mentally unpacked from a fabulous West Coast swing. (Thanks to all who came out to one event or another.) While I was away, I didn’t have the chance to pass along a link to this New York Times piece on expiration dates.

It was neat to see such a major newspaper address the absurdity of expiration dates (albeit in a soft newsy section). Also, to have The Times give voice to the some of the logic I’ve long held. For example, this one from Bridget Lancaster, host of PBS’ America’s Test Kitchen:

We have five senses that were given to us that are the best tools for finding out whether food has gone bad.

And it was nice to see the author, Bruce Feiler, affirm what I’d long heard: that infant formula is the only product with federally-mandated expiration dates.

It’s certainly worth reading, but I didn’t love the ending (even if I understood why he went with it). After downplaying the health risks of items at or past their expiration dates, Feiler capitulates at the end:

Therein lies the truth of a well-kept kitchen: the health of your food is far less important than the health of your marriage.

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Also, in case you wanted a glimpse of my kitchen and compost bin–here’s your chance:

March 14, 2011 | Posted in Food Safety, Household, Personal | Comments closed

Progress Report

As some of you know, I’ve been traveling on the West Coast this week in support of my book. Or as I like to call it, the Preach to the Choir Tour 2011.

Anyway, I thought I’d share a few bits of media. In San Francisco, I had a great time chatting with Alex Wise. Turns out he taped the whole thing (including me peering into his fridge at his home studio) and it went to air for Sea Change Radio.

I also participated in a wide-ranging discussion at The Commonwealth Club. The video will be posted soonish, but here’s a recap of the night and some pictures of the affair.

Then Wednesday I taped a segment on Seattle’s NBC affiliate. I thought Margaret, the host, did a fab job. Judge for yourself:

Thursday night, it’s Powell’s in Portland. Hope to see you there!

March 10, 2011 | Posted in Events, General, Personal | Comments closed

Bread Love

I’m on the road now, prepping for a couple of events in San Francisco (find details here). But I had to pass on this useful post communicating 17 Uses for Stale Bread. And  you were planning to feed it to the birds!!

March 7, 2011 | Posted in Household, Life to Leftovers, Repurposing | Comments closed

Road Trip!

In Jonathan Bloom news: I’m excited to be heading west for my D.I.Y. book tour next week, visiting San Francisco, Seattle and Portland. Or as I like to call it, The Compost Coast. For a full list of events, glance over at the sidebar, or visit my book site. Hope to see you somewhere!

In other news:

Don’t look now, but NYC is expanding its composting options to a few more farmer’s markets greenmarkets. It just so happens that the piece references SF and Seattle’s curbside food waste collection. And then this article details a fledgling composter near Portland.

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In this piece on Walmart and India, we learn that 30 percent of food in India is wasted, primarily due to poor cold storage.

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The wasteful practice of ‘discard‘ called by its real name: stupid.

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Finally, there was a 2.2% increase in food prices last month. That’s the largest jump since the UN started tracking the statistic 20 years ago. Wow.

If there’s a silver lining here, it’s that we may just be forced to treat our food a little more carefully. Hope so.

March 4, 2011 | Posted in Composting, International, Personal | Comments closed

Teaching Waste

For anyone who’s visited a school cafeteria as an adult, the opening to this Chicago Tribune piece will likely ring true:

On visits to lunchrooms in Chicago public schools, the Tribune watched as vast quantities of unpeeled fruit, vegetables, milk cartons and other items got pitched into the garbage.

The piece cited some staggering numbers, detailing that one school tossed 334 pounds of uneaten whole food in one day. Sad. Yet, without knowing how many students attended the school, that amount is less useful.

Of course, this is far from a Chicago-specific problem. I remember the many, many cartons of unopened milk tossed into a waste bin when I visited a Mississippi school in the decidedly unaffluent Delta.

I’m so glad the Trib is examining the topic of school food waste. And highlighting possible solutions, like redistributing whole, unopened foods, especially fruit. Apparently, Seven Generations Ahead is increasingly making that a reality.

Plus, the idea of sharing tables sounds ideal, allowing students to leave foods they’re not going to eat for other students. And allowing some choice in school lunch will only help. Same goes for having lunch after recess.

March 2, 2011 | Posted in School | Comments closed

Cooperating, but for whose benefit?

I was pleasantly surprised to find this story about food recovery on the MSN home page this weekend. It includes some nice reporting, such as:

Kroger’s Perishable Donations Partnership keeps 40 million pounds of food each year out of the landfill. It also saves each store $500 annually in waste-hauling fees.

