September 29,2014

The Premiere is Near
By Taylor Lunka

The “Waste Not” team has been busy in recent weeks editing, acquiring additional footage and performing other post-production tasks to assemble the film, the twelfth MediaLab documentary in the organization’s eight year existence.

“Waste Not” began as a somewhat abstract vision that has increasingly gained focus and changed our lives.

Before this project, food is something my colleagues and I all took for granted. But now, we each think deeply about food – including what we eat, how we eat, and how food is, or often is not, valued by society. None of us will ever look food in the same way.

Preliminary conversations about what has since become “Waste Not” began more than a year ago. At the time, Fall 2014 seemed so far away. It’s hard to believe that in about a month, we will finally premiere the project.  

From the performance of initial research, to field production throughout the Northwest, across North America, and then abroad to Greater London, all of which has been followed by editing and post-production, there has been no time for rest. However, the hard work has been worth every moment.

We believe you will see “Waste Not” as more than just another documentary. We predict it will change your perspectives about food and your relationship with it. And we hope the film will motivate average citizens to develop strategies to address food waste and its many implications.

“All of us have a role to play,” says Emma Marsh, community partnership manager for the United Kingdom’s Waste Resource Action Programme (WRAP), “if only we work together.”

We look forward to seeing you at 3 p.m., Saturday, Nov., 8, 2014, at the premiere of “Waste Not: Breaking Down the Food Equation,” which will screen at the Theatre on the Square at the Broadway Center for the Performing Arts, 901 Broadway in downtown Tacoma, Wash.

June 20, 2014

A TRIP TO REMEMBER

By Amanda Brasgalla

LONDON- This past week has been a wonderful way to end our trip.  For months, we heard that the United Kingdom led the world in attempting to reduce food waste, and this week we got to see that effort first-hand.  

On our last day, Friday, June 19, we kept ourselves busy by interviewing representatives of two organizations -- Rubies in the Rubble and Waste & Resources Action Programme, or WRAP, the government-sponsored initiative to reduce consumer food waste.

We were particularly excited to spend time with Jenny Dawson, founder of Rubies in the Rubble. Started in 2011, Rubies in the Rubble creates and sells chutneys and jams made from fruits and vegetables that would otherwise go to waste.

Dawson felt inspired to start the company when she heard how much food is wasted. According to government estimates, in the United Kingdom alone, citizens annually spend more than 12.5 billion British Pounds Sterling – or the equivalent of $21.3 billion in U.S. currency -- on food that ends up in waste bins.

This staggering number caused Dawson to think about the many implications, and what she could personally do to reduce food waste.

“In the end, we’re all in this together and all need to think about it,” Dawson said.

Increased consideration and awareness, said Dawson, would naturally lead to more innovations and solutions that would engage consumers on multiple levels.

“People can be their own solution to food waste,” said Dawson, who noted heightened awareness would go a long way.

Later that day, we met with Emma Marsh, the Community Partnership Manager of WRAP, which is sponsored at the national level by the United Kingdom governments of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

WRAP focuses on a wide variety of resource-related issues, most notably food waste.

In recent years, WRAP started a nationwide campaign called “Love Food, Hate Waste.” Since its inception, the campaign has prevented more than seven million tons of food from entering the waste stream in the United Kingdom.

The challenge, said Marsh, lies in changing the behavior of consumers.

“Many people just simply don’t recognize they waste food,” Marsh said, adding that once it is brought to their attention, they can follow simple steps.

Marsh said consumers can reduce food waste significantly by following five key tips:

- Plan meals;
- Watch portions;
- Follow the “use by” dates;
- Store food properly;
- Be creative with leftover food.

“We just need to do those simple steps and those become simple habits,” Marsh said.

As we have learned throughout our trip, simple habits can make a huge difference. Through all of our interviews, I learned the importance of simple actions leading to large scale changes.

This trip has impacted us all greatly. I think Olivia, Taylor and I view food and food waste much differently than we did before. Every location and person we’ve met has added to our knowledge and altered our perspectives.

The “Waste Not” journey will soon enter a new phase. But we will remember these past three weeks of research on the road for years to come.

