SFagan NPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94 An Abundance of Waste Farmers and growers have made gigantic advancements in food production over the last century, ensuring more food flows from farm to table than at any time in human history. Yet, some estimates say as much as 40 percent of the food produced in the U.S. goes uneaten. Food waste is the single-largest source of waste in municipal landfills. An incredible 35 million tons of food were thrown away in 2012, according to the EPA . As it decomposes in landfills, the waste releases methane and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Meanwhile, 1 in 6 Americans struggles with hunger and the world wonders how to address the challenge of feeding 9 billion people by 2050. NET Nebraska and Harvest Public Media are exploring the problem of food waste in America. And tune in to your local public television station for an in-depth look at “Tossed Out: Food Waste in America.” Check your local listings. Or watch the videos below. Inside a Landfill Studying a Family's Food Waste NPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94 Tossed Out Wed, 28 Apr 2021 06:31:31 +0000 https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Grant Gerlock It’s a hot summer day outside of Lincoln, Neb., and Jack Chappelle is knee-deep in trash. He’s wading in to rotting vegetables, half-eaten burgers and tater tots. Lots of tater tots. “You can get a lot of tater tots out of schools,” Chappelle says. “It doesn’t matter if it’s elementary, middle school or high school. Tater tots. Bar none.” Chappelle is a solid waste consultant with Engineering Solutions & Design in Kansas City, Kan. Local governments hire his crew to literally sort through their garbage and find out what it’s made of. On this day, he’s trudging through Lincoln’s Bluff Road Landfill. “In the country you get more peelings,” Chappelle explained. “You get more vegetables.” A lot of the waste he finds is food. Food from homes, restaurants, stores and schools. “When you’re in the city you get a lot more fast food containers with half-eaten food in them,” Chappelle says. “A lot more pizza boxes.” Food is the largest single source of waste in the U.S. More food ends up in https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/food-waste-weighing-down-us-food-system 215 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Sun, 21 Sep 2014 05:00:00 +0000 Food Waste Weighing Down U.S. Food System Amy Mayer On a wet, grey day in Grinnell, Iowa, the rain beats a rhythm on the metal roof of a packing shed at Grinnell Heritage Farm . Crew member Whitney Brewer picks big bunches of kale out of a washing tank, lets them drip on a drying table and then packs them into cardboard boxes. Like most farms in the United States, this one uses ample labor, harvesting tools and technology, and readily available refrigeration to ensure that most of its produce makes it to market. Most food that can’t be sold is eaten by the crew or donated to area food banks that can distribute it to people who need it. Andrew Dunham, who is the fifth generation of his family to farm this land, says what little edible material accumulates that doesn’t get off the farm, is put back into the soil as part of a compost pile. Just outside the shed where the kale is being packed, a 15-bushel crate collects waste material for compost. It’s less than half full on a recent day. Dunham looks down into it at the leaves, stems, https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/technology-infrastructure-minimize-food-waste-farm 216 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Sun, 21 Sep 2014 05:00:00 +0000 Technology, Infrastructure Minimize Food Waste On The Farm Peggy Lowe The long line of semi-trucks waiting to get in the gates of the Farmland Foods plant could simply wait around for a few hours to head back, fresh products on board. The trucks are loaded with hogs from several confinement operations near this factory in Milan, a small town in northeast Missouri. Within just 19 hours, those pigs will be slaughtered, butchered and boxed into cuts that consumers see in the grocery store and in restaurants. But that effort will use only about half of the animal. The other half of the pig will be put to many more uses than just meat. The animal’s organs, leftover meat, bones – even its blood – will be rendered here, sold and shipped out to other manufacturing companies which will produce dozens of other products, everything from livestock feed to fertilizer, pet food to pharmaceuticals, lard and lubricants. “We sell everything but the squeal,” said Todd Scherbing, senior director of rendering for Smithfield Foods, which owns the Farmland plant. Rendering is https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/manufacturers-cut-food-waste-build-bottom-line 217 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Sun, 21 Sep 2014 05:00:00 +0000 Manufacturers Cut Food Waste To Build Bottom Line Kristofor Husted Grocery stores and restaurants serve up more than 400 million pounds of food each year, but nearly a third of it never makes it to a stomach. With consumers demanding large displays of un-blemished, fresh produce or massive portion sizes, many grocery stores and restaurants end up tossing a mountain of perfectly edible food. Despite efforts to cut down on waste, the consumer end of the food chain still accounts for the largest share of food waste in the U.S. food system. A full 10 percent of the available food supply in the U.S. is wasted every year at the retail level, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture , and about 20 percent is wasted at home. That’s food worth more than $160 billion. And it’s food that could go toward feeding the estimated one in seven American households that can’t find enough to eat. Supermarkets sweep the aisles for ugly food Shirley Phelps scans the banana stand at her local grocery store in Independence, Mo., looking for the perfect bunch for her https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/grocery-stores-waste-tons-food-they-woo-shoppers 219 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Sun, 21 Sep 2014 05:00:00 +0000 Grocery Stores Waste Tons Of Food As They Woo Shoppers Luke Runyon Lunch time at Harris Bilingual Elementary School in Fort Collins, Colo., displays all the usual trappings of a public school cafeteria: Star Wars lunch boxes, light up tennis shoes, hard plastic trays and chocolate milk cartons with little cartoon cows. It’s pizza day, the most popular of the week, and kids line up at a salad bar before receiving their slice. “Alison, que quieres? Oh, broccoli, tambien,” says Kate Kosakowski, a teacher’s assistant at the school. She gives the pigtailed kindergartner a pat on the back and places several florets on the tray. Kids speak in both English and Spanish throughout the school week at Harris. The district that includes the school, Poudre School District, serves almost 15,000 meals a day. The salad and fruit bar is a staple of this lunchroom. In 2012, the U.S. Department of Agriculture updated its school nutrition standards , mandating more fruits and vegetables on students’ trays. So when one kindergartner tries to sneak past without taking a https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/choices-can-slice-school-food-waste 220 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Sun, 21 Sep 2014 05:00:00 +0000 Choices Can Slice School Food Waste SFagan Wasting around 40 percent of all the food produced in the U.S. certainly has its drawbacks: It’s not feeding people in need, it’s expensive and it does a lot of environmental damage. But across the country, cities, towns and companies are finding food waste doesn’t have to be a total loss. In fact, it can be quite valuable – in making fertilizer, electricity or even fuel for cars, trucks and buses. More than 180 U.S. cities and towns are trying to tap that value by offering curbside food scrap collection. They’re asking residents to separate unwanted food from the rest of their trash and put it in a curbside compost bin. The idea is to stop sending food waste to the landfill where it generates harmful methane gas pollution and start turning it into something useful – like compost that people can use to enrich the soil. However, while these curbside compost programs are better than landfilling, experts say they only address a fraction of the food waste problem. Kicking Food Waste to the https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/curbside-composting-food-waste-isnt-total-loss 222 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Sun, 21 Sep 2014 05:00:00 +0000 With Curbside Composting, Food Waste Isn't A Total Loss