“Concern about food waste is growing. As it should be. Food waste is both an ethical and environmental issue. It should concern us that we waste nearly 40% of the food we produce and purchase in this food-abundant nation.

In this piece, Allison Aubrey (@AubreyNPRFood) visits California’s Salinas Valley – “America’s salad bowl” – to investigate. She provides a well written piece for NPR’s The Salt…and many things for us to consider.


“In the Salinas Valley of California — known as America’s salad bowl — we visited the municipal dump. The fertile strip of land surrounding the town of Salinas produces an estimated 70 percent of U.S. salad greens.

At the dump, we caught up with Operations Manager Cesar Zuniga as a dump truck pulled in. It was filled to the brim with salads and other waste from nearby farms.

“This one looks like a mixed load,” Zuniga says. As it tipped its load, out tumbled a 15-foot heap of greens.

And a lot of it looked crisp and ready to eat.”

Related Links:

What a World War 1 poster can teach us about food waste

Food waste is a serious economic and environmental issue