June 15, 2014

Keep Calm and Appreciate Food 

By Taylor Lunka

 LONDON, England – The “Waste Not” team, the first in MediaLab history to perform research overseas, arrived safely in the United Kingdom on Sunday, June 15.

On Monday the 16th, we hit the ground running by interviewing Dominika Jarosz, events coordinator for Feeding the 5000, an initiative established and organized by British author and food waste activist Tristram Stuart that focuses on upstream food waste.

Stuart wrote “Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal,” which received the 2011 Sophie Prize, an international environmental award. Feeding the 5000 also brings food waste related projects together to bring more awareness to the issue.

“Food waste can be seen as a solution,” Jarosz said. “There’s plenty of solutions.”

One solution Jarosz suggested is a “Disco Soup,” which is an event at which people gather to cook food for those in need while disco music plays in the background.

“Food is becoming a movement,” Jarosz said.

We also interviewed Amy Leech, coordinator of a campaign called the Pig Idea, a program associated with Feeding the 5000 that calls for feeding food waste to animals.

“Pigs and chickens are perfect recyclers of food waste,” said Leech, who said “a lot of farmers and retailers don’t know what to do with their food waste.”

After the two interviews, we followed Jarosz, Leech and others from Feeding the 5000 to a London event called the “Race Against Food Waste.” The evening included a pay-as-you-feel up buffet from food that would’ve otherwise been wasted and live music.

The next day we visited Moshi Moshi, a sushi restaurant in London that is a member of the Sustainable Restaurant Association. At the restaurant, we met with Victoria Moorhouse, senior operations and SRA program manager, who discussed the role that restaurants play in the food cycle.

“Restaurants have a great part to play,” Moorhouse said. “Portion size is a problem.”

As we have heard at various points along the way, portions at restaurants often go uneaten. The SRA sponsors a program called FoodSave, which helps restaurants reduce the amount of food they waste.

FoodSave uses technology that calculates the quantity of waste as well as what specific kind of food is thrown into the trash.

Moorhouse also highlighted why many people are unaware of the scale of food waste.

“Food waste is something we don’t talk about,” Moorhouse said.

Organizations such as the SRA aim to change the perceptions of UK residents, and perhaps someday, the perceptions of consumers around the world.

We also talked with Kevin Duffy, a representative from Winnow Solutions, the London-based company that provides food waste technology and analytics for Moshi Moshi and other UK restaurants.  

June 11, 2014

Toronto Residents Work to Counter Food Waste Culture 
and Mentality
By Olivia Ash

TORONTO -- A quick flight from New York on the morning of Tuesday, June 10 delivered the Waste Not team to Toronto, Canada, our North American neighbor.

The fourth most-populated city in North America, Toronto is bustling with energy and life, as well as an active community of citizens focused on reducing food waste.

On the evening of June 10, the Waste Not team spent time with three such passionate citizens, all connected to the Toronto Youth Food Policy Council (TYFPC).

The purpose of the Council is to address various matters regarding food, one of which is the ever-important issue of food waste. The Council is linked to the Toronto Food Policy Council, which acts as an umbrella organization. The work of the TYFPC, however, centers around engaging young adults.

We met with Martina Marsic and Jessica Reeve, two TYFPC current council members, as well as past member Heather Lee, who now works as a local consultant on food issues.

"Food is a gift," commented Reeve. "We can build a community around [food] education. It builds dialogue."

The TYFPC has certainly built a community around food in Toronto. The group engages the community through events that educate the public about food.

Marsic told us that changing mindsets about food would mean for global citizens to "get back to that sense of understanding how food is made, how it is consumed and where it ends up."

In the end, the Council members related to us the importance of individuals taking action.

"People have control over what they are wasting at the house," said Lee. "People are also in control over policy."

The next day, the team sat down with Michelle Coyne, a Ph.D. who wrote her doctoral dissertation on food waste. Coyne also works at Second Harvest, a service organization that annually redistributes millions of pounds of food to those who need it.

For Coyne, the link between food waste and hunger is direct, if not obvious.

"Food insecurity and wasted food are two sides of the same coin," she said.

Coyne also argued against a commonly held notion that the North American food system is sustainable.

"We can't call our food system sustainable if we produce so much that will be thrown away," Coyne said.

