Everything's on the Table
Food Waste
In Episode 7 of Everything's on the Table, Shira Gans, Leadership Committee member at Food Systems Network NYC joins host Erin Fairbanks, executive director of the Heritage Radio Network, to talk about food waste. In the first segment, they speak with Ron Gonen, Deputy Commissioner for Recycling and Sustainability NYC at the NYC Department of Sanitation. Ron talks on the definition of food waste, and gives us the current status of food waste in New York City. He also talks about composting in NYC, which is a project continuing to expand as consumers become more interested in being green. In the second segment, they speak with Jonathan Bloom, freelance journalist and author of American Wasteland: How America Throws Away Nearly Half of Its Food (and What We Can Do About It). Jonathan speaks about being more efficient with our food, and how even though composting is rising in popularity, the growing population must also learn to reduce their waste in general. On the final segment, Kate MacKenzie, Director of Food Policy and Government Relations at City Harvest, looks beyond food waste, and into the other issue at hand by starting with the government and economic impact, food stamps, and the efficiency of the food system in general. Tune-in for an interesting conversation about food waste with the people working directly in these issues! For more information, visit nyc.gov/recycle, cityharvest.org, and wastedfood.com. This program has been sponsored by Heritage Radio Network.
"Food waste represents about 35% of our waste stream. It's an enormous part of our stream today, costing the city millions of dollars a year, and a significant amount of methane into the atmosphere. So we have a major environmental opportunity by handling our food waste differently." [3:44]
-- Ron Gonen on Everything's on the Table
"Composting needs to coexist with food waste reduction in some way or form." [25:03]
-- Jonathan Bloom on Everything's on the Table
"For local government, I would start at the place of the food that's already captured." [45:51]
-- Kate MacKenzie on Everything's on the Table