Jonathan Bloom’s American Wasteland: How America Throws Away Nearly Half of Its Food (and What We Can Do About It) remains a driving force in bringing the problem of food waste in America into the national consciousness since its publication in 2010.
Traveling through homes, restaurants, farms and grocery stores to highlight how different cultural attitudes and practices serve to sustain a cycle in which food is widely considered fast, cheap, and disposable, Blooms asks the reader to examine how personal behaviors help fortify a fundamentally misguided system. Like other issues currently plaguing the food system, the effective reduction of food waste demands that consumers change their habits. Bloom considers how expiration and sell-by dates, “buy-one-get-one” offers, and all-you-can-eat restaurants encourage eaters to waste food.
In a recent interview with Food Tank, Bloom highlighted some progressive movements to reduce food waste, particularly those at several college communities in the U.S. He will discuss the food waste reduction movement at Food Waste Free NYC, an event hosted by Food Tank that will examine the progress – and challenges – of food waste initiatives in New York City and around the world. The event takes place on September 19, 2013 at the Snapple Theater Center, located at 1627 Broadway in Manhattan. Find out more about the event by following this link, and purchase a copy of American Wasteland here.