All of the Torontonians with whom we met agreed that excess food produced only to end up in dumpsters just doesn't make sense, for both environmental and social reasons. These are among the factors that motivated the women to dedicate themselves to work against food waste.

"In the food movement," said Lee, "it's always about champions."

The City That Never Sleeps
By: Taylor Lunka

New York- The Waste Not team boarded a train on Friday afternoon from Washington D.C. to head to the big city.

After a three-hour train ride, the team arrived at Madison Square Garden and started their East Coast adventure.

On Saturday morning, the team grabbed their equipment and headed off to Time Square to conduct on the street interviews in New York City. We talked to a variety of people from in and out of the country, who had diverse knowledge on the issue of food waste.

After talking to people in Times Square for an hour, the team took the rest of the weekend to catch up on work, update the blog, and indulge in some tourist activities while in the Big Apple.

Monday morning we were greeted with the comforts of home- plenty of rain and cloudy skies for the Washingtonians conquering the big city.

That morning, we made our way downtown to meet with the United Nations Environmental Protection Director, Elliott Harris.

Harris painted a picture of how large the issue of food waste is.

“If food waste were a country, it would be the third contributor to green house gases,” Harris said. “People need to change their consumption patterns.”

Harris said that wasted food goes beyond throwing useable food into the trash. It also contributes to problems environmentally, socially and economically.

Portion sizes at the grocery store and in restaurants are key contributors to these problems, Harris said.

“Being able to consume more, doesn’t mean you need to consume more,” he said.

After our interview with Harris, the team took the time to do some more sightseeing during their last day in NYC.

On Tuesday morning, the team heads out of the country and takes their journey north to Toronto, Canada.

TAKING THE EAST COAST BY STORM

June 7, 2014

By Amanda Brasgalla

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Our time in the nation’s capital was a whirlwind of interviews, archival research, shooting B-roll, and tons of East Coast traffic.

The visit began on Tuesday, June 3, when the team split up and headed in opposite directions. Taylor and I spent the night in D.C. for reasons I will explain in a moment.

Meanwhile, Olivia and Rob drove south to Durham, N.C. for an afternoon meeting the next day, Wednesday, June 4, with Jonathan Bloom, an author and expert on food waste.

Bloom, a journalist by training, has spent the last 10 years researching and writing about food waste. In his 2010 book, American Wasteland, Bloom explores multiple food issues from farm to fork. Bloom pointed out that food waste is a vexing issue because it does not occur at one point in the cycle. It occurs at all points in the cycle. 

While Olivia and Rob interviewed Bloom, Taylor and I met with representatives of a national organization based in D.C. called the Campus Kitchens Project. Later that day, we also met with a top official at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In different ways, both organizations are working to address food waste from different angles.

First, a little about the Campus Kitchens Project, or its common acronym, CKP. A non-profit, CKP is dedicated to establishing student-run kitchens at U.S. high schools colleges and universities with the primary purpose of providing healthy meals to community members in need. During our visit, we met with CKP director Laura Toscano and her colleague Matt Schnarr, the expansion and partnerships manager.

During both conversations, Toscano and Schnarr stressed how food waste correlates to broader issues, one of which is a key CKP goal – fighting hunger by using food that would otherwise go to waste.

“It doesn’t make sense that people are going hungry and yet there is so much excess food,” said Schnarr. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

Schnarr also explained, however, that diverting food that might otherwise be wasted is not a silver bullet.

“There are lots of other factors also playing a really important role in both hunger and food insecurity,” said Schnarr.

Some of those factors include economic status, cultural influences and social boundaries.  Each of these elements play a role in the impact food waste has on society.

After spending time with Schnarr and Toscano, Taylor and I met with Mathy Stanislaus, the EPA’s assistant administrator in the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response.

Stanislaus pointed out that each year American families throw away as much $1,600 worth of food. By reducing such waste, families could lessen impacts on the environment and ease the strain on their pocketbooks.

On Thursday, June 5, with Olivia and Rob back from North Carolina, we split up again for another busy day. Rob and I dropped off Taylor and Olivia at a U.S. National Archives facility in suburban Maryland, where they spent much of the day searching for historical footage that we might incorporate into the film.

