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Peter Lehner was once a mountain climber. When you carry 30 days of food on your back, the motto is strict: waste not, want not. At home our habits become much more relaxed. In the US, 40% of the food grown is wasted. Peter discusses his solutions to this huge problem.
Video Length: 00:14:38
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About Peter Lehner
Executive Director Natural Resources Defense CouncilNRDC, one the nation’s leading environmental advocacy organizations with over 1.3 million members and activists and 430 staff in seven ...read more.
Publications & Reports
- Wasted: How America Is Losing Up to 40 Percent of Its Food from Farm to Fork to Landfill
This NRDC paper that examines the inefficiencies at every step of the U.S. food system and discusses emerging solutions. - Waste Not Want Not: Feeding the Hungry and Reducing Sold Waste Through Food Recovery
The Department of Ag and the Environmental Protection Agency produced this guide to help states, municipalities, and businesses reduce their solid waste through donating recovered food. The benefit is threefold: feeding hungry people, saving on disposal costs, and protecting the environment. - American Wasteland: How America Throws Away Nearly Half of its Food
Jonathan Bloom’s book sheds light on the history, culture and mindset that has created prolific waste in the U.S. food system, while exploring the growth of sustainable food movements. - Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal
Author Tristram Stuart illuminates how our lifestyles have created the global food crisis and how we can fix it.
Information
Check out author Jonathan Blooms’ blog Wasted Food, NRDC food waste expert Dana Gunders’ contributions to Switchboard, and LoveFoodHateWaste, the brainchild of a UK-based initiative working to share easy and practical everyday solutions to reducing food waste.
Little Things You Can Do
- Find out how long food and beverages really stay fresh, and how best to store them. Use Still Tasty and EatByDate to find out how long different foods last. Understand what food expiration dates really mean, get informed on the shelf life of common pantry items, and figure out how to tell if something is okay to eat.
- Consider using food scraps and leftovers in another dish rather than tossing them. Find great recipes for using odds and ends at LoveFoodHateWaste and Supercook.
- Learn how to compost. Online guides abound! Check out the EPA Guide to Composting or Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Guide to Composting Organic Waste. If that’s not up your alley, Find A Composter and just drop it off! Many states, cities and towns have local initiatives, like the NYC Compost Project
- If you work at a school or any type of food-based business, your organization can join the Food Waste Challenge! You can’t join as an individual, but they do have great resources for reducing waste in the home.
If you’re feeling inspired, here’s a longer list of tips and tricks for reducing food waste!
Discussion Questions
Use these questions as a guide for starting conversations with your friends and family about food waste and Peter Lehner’s talk. Add your own questions as you think of them.
- Discuss potential sources of waste throughout the food system. At which steps do you predict there would be the greatest source of waste and why? The least?
- Food waste touches on other social issues. Discuss its impact on the environment and human health.
- Imagine your own daily interactions with food. Where and how often do you waste food? Try generating a list of 5-10. For each way you waste food, is there a solution? Rank the solutions from most doable to least doable and discuss.
- At what level – personal, organizational, or governmental – is it most critical to take action now to reduce waste in our food system?
Lesson Plans
Food Waste Lesson – Level 1
Food Waste Lesson – Level 2