If my love of design stemmed from the cognitive side of my body, my love of all things food grew from my heart (and belly). Cooking, eating and sharing a meal with others are daily actions that are an extension of who I am, and will always nourish me during the darkest of hours. For me, relishing in the delight of food also serves as a form of gratitude; that I can afford to buy these tender stalks of asparagus or I have the Sunday afternoon to devote to baking a pie. I do my best to be a steward of both fridge and pantry, using up the limpest broccoli first and finding thrifty new meals to concoct out of yesterday’s leftovers. Although I am conscious of throwing away food, there are times when I just don’t feel like tuna salad for the fourth day in a row (bleh), or my compost worms are munching on beet greens (again).
Food waste in industrialized countries is a problem that can be amended. Americans wasted 33.79 million tons of food in 2010, a 16 percent increase from a decade ago. The average American wastes 209 to 254 pounds of edible food each year. Many contenders are at fault—retailers, restaurants, farms and individual’s own assumptions about imperfect or expired food.
The food waste problem has garnered attention, however, and there have been recent efforts to tackle the issue, from various angles and sources. The diversity and uniqueness of these efforts are what strike me as effective—an example of how multi-disciplinary approaches work together towards a common goal.
Getting the unused food to the public.
Food Cowboy, an app in beta, connects imperfect or blemished produce with people in need. Roger Gordon saw the opportunity when his brother in the trucking industry used to end up with trailer loads of rejected produce. He’d make calls and get the food distributed to those who could take it, saving many pounds of greens. Gordon now works with two large trucking firms and about 20 charities in the I-95 corridor, rescuing food and helping food companies dispose of it in a sustainable way such as composting.
Since the Maryland Food Bank started their Farm to Food Bank Network in 2010, 51 farms have begun donating produce to relieve hunger across the state. Through a partnership with the Maryland Department of Corrections, produce normally left behind after harvest is gleaned from the fields. Last year, 279,000 pounds of green beans, sweet potatoes, and other produce that might have gone to waste were harvested. Produce is distributed in food deserts by way of mobile pantries or cooked into meals for youth supper programs.
Using unused food in unexpected ways.
Maximus Thaler, a Tufts student, is hoping to open a café and grocery store this summer out of his apartment in Somerville, MA. Unlike the underground dinner clubs popular among hipster foodies, the café will serve its food free of charge with food salvaged from area dumpsters.
Taking your scraps, literally.
Compost Cab couldn’t make composting easier in Baltimore. They drop off a bin, you fill it with your organic scraps, and they come pick it up for you and deliver it to urban farms.
Rewarding those who dispose of food in sustainable ways and educating the public.
The Noun Project is a collaborative effort creating a global visual language for increased communication. During Public Interest Design week at the University of Minnesota, Iconathon attendees convened to create a badge-like system for placement on restaurant doors and windows, rewarding businesses who recycle or compost. (As of this posting, I haven’t found a recap of this event.)
The list could go on, but you get the point. It was just a few short years ago that specialists dominated business decision-making—hiring a consultant was the way to go. Now enterprises and non-profits are both catching on to the trend of multi-disciplinary problem solving, especially with the proliferation of social design graduate programs that attract design thinkers from all traditional job roles — a trend I look forward to exploring in a future post!