In the meantime, Rob and I headed back into the District to meet with Carrie Calvert, director of tax and commodity policy for Feeding America, one of the nation’s leading hunger relief agencies.

“I think we’ve seen that hunger has a huge societal cost,” Calvert said, noting that children and adults who do not get enough nutritious food to eat often suffer in school or work.

For instance, access to nutritious food for the elderly can also affect whether seniors age at home or in nursing facilities. Hunger can affect multiple people in multiple ways, Calvert explained, thus affecting society at large.  

On Friday, June 6, we concluded our D.C. interviews by meeting with U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Director of Sustainable Development Elise Golan, Ph.D.  According to USDA statistics, an estimated 133 billion pounds of food is wasted annually at the retail and consumer levels.

“It’s a shocking amount,” Golan said.  “It hits us all in the gut.” 

The USDA aims to reduce in coming years by educating people about the obvious – and not so obvious – impacts of food waste.

“Our whole objective is to change the momentum and change the way we think about it,” Golan said.

As we learn more about how and why food waste occurs, the notion of behavior change has emerged as a common thread in the food equation. Since food waste encompasses social, economic and environmental concerns, there are multiple perspectives exist about how it might be resolved.

Sunday, June 1 through Tuesday, June 3, 2014

DOWN ON THE FARM

By Olivia Ash

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Leaving big cities behind for a while, the team embarked on a few farm adventures across the beautiful state of Iowa. 

Our three days in the Hawkeye State were filled with great conversations, yummy, fresh local veggies, and lots and lots of bugs. And with the bugs came bug bites, which Amanda and I learned the hard way. Ouch. 

We began our first day, Sunday, June 1, in Solon, a rural community located in the northeastern corner of Iowa, where we met Kate Edwards, better known as “Farmer Kate.” Although she has not yet celebrated her 30th birthday, Kate is an accomplished farmer and enthusiastic about her work. She graciously took time out of her “typical” 16-hour day to share with us her philosophies about farming, and also proudly showed us around her lush plot of land.

Kate even let us sample some of her fine, organic produce. When she handed me a piece of dark green broccoli that she had picked only moments before, I almost shed a tear. I swear it was the first time I had truly tasted broccoli. 

The disconnect between the average consumer and farming is one that needs to be rectified, Kate told us.

“Farming is the basis of food. And food is the basis of life,” she said. 

Busy 21st Century lifestyles has turned the American food system into a pre-packaged and often impersonal set of transactions that simply don’t allow for much interaction between farmers and consumers.

However, an exciting and increasingly popular system of food distribution may help bridge that gap.

Farmer Kate, who holds a master’s degree in engineering, is among a growing number of farmers nationwide who operate networks called Community Supported Agriculture – or CSA’s – which provide fresh, organic food direct from farms to the tables of consumers.

On Monday, June 2, we paid a visit to ZJ Farm near Solon, owned and operated by Susan Jutz, to get her take on the issue of food waste.

Susan is in her 19th season as a farmer. And as we tagged along with Susan to a CSA drop-off location in Cedar Rapids, about 30 minutes away from ZJ Farm, her expertise and experience were obvious.

We learned that consumers who participate in CSAs essentially purchase a share of produce upfront, then receive a variety of food throughout the farming season.

But beyond the food, at Susan’s drop-off location, we noticed that CSAs not only provide consumers with fresh veggies, they also inspire a sense of community. Happily clutching their bags full of freshly picked veggies, community members gathered in clusters to chat with Susan and each other.

Our final interview in Iowa was with Tony Thompson, a farmer who wears two hats – he is both an academic and a farmer. Tony acquired a Ph.D. in sustainability while living for several years in Sweden.

But now, Tony finds himself back on the family farm in Elkhart outside Des Moines, first established by his grandfather in the early 20th Century. 

“Our food system has been so consolidated,” Tony said. “Because of that consolidation, it allows people like me to create niches in response to that.”

Tony is in his first season farming, but I wouldn’t have been able to tell. He showed us around his farm, and the rows and rows of veggies, growing prodigiously, reflected Tony’s long hours of care and labor. 

