2013-05-25T17:13:17-04:00 Jonathan Bloom http://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/index.php?author=jonathan-bloom Copyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Jonathan Bloom Good old fashioned elbow grease. tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.2334993 2012-12-20T12:39:36-05:00 2013-02-19T05:12:01-05:00

Jonathan Bloom http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-bloom/
1. Get a firm head count. It's hard to buy the right amount without knowing how many people you'll be hosting.

2. Buy less food. While abundance is part of the deal on Thanksgiving, it is less so during the winter holidays. Don't buy food for 20 when you're serving 10. This turkey size calculator from a biased, but well-versed source -- Butterball -- is useful. If you're having more of a cocktail party, here's a guide for the amount of finger foods to provide.

3. Serve less on each plate or let people help themselves (although keep in mind these food safety tips on buffets).

4. No clean plate, no presents! (Juuust kidding.)

4. Relax. Eating slowly, enjoying your family's company (this may be harder for some than others) and being mindful eaters will reduce waste.

5. Don't let food sit out too long. The longer items stay unrefrigerated -- or between 40 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit -- the more you're allowing food-spoiling bacteria growth. Foods should be refrigerated within two hours at worst.

6. Store leftovers in airtight containers. Don't just throw foods in the fridge to get them out of sight. It only takes a few minutes, so tell Uncle Bob to put down the egg nog and help!

7. Redistribute leftovers. Ask guests to bring their own containers or have extras around to dole out excess perishable foods -- not just the cookies.

8. Buy fewer "regular" groceries in the buildup to your gathering. This will not only make room in your fridge, but also to incentivize your family to eat the leftovers.

9. Plan creative reuses for holiday food. After all, there are only so many goose sandwiches one can eat. Having a few holiday use-it-up recipes in mind will help get you excited about repurposing leftovers. If that doesn't do it, consider how much money you've invested in that holiday food.

10. Last but not least: Do not, under any circumstance, buy or accept fruitcakes. (Kidding... mostly)

Happy Holidays and a waste-free 2013!]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.2170815 2012-11-21T18:24:28-05:00 2013-01-21T05:12:01-05:00

Jonathan Bloom http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-bloom/ four hundred Statue of Liberty's worth of turkey (by weight). Based on estimates, we'll discard an estimated 204 million pounds of turkey, at a cost of $282 million. That's fowl.

Thanksgiving is about being thankful for and celebrating abundance. Yet these days, we tend to do that by serving an overabundance.

While I think there's room to cut back on the quantity of food we serve, I can't see that part of the holiday changing any time soon.* Yet our holiday overindulgence needn't prompt a corresponding increase in waste. We just have to do a bang-up job using our leftovers.

Of course, many Americans are quite adept at transforming turkey into a variety of other dishes. Compared to leftovers from the rest of the year, Thanksgiving remains are a hot commodity. Indeed, what many call Black Friday could well be called National Leftovers Day.

Still, there's room to step it up. This year, let's strive for a Zero Waste Thanksgiving.

Now, I know what you're thinking -- No, that doesn't mean everyone at the table has to clean their plate (but it can't hurt). Instead, it means we strive to send nothing to the landfill by using as much as we can (and composting the rest). The best way to do that is to plan ahead. Unless you're going to invite his guy over, it's essential to plot out leftover recipes and/or plan to redistribute the leftovers.

Most people are fairly adept at re-purposing turkey, but don't forget about those sides. (Using up desserts aren't much of a problem.) Whether protein or potatoes, creating a game plan for those extra pounds of food is vital. There are so many ideas out there, the possibilities are endless and fun (i.e. deep-fried stuffing bites).

In terms of planning ahead, let's share leftover ideas by commenting here, tweeting with the #ZeroWasteThanksgivingtag or commenting on the Wasted Food Facebook page.

Whether or not you're excited about making the traditional turkey soup or pho, it will likely make sense to send food home with others. I'm guessing you'll have enough to do both. Here's a strategy that promotes both the use and sharing of leftovers: Send guests home with a hastily-assembled turkey pot pie. Have pie crusts ready (either homemade or store bought) and make an assembly line after dinner to fill each pie shell with layers of leftovers. They can then be baked or refrigerated or frozen for later.

However you do it, why not share that abundance with friends and family on another day (not just Thursday)? To ease logistics and put guests in the leftover mindset, tell them to bring their own takeaway containers. Everyone having reusable containers will also help avoid plastic or paper waste.

So this Thanksgiving, my request is simple: try to use all of your food. What better way to say thanks for all the natural and human resources that went into creating your food

---

*It's the excess on the other 364 days that's the more important and realistic target.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2010:/theblog//3.787902 2010-11-24T09:40:12-05:00 2011-05-25T18:15:22-04:00

Jonathan Bloom http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-bloom/ Be Thankful, Not Wasteful

Thanksgiving celebrates abundance. And we should absolutely enjoy the celebration. At the same time, I don't think we honor anyone or anything by wasting food. What then?

I'm calling on you to help ensure that your group strives to eliminate or minimize waste at your Thanksgiving feast. Here's how:

* Be sure to distribute the bounty. If you're the Thanksgiving host, either suggest that your guests bring along a few plastic containers of various sizes to help take home and leftovers or have a bunch on hand. There's no sense centralizing so much food that we'll struggle to put to use. This may feel a bit odd, but that slight discomfort pales in comparison to the disappointment from having to toss pounds of once-good food.

