Reducing Food Waste - The Consumer's Responsibility

10/01/19 • 30 min

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Food waste remains a huge problem around the world - 1.3 billion tons of food every year according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization. Some 40% of food waste in the United States is directly as a result of what we, as individuals, throw out at home or when we eat out. I know I'm as guilty as the next guy. Tons of food over the years, I'm sure, and all the packaging that the food comes in too!
Policy makers, think tank thinkers and academics have been dialing up the message of food waste for the past decade or so. The message has become more urgent. More strident. Why? Climate change. Food waste has been identified as a meaningful contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. This has spurred additional activists, environmentalists, a rash of op-eds and entrepreneurs hoping to help fix the problem. Not a week goes by when I don’t see an article in the business media about a start-up trying to tackle food waste.
It’s also not hard to find articles in consumer magazines that offer "X easy ways to reduce food waste at home." "How To" books have been published on topic. And I found a long list of ideas on how to reduce food waste on the government's EPA web site, that groups ideas into planning, shopping, storage, and meal preparation categories. The NRDC has a web site dedicated to the topic, with software tools for every step of the process.

I perused these lists, tips, and tools. I quickly realized that our family doesn’t follow many of the suggestions. It’s not surprising that we generate a lot of food trash. I got to thinking about why the average American family creates so much food waste, and how difficult it might be to change our planning, shopping, and meal preparation habits so that we can reduce this waste.
In this episode of Talk to Me About Food, I share findings from interviews I conducted with a handful of primary food shoppers around this topic, among them a list of what are likely the most effective of the 37 (!) suggestions, as well as thoughts on how to make other ideas more doable. Our relationship with the process of getting and making food is complicated... I also discuss an example of how the latest technology might help us act on our best intentions to reduce food waste at home.

Previous Episode

Getting Americans to Eat Insects

The edible insect movement is trending. It’s no wonder. Using insects for food and feed is all about treating our planet with better care and not a day goes by when we don’t hear or read about climate change or the need to reduce our carbon footprint.

2 billion people around the world have been eating insects forever, and some in the U.S. are starting to get the message. We profile some of the early adopters of entomophagy and get into how to get yourself to actually stick a bug in your mouth!

I share expert perspectives on why we are averse to eating insects, then share information and tips about how to overcome this aversion from the owner of Meat Maniacs, a store in Dallas that sells edible insects, and RNA, an entomophagy evangelist in Austin, who started Little Herds, a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote the use of insects as food and feed in an environmentally sound way.

Next Episode

Smart Kitchen to the Rescue?

The 5th Smart Kitchen Summit was held a few weeks ago in Seattle. Two days in early October when entrepreneurs, food techies, food futurists, and investors gather to check out the latest ideas around how to make the process of planning for, shopping for, and preparing foods/meals better. To make it easier, faster, cheaper, less wasteful, or in some other way more rewarding through advances in technology. A slew of smart appliances and smartphone apps were on display.

In this podcast I get the perspectives on some the featured ideas at the Smart Kitchen Summit from two experts in their fields who attended. Lisa McManus is a kitchen equipment tester. She’s a reporter and editor who also stars on PBS television shows "America's Test Kitchen" and "Cook's Country.Anna Marie Cesario spent a good part of her career at food companies like Unilever, attuned to the whole meal preparation process. She and her teams developed recipes that fit into our changing lifestyles.

In this show I also consider if and how any of these ”smart” solutions could help me in my own kitchen...