Last month, the secretary of the Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency set the first national goal to reduce food waste in the United States. By 2030, they plan to cut by half the amount that ends up in municipal landfills.
A 2013 report says Americans throw away 35 million tons of food waste. So go ahead, just open your wallet and toss almost $400 into the trash.
What are we talking about? Wilted and gone-sour fresh produce in your fridge. Over-shopping, buying in bulk and letting it go bad, discarding “ugly” fruits and vegetables instead of cutting out the bad parts and consuming the rest. And what do you do with all those leftovers after the big party?
The issue has given rise to creativity: Waste cooking is a movement to cook only discarded food and website with recipes and a 5-episode web video program. One of the organizers has diversified into a catering company that cooks with only discarded food. They named their company Iss Mich! and call it bio-catering.
The topic of food waste came as a recent listener suggestion, and in today’s show, we’ll talk about how Anchorage handles food waste. We’ll also share tips the average smart consumer can use to avoid this kind of waste. If you do have extra food, learn where, what and how you can share it locally.
As always, we welcome the wisdom of our listeners. Please call with questions and share your ideas.
HOST: Kathleen McCoy
GUESTS:
- ›Karla Jutzi , Food Bank of Alaska
- Danny Consenstein, USDA
- Mark Madden, Solid Waste Services
- Cathy Steen, Green Sanctuary
- You, our listeners
LINKS:
- Ways to reduce wasted food, EPA
- First national goal to reduce food waste
- Alaska stores step up
- Food Bank of Alaska
- Municipal Solid Waste Services
- Anchorage Landfill Gas to Energy Project
- Denmark might be winning the global race to reduce food waste, NPR
- Stop Wasting Food (Denmark nonprofit consumer movement website)
- Facebook page for Stop Wasting Food movement
- Freeganism, movement to reclaim discarded food
- Waste cooking (journalist/chef web food cooking series and movement)
- Facebook page for Waste cooking
- Iss Mich!, a bio-catering company that caters only discarded food
- Waste Free Kitchen Handbook, Dana Gunders, National Resource Defense Council
- Why I wrote the Waste Free Kitchen Handbook, blog, Dana Gunders
- Waste Not Want Not Cookbook, Cinda Chavich
- The Foodkeeper (use by dates) Food Marketing Institute
Call 550-8433 (Anchorage) or 1-888-353-5752 (statewide) during the live broadcast (2:00 – 3:00pm)
- Send email to hometown@alaskapublic.org before, during or after the live broadcast (e-mails may be read on air)
- Post your comment or question below (comments may be read on air)
LIVE BROADCAST: Wednesday, October 14, 2015, 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. (Alaska time)
REPEAT BROADCAST: Wednesday, October 14, 2015, 8:00 – 9:00 p.m. (Alaska time)
SUBSCRIBE: Get Hometown, Alaska updates automatically — via email, RSS or podcasts.