Farming, we learned during our three days in Iowa, is not for the faint of heart.

New Initiatives Aim to Reduce Wasted Food
By Taylor Lunka

AUSTIN, Texas- Our last day in the Lone Star State, Friday, May 30, was full of interviews with people who represented different points of view in the food equation.

Dr. Michael Webber, a University of Texas at Austin engineering professor with whom we met the previous day, recommended that we talk to Amanda Cuellar, a doctoral student who worked helped produce a report on how much energy is lost in food waste.

We were fortunate to find a mutually convenient time to meet up with Amanda, who had actionable advice about food waste for the average American consumer.

“I don’t think you can eliminate it 100 percent,” Amanda said. “But people can be more conscious.”

After we interviewed Amanda, Professor Wells took us to Frank in downtown Austin, a local eatery where we had a delicious lunch of hot dogs, waffle fries, and beverages served Texas-style -- in large mason jars.

In the afternoon, we sat down with Edwin Marty, the food policy manager for the City of Austin. Before joining the city, Marty was executive director at E.A.T. South, an organization based in the Southeast U.S. that encourages healthy lifestyles, consumer education and sustainable food production in urban areas. Also in his past, Marty was founder of the Jones Valley Urban Farm in Birmingham, Ala.

During our discussion, Marty discussed the importance of food waste and why people should care about it.

“Food waste is inconceivable,” Marty said. “The idea of throwing away is horrifying.”

To help consumers connect better with the food they eat, Marty suggests that people should turn to urban agriculture, making average people co-producers in the food system.

We ended the day by interviewing Rachel Smith, co-founder of an Austin start-up called Halfsies, a social initiative that aims to connect food waste, hunger and excess food. The concept is simple: At participating restaurants, diners can choose to go “Halfsies,” which means they will receive half of normal portions while still paying retail price. Then, half of the full price is donated to support programs that work to reduce hunger.

Smith, a registered nurse by profession, came up with the idea because overly large restaurant portions angered her. After several years of merely thinking about the idea, Smith decided to take action and start her own non-profit with the mission of targeting health and hunger issues.

“There’s a way we can empower individuals by giving them a choice,” Smith said. “It’s not that there’s an excess of food being produced. It’s the resources that have not been used efficiently.”

Smith said later this month, several Austin area restaurants will feature the “Halfsies” option. The ultimate goal is for Halfsies to catch on and spread across the country.

Our next stop is Iowa, where we are scheduled to talk to several farmers about food production practices. Stayed tuned for adventures from the Midwest! 

The Science of Food Waste
Olivia Ash
May 29, 2014

AUSTIN, Texas - Just a few short hours after touching down in Austin, Texas, the team woke up early and hit the ground running.

We started off in the beautiful Austin City Hall, speaking with Bob Gedert, Director of Austin Resource Recovery.

The city of Austin has plans in place to aim for zero waste by 2040. Gedert passionately spoke with us about the plan, before rushing off to his day full of meetings.

“This is a positive answer,” he said. “We call it the journey to zero waste because we know we can’t get to zero waste quickly.”

Gedert believes that the change will come slowly, but is worthwhile nonetheless.

After a midday snooze (Did I mention that we each got four hours of sleep?), we got the scientific perspective on food waste via Dr. Michael Webber, Professor of mechanical engineering at University of Texas at Austin.

Webber worked on a study that quantified the amount of energy lost when food is wasted, which is laid out in his article “Wasted Food, Wasted Energy.”

“There is enough energy in the food we [Americans] waste to power a whole country,” said Webber.

This is because of all of the embedded energy in the food we eat. We as consumers must consider not just the actual food that we are wasting when we throw leftovers in the trash, but also the energy that went into producing and transporting that food, said Webber.

From agricultural production, to transportation, to processing, to cooking, waste can occur on many levels.

While both interviews today focused on very different angles to the issue, there was one major commonality. Both emphasized the importance of education as a way to change our wasteful ways. 

“It’s hard to change the culture if people don’t even know what’s going on,” said Webber.

Education, then, is a crucial component to this “journey to zero waste” that many are hoping for.

The team has another day of interviews in Austin, before packing up and heading to Iowa. Stay tuned for more adventures to come!