Should food be treated as precious, or simply a commodity to throw away when no longer wanted? Jonathan Bloom, journalist, and author of the Wasted Food Blog, believes food is too valuable to waste.
In this segment, Bloom offers some suggestions for supermarkets on ways they can reduce the tremendous amount of food they end up throwing into dumpsters. According to this recent USDA/ERS report “Overview of Food Loss in the United States”, in 2010, food loss at both the retail (including restaurants) and consumer levels, $162 billion was lost. Obviously, there’s a strong incentive for supermarkets to reduce waste even if their losses represent only a percentage of this total. Besides the economic costs, Bloom points out that in earlier generations, food was considered too important and respected, to be wasted in a cavalier manner.
With all the hunger and starvation that occurs, reducing food waste may offer an effective, relatively low cost solution toward helping to reduce food insecurity.
The complete Food Waste series:
- Why Is There So Much Food Waste?
- Why Is There So Much Food Waste? -2
- Why Is There So Much Food Waste? – 3
Most of the videos featured on Cooking Up a Story were produced, filmed, and edited by Rebecca Gerendasy. Fred Gerendasy contributed as a writer to many of the posts and occasionally as the interviewer. Visit Rebecca Gerendasy Clay – Art and Fred Gerendasy Photography to see their current work.