Happy Monday! A few pieces for you to read, in no particular order.

 

#foodwaste: reducing it and dealing with it. No one likes wasting food. So why do we do it? And how do we stop? “More than twice as much is wasted at the consumer level than at the retail level,” per recent statistics. So a great deal of power to effect change lies with consumers and the choices they make. Guilt doesn’t work, but there are other things that do. Increasing awareness. Making it easy. And making it cool, among other things. Mary Hoff has put together an absolutely wonderful, in-depth piece on the subject of reducing food waste for Ensia. She speaks to Jonathan Bloom and others who are sounding the call and helping us waste less. Pair with this piece about the role anaerobic digestion could play in helping to deal with America’s food waste. If you don’t know much about this technology, this may be a good read for you. Debra Kantner for Waste360.

 

Perspective: food is political. Nice Editor’s Note from Civil Eats’ Naomi Starkman: “In order to put food on the political agenda, we can’t just buy our way to a better food system.” Public interest in food policy has greatly increased in the last five years. How will that translate into political change? A #goodread.

 

Bittman and Betty (Crocker). Journalist/chef/thought leader Mark Bittman has recently left his post at the New York Times. It’s been announced he’s joined the team at Purple Carrot, a cooking/meal box delivery company providing vegan entrees to its customers. Lots of buzz around this today, but we like this interview Bittman had with Nathanael Johnson. It appears in GristIt’s definitely not Bittman, but we loved this piece about Betty Crocker’s midcentury recipes. Lavish creations featuring gelatin molds and mayonnaise. We remember these dishes from holidays with grandparents, neighborhood gatherings and church suppers. Bonus: terrific history of home cookery and some thoughts from food historian Rachael Laudan about how the Cold War may have influenced this food. (“…glossy cards were another theater for the standoff between socialism and capitalism”). From the New York Times Magazine. Text by Tamar Adler, shout-out to artists Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari for their interpretation of the dishes. We love this more than we can adequately express.

 

Breaking: E.coli outbreak closes dozens of Chipotle restaurants in the Pacific Northwest. Eyder Peralta for NPR’s Two-Way. This is an important story to follow. Food safety expert/attorney Bill Marler shares a history of Chipotle’s food poisoning outbreaks.

 

Have a great day.