Then there was this beaut of a quote from Feeding America’s media guy:

“Food expiration dates are often artificial,” explains Fraser. “If something says, ‘Please use by Dec. 15,’ it doesn’t mean you’re going to die of poisoning if you eat it on the 16th. It means the yogurt’s gotten more watery, (or) the cereal isn’t as crispy.”

But what’s most interesting about the story is the talk of the Renton Community Co-Op, a Washington group where member families take turns collecting food for all co-op members. It’s like any other food recovery group, except it seems (from the article) that the food meets a more middle class end instead of going to those truly down on their luck.

What do you make of that outcome? Are these folks competing with the downtrodden for a food source? Or just doing a shrewd job utilizing food that would otherwise be thrown out?

February 28, 2011 | Posted in Food Recovery | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Poor New Zealand. Our thoughts are with you Kiwis after that horrible earthquake. In that context this piece on NZ food waste isn’t quite as important, but it’s interesting nonetheless…

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Cnet provides a neat snapshot of where we are with the…next wave of recycling.  

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Say it ain’t so! Lavish Indian weddings to be banned?

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Palo Alto is looking at building an anaerobic digester at its landfill. Early pricing doesn’t look so hot, but given the loose estimate of potential price per ton ($112 to $353), who knows. That’s quite a range!

February 25, 2011 | Posted in Composting, Energy, International | Comments closed

Arrested Freegan Followup

On Friday, I linked to the story of the British woman arrested for taking what a Tesco discards. This story lends a few further details on Sacha Hall, the English woman arrested for “stealing trash. For example, she worked at a rival supermarket!

We also learn that the accused the store had discarded the food in question because it had gone unrefrigerated for too long, after a power outage. Hall took the food, deemed to have a value of £215.16, from a trash area behind the store.

Now, I can understand how dumpster diving can be classified as trespassing. That designation is logical, albeit ethically shaky. But I’m not sure how you can assign a monetary value to items that you’ve thrown out.

I think Hall sums it up rather perfectly:

“I would think the police have better things to be doing with their time than going after people who pick up potato waffles from the street…”

February 22, 2011 | Posted in Freegan, International | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

English police arrested a woman who took waffles, pies and other goods thrown out by an English food retailer after the store lost power for a while. The craziest part is that the police tracked her down later at her home and took her away in handcuffs. Here’s a sensible commentary on the matter.

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The Boston Globe highlights the trick of creating energy from beer-brewing byproducts practiced by Magic Hat and other breweries.

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If you don’t read The Frugal Girl‘s recurring feature, Food Waste Friday, you’re missing out. In case you’re wondering just what you’re missing, here are some lessons from The Single Saver on what she’s learned by blogging about her food waste every Friday.

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Sweden is investing $700,000 in food waste collection and conversion to biogas. That’s a lot of kroner! (4 million).

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Second Harvest of Toronto isn’t a schoolyard bully, but, yesterday, they told everyone to hand over their lunch money. In Lunch Money Day, the food pantry asked Torontonians to pack their lunch and donate their usual eating-out cash to the non-profit.

February 18, 2011 | Posted in Energy, Freegan, Friday Buffet, Household, International | Comments closed

Guest Post: The Psychology of Wasting

Allison Gamble writes for the site Psychology Degree. She chimes in below with her take on the psychology of wastefulness and how it applies to squandering food

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At one time in the American psyche, waste and wealth were symbiotic. Sharp advertising stressed “disposable” as the ultimate “must have,” implying that successful people should not wash anything; they should throw out offensive used items, almost as though having to reuse something was below their status. The invention of the garbage disposal did the same to food.

As precious as that food may have been to someone in need, it was sent hurtling down the drain. It is likely that in some more affluent households, not only remnants of the dinner were thrown out, but all of the paper dinnerware as well. To better understand why people have been so wiling to squander food, it is important to explore the psychology of waste.

Recently there seems to be a movement to return to the frugality of the past, as when homesteading required that everyone get the most out of everything. Women canned the extra tomatoes, men whittled tools out of leftover wood, children wore flour-sack diapers and leftover food wasn’t wasted—it was composted. Lea Bowden from Indiana writes in the Countryside & Small Stock Journal that she remembers seeing her father squeezing ketchup from foil packets into a bottle. Her November, 2009 article, “Pass it on: Empower Future Generations by Handing down Homesteading Skills” focuses on those old habits.

Read More »

February 16, 2011 | Posted in General | Comments closed