* Celebrate abundance, not excess. Don't take too much when you serve yourself. You can always go back for seconds! Keep in mind that the average Thanksgiving dinner today comes in, conservatively, at 2,057 calories. And remember, what's on our plates is seldom saved.

* Save those leftovers! And do it quickly. Not letting foods sit out too long in the bacteria danger zone (40-140 degrees F) will mean they'll be safe to eat and also last longer.

* Plan for your leftovers. Whether it's a turkey pot pie, turkey soup or turkey tacos, find some fun ideas that'll get you excited to use up your T-day remains.

---

Share Your Tips and Tricks

Help others reduce waste around Thanksgiving by sharing your insight. We've already received a few helpful tips, including Rachel's idea to make notes on the number of guests, the amount of food eaten and the amount remaining in order to help reduce waste next year.

I'm directing people to the Wasted Food Facebook page where we can compile a series of tips, successes and--should they occur--failures. These can be videos, photos or descriptions from inside people's Thanksgiving dinners. Feel free to post during the prep, the dinner itself, or the "aftermath." I want to prompt a real conversation here!

A few ideas:

• Videos describing what your friends/family are doing this year to reduce food waste. Or, if a video is too much, then a photo or description of the steps taken.
• A recipe or two for the best dishes made from Thanksgiving leftovers.
• Your preferred way to make the perfect leftover turkey sandwiches.
• An "unboxing" video of leftovers from the dinner you attended.

---

Spread the Word!

* Let your network know about the Be Thankful, Not Wasteful initiative. Share the link to this post and ask them to take action on their own. (And of course to post their results!)

* Do you blog? Please consider a post or video encouraging your readers to participate. Ask readers to join you in adding their voice to the discussion.

* Mention the initiative--and this fabulous new book--at your Thanksgiving celebration. I mean, I don't want you to start any dinner table arguments or anything, but...

* Solicit tips and tricks from your friends and family who aren't social media savvy and post them - I know I'll be asking my Grandma for some ideas.

---

Thanksgiving is the one day of the year where we're all focused on food. Let's leverage that as a call-to-action to change our wasteful ways for the rest of the year. I think the day would be more meaningful that way. And remember--even incremental changes can have a massive effect if they're done by millions of Americans.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2010:/theblog//3.775639 2010-10-28T17:21:00-04:00 2011-05-25T18:10:25-04:00

Jonathan Bloom http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-bloom/
There are ethical and economic reasons why we shouldn't waste food. But, putting those aside, the environmental impacts alone make our national culture of waste unpalatable.

A tremendous amount of resources go into growing our food. And processing, shipping, cooling and cooking it. A recent study from the University of Texas at Austin professors Amanda D. Cuellar and Michael E. Webber found that two percent of all U.S. energy consumption goes into producing food that is ultimately thrown out. That's the equivalent of 350 million barrels of oil.

Worst of all, the two percent figure is a very conservative finding, as the study's authors noted. It's based on the low-end estimate of food's energy usage. Plus, the waste percentage the researchers use is ancient -- OK, mid 90s -- finding that we waste 27 percent of all our food. The most recent estimate is 40 percent, which comes from an NIH study.

Using that more up-to-date waste percentage and the most recent estimate of how much energy food production gobbles, our food waste could represent as much as six percent of U.S. energy consumption.

Regardless of exactly how much energy the food chain uses, Cuellar and Webber were quite right when they concluded, "The energy embedded in wasted food represents a substantial target for decreasing energy consumption in the U.S."

Fresh water is another resource embedded in our food waste. With today's irrigation-heavy farming, a tremendous amount of water goes into growing our food. When we then waste our food, that water has gone for naught. Using a conservative 30 percent waste estimate, our squandering of food flushes away enough water to meet the needs of 500 million people. And while we've long taken water for granted, its scarcity is becoming harder and harder to ignore.

In addition to squandering resources when we waste food, we're creating another problem -- food trash. Far too much food ends up in the landfill, where it encourages climate change. We discard roughly our bodyweight of food every year -- an annual average of 197 pounds per person. When food decomposes in a landfill, it does so without air (anaerobically), producing methane. That greenhouse gas is roughly 20 times more potent a heat trapper than CO2.

Landfills are the second largest human-related source of methane. Food is second largest component of landfills. In a sense we're aiding global warming when we throw food in the garbage. Composting -- whether it's through traditional bins, worms or the Bokashi method -- and creating energy from waste are wise alternatives that avoid methane emissions. Even better -- reducing the amount of food that we waste.

When we throw away food in the regular waste stream, we're unnecessarily filling up landfills. This hastens the building of new ones, with their environmental concerns. In short, we're burying more pockets of potential pollution, with storm overflow and leachate leakage major concerns. Unlike with other goods, there's virtually no recycling of food waste. That would be composting, for the most part. According to the EPA, less than three percent of food waste is recycled.

Not only are we unnecessarily adding to the waste that we haul around in gas-guzzling garbage trucks, we're adding an incredibly heavy waste source. As a result, waste haulers' fuel efficiency suffers. Since so much of food is water. we're basically trucking it around (great distances, too -- as inter-state waste shipping is common). It's the height of inefficiency. In addition to the further use of oil, hauling food waste increases pollution from the emissions and the smell of rotting food.

While we won't ever eliminate food waste, we can make a real dent in the problem. If we do, our planet will be a lot happier. Food waste isn't the most dire environmental problem we face, but quite possibly the easiest to reverse.

Jonathan Bloom is the author of American Wasteland: How America Throws Away Nearly Half of Its Food (and What We Can Do About It). The North Carolina-based journalist also writes the blog WastedFood.com.]]>