Street roots
M arch 18, 2011
We are what we waste, and America has a lot to answer for
Bloom describes the singular
tradition oi "scrounging" at
Reed College in Portland. It
involves a school tradition
where some students save
money by eating people's
leftovers in the cafeteria,
even food w ith bites ont of it.
Bloom journeyed to Portland
to join Reed students and try
it himself: "After about 10
minutes of scrounging, it
feels completely norm al."
BY TOM WATSON
CONTRIBUTING VyRITER
'e all occasionally find leftovers in the
back of our refrigerator, turned into a
hideoüs-looking science project We
order too much at a restaurant and it gets
tossed. We host a dinner party and don’t put
the leftovers away quickly enough, and they
spoil. Food waste is as American as that apple
pie you couldn’t finish.
The beauty of Jonathan Bloom’s new book,
“American Wasteland,” is that he takes this
common experience of wasting food and he
expands it, showing us how the problem is
much larger and more pervasive than we
realize. Sure, our
wasted food at home
L squanders resources
and costs us plenty,
with an average
American family of
four wasting more
than $2,200 worth of
food each year,
according to Bloom.
But the food lost at
home is dwarfed by all
American
the food wasted at
Wasteland: How
supermarkets,
restaurants,
America Throws
institutional cafeterias
Away Nearly Half
and on farms.
of Its Food (and
One of the first
What We Can Do
mainstream books to
About It) by
tackle this topic, .
Jonathan Bloom
“American Wasteland”
is impressively
comprehensive,
Bloom, a freelance journalist based in North
Carolina, has specialized in food waste since
2005, and this exhaustively researched book
grew out of his influential blog Wasted Food.
He has worked for a nonprofit food '
distribution program, at a supermarket in the
Expired fruits from a supermarket sit on the sorting floor.
produce section and even briefly at a
W
McDonald’s, going behind the scenes to —
observe firsthand the trail of food waste.
Bloom explains that food waste occurs
“when an edible item goes unconsuméd as a
result of human action or inaction.” Food
waste, as he Considers it, does not indude
inedible discards such as peelings and bones.
“There is culpability in waste,” he says.
“Whether it’s from an individual’s choice, a
business mistake,, or a government policy,
most food waste stems from decisions made
somewhere from farm to fork.” For Bloom,
food waste has a moral component, and his
clear-headed discussion of food ethics makes
compelling reading.
Most religions strongly disapprove of food
waste, he points out, illustrated by this line
from the Koran: “E at and drink: But waste
not by excess, for Allah loveth not the
wasters.”
The moral implications of food waste
become most apparent when Bloorrt
methodically describes the grim reality of
hunger in America. “Today, more than 49
million Americans don’t get enough to e a t ...
A 2009 study found that half of American
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youth will live in a household that uses food
stamps at some point during their childhood.”
He contrasts this hunger, and the continuing
struggle of food banks to feed the hungry,
with the observation that America is stiU “the
wealthiest nation in the history of the world.”
This may all sound depressing, but Bloom
maintains an upbeat, optimistic tone
throughout the book as he takes us from
orchards to food banks to suburban kitchens
to college cafétérias. In one of the most
memorable sections, Bloom describes the
singular tradition of “scrounging” at Reed
College in Portland. Although this seems
exceedingly gross to many of us, it involves a
school-tradition where some students save
money by eating people’s leftovers in the
cafeteria, even food with bites out of it.
Bloom journeyed to Portland to join Reed
students and try it himself: “After about 10
minutes of scrounging, it feels completely
normal. It’s like asking your family member, •
‘Are you gonna finish that?’ pnly.with a
family bf, say, 1,500.” Because of potential •
health concerns and especially the societal
taboos about this and other forms of
scrounging (including “Dumpster diving”) ,'
Bloom says hé doesh’t plan to continué the
practice himself. E u t he doesnit judge people .
Who do partake, and he found the scrounging
at Reed useful in reminding us that
Americans “have a very narrow definition of
what is and isn’t fit to eat.”
All his research and obsession with the
topic helped Bloom develop practical,
concrete ideas for how to combat food waste
in America. He wraps up the book with three
m ain p roposals: Establish a national food-
create a national public-service campaignto
raise awareness about food waste and bah
food, from landfills. Making à strong case for
all threé, hé adds a menu of complementary
suggestions as well, e.ndmg on a positive note.
This is the rare book about a social and
environmental issue that hits all the policy
bases while entertaining and rewarding the
reader. It deserves to be read by a wide
spectrum of Americans, from ordinary folks
to décision makers. We can all relate to it
because we all eat and we all waste food.
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