Rotten jackfruit and tomatoes are sorted at a dump in New Delhi. India loses an estimated 40 percent of its produce harvest for lack of infrastructure. And Americans waste about 40 percent of our food.
Rotten jackfruit and tomatoes are sorted at a dump in New Delhi. India loses an estimated 40 percent of its produce harvest for lack of infrastructure. And Americans waste about 40 percent of our food.
The food world is buzzing today about the latest news on just how often we waste perfectly good food. And we admit, the statistics are pretty depressing.
About 40 percent of food in the United States today goes uneaten. The average American consumer wastes 10 times as much food as someone in Southeast Asia up 50 percent from Americans in the 1970s. Yet, one in six Americans don't have enough to eat. And food waste costs us about $165 billion a year and sucks up 25 percent of our freshwater supply.
That's all according to the report with the not-so-subtle title, "Wasted: How America Is Losing Up to 40 Percent of Its Food from Farm to Fork to Landfill," just released by the Natural Resources Defense Council.
As we've reported, there are all kinds of offenders in this game, from restaurants to regular consumers and our refrigerators. But we thought we'd bring you some info on what some folks are doing to combat the waste and re-route the food where it's needed:
1. Coffee Could Be Fuel Times Two: Researchers are teaming up with Starbucks Hong Kong and a nonprofit called The Climate Group to turn used coffee grounds and wasted bakery items into fertilizer, plastics and biofuels, according to Fast Company.
2. Gents, Start Your Bikes: Caleb Philips founded Boulder Food Rescue, a group that collects produce and packaged goods that grocery stores consider no longer "sellable" and bikes them to shelters, housing projects and at-risk community outlets. Since September 2011, BFR has rescued more than 128,000 lbs of nutritious food and transported most of that to feed those in need, according to NPR's Participation Nation blog.
3. There's An App For That: Students at Arizona University are developing with a mobile phone app called FlashFood designed to connect restaurants with excess food to community groups in need, according to the blog EarthTechling. And Love Food Hate Waste is a free app for iPhone and Android that offers hints, tips, and recipe ideas to keep home cooks from trashing those squishy tomatoes too soon.
4. Follow that Squash: NPR's Pam Fessler recently brought us this piece on how Wal Mart and Feeding America have teamed up to get fresh but slightly imperfect fresh foods to the needy. And it's got some pretty cool graphics, too, where you can follow an ear of corn and some yellow squash from farm to table.
5. Do I Hear $100? Stay tuned tomorrow for a piece right here and on All Things Considered on how grocery stores are unloading food at auction that is discontinued, seasonal, or near its expiration date, from NPR's Serri Graslie.
What cool anti-food waste projects are you hearing about? Let us know in the comments section.
PLACES, PEOPLE, EVENTS, GOOD FOOD AND MY LIFE This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Famous Footwear for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine. Once again it's back to school shopping time! Feeding Your Cat: Know the Basics of Feline Nutrition :: healthy ... Explains connection between feline diabetes, obesity and carbohydrates in the diet. Includes recommendations on food preparation, commercially available foods, other ... Green Women's Lifestyle - Yahoo! Shine Recent testing of mercury concentrations in three national brands of canned tuna found that 55 percent of all tuna examined was above the U.S. Environmental ... Amazon.com: Food, Inc.: Eric Schlosser, Robert Kenner: Movies & TV For most Americans, the ideal meal is fast, cheap, and tasty. Food, Inc. examines the costs of putting value and convenience over nutrition and environmental impact ... Ran Prieur Ran Prieur "The bigger you build the bonfire, the more darkness is revealed." - Terence McKenna Brooklyn Crab - Red Hook - New York, NY (718) 643-2722 "Before coming here, I read all the reviews and wondered if it was really that bad. It actually made me very hesitant to come try it out BUT in the ... Food security - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Food security refers to a household's physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that fulfills the dietary needs and food preferences of ... Health News & Articles Healthy Living - ABC News Get the latest health news from Dr. Richard Besser. Here you'll find stories about new medical research, the latest health care trends and health issues that affect ... Raw Food Life - the Science of Raw Food! About health advantages of eating raw food. Includes articles, news, research, recipes, raw food products, and links to related sites. 10 Dumbest Things to Eat Real Food Family This was a difficult list to put together, only because there were so many more foods I wanted to add. Pretty much 90% or more of what you find in a supermarket isn ...
No comments:
Post a Comment