Food for Thought

As the world population grows and with it, the waste reduction movement becomes more mainstream, we're starting to see TV programming join in. Here are a couple shows to check out to give you some great ideas about minimizing food waste:

1. Wasted! The Story of Food Waste (85 minutes documentary). This film was produced by Anthony Bourdain (RIP) and was organized around two simple ideas. First, there are billions of pounds of food wasted each year and there are billions of people that are food insecure. Seems like a 1:1 problem that we can solve. Second, the EPA has a pyramid for ways to utilize food. The film follows each step of the pyramid to look into areas where waste is created (from farms and fishing operations, to restaurants and grocery stores, to end consumers) and solutions for each (from big to small).

(source: www.epa.gov)

I haven't found Wasted! for free yet, but it is available for rental as low as $1.99 through Amazon Prime Video or a number of other apps referenced on their site. You can also request a community screening; I learned about this through a community screening at my work.

2) Scraps (series on A&E, now in season 2). Chef Joel Gamoran goes around the US making incredible meals out of parts of food that would otherwise be discarded. I learned about this show first through my mom (Thanks, Mom!) and then was lucky enough to have Joel be a guest speaker at work. He spoke about things that we often don't think to eat that make great dishes and often become mainstream (think: using carrot greens for pesto). You can take classes at a Sur La Table near you on the theme, for example, how to re-purpose Thanksgiving leftovers. He also has a cookbook, Cooking Scrappy, for more inspo.

Next steps:

• Check out these shows for inspo! (And let me know if you find others. :) )
• Think about how you can insert a step in your own life before compost or the trash. Can you you use the heels of your bread loaves to make homemade bread crumb? If you have a recipe that asks the the whites of green onions, can you meal plan to use the greens? 

Happy Scrapping!

Blame Hilary!

(Aka "When thrifting goes wrong")

Tats and I went to Goodwill tonight. Tats was making a large donation and then we treated ourselves to some shopping. It didn't disappoint, with richer than usual stock of kitschy holiday tees and Halloween leftovers. 

I decided I needed a fall jacket, after having coveted some Uniqlo lightweight down jackets last week. Lo and behold, I found a light down jacket that fit perfect for $30 (Uniqlo's were $70).

We browsed around for a little while longer, until we came across the "themed leggings" rack. Staring at us were a hundred neon Hilary Clintons!

(We were excited to see each other.)

Problem is... I set the jacket down to take these pics. I looked behind me to pick up my jacket and another woman is holding it.

Do I take her down like a lioness defending her kittens? Or a New Yorker at a sample sale? Would she fight me back and start a brawl? Or, do I awkwardly back down and clumsily ask: "Oh, are you looking at that jacket?"

I chose the latter.

Before I know it, she's putting the jacket on. And another one on top of it. And filling her bag with other clothing items. I start to gesture to one of the employees, look at this woman. She's actively shoplifting in front of us.

She catches our eyes, and bolts for the door. I shout after her, "Hey! Stop!" and look around desperately: "She's stealing those clothes!" But she takes off running.

The employees are all staring at me, mouths agape, surprised that I called out after a shoplifter. Tats said they were probably thinking "Oh, bless her soul." (Southern sarcasm intended.) They shrugged it off like this happens every night, and unfortunately, it probably does. I'm sitting here torn between "she must need it if she needs to steal it" and outraged for Goodwill  and sad for myself. "But... my jacket!!"

Keep in mind, this would have never happened if we hadn't been preoccupied with Hilary.