Group items tagged

"It's the food even food rescue organisations won't take but one campaigning chef is using it to make salads, soups and even chocolate cake. Former Gasolina head chef Adam Smith is the founder of The Real Junk Food Project, a volunteer collective that intercepts food waste from markets, stores, restaurants and food charities. Using only the ingredients on hand, Smith would until recently cook up a weekly feast using free public barbecues for whoever was nearby and hungry."

TWO brands of olive oil, one from Australia, the other shipped 16,000 kilometres from Italy, sit on a supermarket shelf. Most eco-friendly shoppers would reach for the Australian oil. But despite burning less fossil fuel to get here, it may not be better for the planet. Contrary to popular belief, ''food miles'', or the distance food has travelled before we buy it, is a poor indicator of our food's total greenhouse gas emissions, or ''carbon footprint''. Advertisement: Story continues below More important is the way our food is farmed and produced, and how far we drive to buy it. CSIRO studies are expected to show how emissions from farming and food production eclipse those from food freight.

Food Know How is a food waste reduction program developed by Cultivating Community, City of Yarra, and our numerous other partners. We want to help households, cafes and offices reduce their food waste and invest back into their food, well-being and community connections.

"Uploaded on Aug 24, 2010 Visit http://nourishlife.org. What's the story of your food? With beautiful visuals and inspiring stories, Nourish: Food + Community traces our relationship to food from a global perspective to personal action steps. Narrated by actress Cameron Diaz, Nourish features interviews with author Michael Pollan, sustainable food advocate Anna Lappé, eco-chef Bryant Terry, pediatrician Dr. Nadine Burke, and organic farmer Nigel Walker. Stay tuned for new videos by connecting with Nourish:"

"How do we achieve food security in the face of climate change? Answering this question means weaving together many strands of evidence about our complex food and climate systems to produce a clear image. In response to this challenge, the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), with support from the Global Donor Platform for Rural Development, convened the Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change, thirteen senior scientists working on agriculture, climate, nutrition, economics and natural resources in governmental, academic and civil society institutions around the world."

Bringing more sustainability to mainstream food systems is an essential element of our global sustainability effort. This interesting SlideShare presentation from the Sustainable Food Lab brings home of the very tough truths of our current unsustainable food systems and introduces us to some interesting initiatives.

"Bill Gates sees meat alternatives a a big part of the future of food. On his blog, The Gates Notes, there is a feature called The Future of Food, where he explains how food scientists are starting to reinvent meat, and how this could help the whole world. Gate explains that worldwide meat consumption has doubled over the past two decades and is expected to double again by 2050 when, as we know, world population is expected to reach at least 9 billion. It is just over 7 billion now."

Today, we produce about four billion metric tonnes of food per annum. Yet due to poor practices in harvesting, storage and transportation, as well as market and consumer wastage, it is estimated that 30-50% (or 1.2-2 billion tonnes) of all food produced never reaches a human stomach. Furthermore, this figure does not reflect the fact that large amounts of land, energy, fertilisers and water have also been lost in the production of foodstuffs which simply end up as waste. This level of wastage is a tragedy that cannot continue if we are to succeed in the challenge of sustainably meeting our future food demands.

"Australian restaurants generate a huge amount of food waste, a large proportion of which currently goes to landfill. But a local company is hoping to convert that waste into compost for city vegie patches. Closed Loop sells machines that turn food waste into useable compost within 24 hours. Managing director Rob Pascoe is on a mission to lease out as many as 20 of the units to Melbourne restaurants within the next month. He says the machines not only turn organic waste into a useful resource, but can save restaurants money by drastically reducing the amount they spend on waste collection."

"Cultivate L.A. is a group of students in the Urban Planning Masters program over at UCLA that has spent the past year tracking down every bit of urban ag in L.A. County for a massive report and, perhaps more importantly, an extensive interactive map. To get some background into the project, I spoke to Rachel Surls, sustainable food systems advisor for UC's Cooperative Extension in L.A. County, and the students' "client" for this specific project."

"When I was little, my mom made everything fresh. We picked fruits in the summer, and she grew so many of her own vegetables. I knew, secondhand, that pasta sauce also came out of a jar, but I had no idea why you'd want to eat it. When I was about nine, I insisted that I wanted to eat Chef Boyardee Spaghetti-Os because my friends always got to eat them. I longed for this particular forbidden fruit, without really having any reason to want it besides the fact that other kids got to eat it. Eventually, my mother agreed, but I couldn't even manage to choke down the Spaghetti-Os I had longed for - I thought they were so gross! The handy infographic below takes a look at how important it is to educate kids about food choices and eating healthy. So many kids don't know that real food doesn't come out of a box. Keep reading to learn more."

"Edible City is a fun, fast-paced journey through the Local Good Food movement that's taking root in the San Francisco Bay Area, across the nation and around the world. Introducing a diverse cast of extraordinary and eccentric characters who are challenging the paradigm of our broken food system, Edible City digs into their unique perspectives and transformative work, finding hopeful solutions to monumental problems. Inspirational, down-to-earth and a little bit quirky, Edible City captures the spirit of a movement that's making real change and doing something truly revolutionary: growing the model for a healthy, sustainable local food system."

Western countries throw out nearly half of their food, not because it's inedible -- but because it doesn't look appealing. Tristram Stuart delves into the shocking data of wasted food, calling for a more responsible use of global resources.

"The issue of food waste has become a hot topic over recent years, with claims that up to half of the world's food is wasted on the journey from field to fork. The growing gleaning movement aims to make an impact in cutting crop waste by gathering unharvested crops in British fields."

"A ham and cheese sandwich, muesli bar and milk popper might seem the typical combo for a school lunch box. But the differences in the overall nutritional value can be huge, depending on the brands. Consumer group Choice has applied the algorithm for the healthy food star rating system - controversially removed by Assistant Health Minister Fiona Nash - to children's lunch box staples, giving them the star ratings that could appear on packaged foods from July. ''We found big nutritional differences between similar-looking products, and this is critical when it comes to kids' food,'' said Choice campaign manager Angela Cartwright. ''Eat it every day, and it can add up quickly.''"

"Megan Clark has recruited Dr Maurice Moloney to the role of Group Executive, Food Health and Life Science Industries. Maurice brings with him a significant breadth of experience in the plant biotechnology area and a strong background in research delivery. Maurice will take up the role in November 2013. Dr Moloney has been the Director and Chief Executive of Rothamsted Research near London, UK since 2010.  Rothamsted is the oldest and largest agricultural research centre in Europe, with a mandate for food security, agricultural sustainability and adaptation of agriculture to the consequences of both climate change and depletion of fossil fuels."

"Food writer Hilary McNevin is half way through the Live Below The Line challenge, feeding herself and her two children for $30 over five days. It's been challenging and confronting, but most of all an eye-opening learning experience."

The Contest is the project of the Real Food Media Project, a collaborative initiative using online movies and a web-based action center along with grassroots events around the country to spread the stories of sustainable food and farming. The Project is a program of Corporate Accountability International.

"We grow enough food to feed every single person on the planet, yet millions of people go to bed hungry. Discover the startling facts about global food waste and what we can do to solve this problem. "

As much as half of all the food produced in the world - equivalent to 2bn tonnes - ends up as waste every year, engineers warned in a report published on Thursday.