On Tuesday, April 22, journalist and food waste expert Jonathan Bloom threw an empty Coca-Cola can onto the floor of Centennial Hall in the Keene State College Alumni Center in front of over 50 KSC students, faculty and Keene residents. He did not throw it to be rude or to trash the campus; Bloom threw the can to make a statement.
In his lecture, “The Food Not Eaten: Why We Waste Nearly Half of Our Food and Why it Matters,” Bloom explained littering with his Coke can was no different than wasting food.
“I brought the parallel between littering and food waste to point out that when we set our minds on affecting change, we’re pretty darn good at it. Not only is food waste a topic worth handling, it is one that we can really conquer,” Bloom said.
Bloom referred to anti-littering and recycling campaigns, where positive change has occurred over the years. Bloom emphasized there have not been any campaigns like this for food waste.
“What happens is, when we have behaviors that we deem worth changing, we will create campaigns to change them. But that hasn’t happened with food waste. We haven’t had that kind of campaign since World War Two [II] and it is killing us. Wasting food is normal. It is not only widespread, but also condoned,” Bloom said.
He then added facts that support the concern about food waste. According to Bloom, 40 percent of food worldwide is wasted.
That is 160 billion pounds, which he claimed as enough to fill two Rose Bowl stadiums.
In addition, he noted the total cost of all this wasted food is $240 billion.
More specifically, Bloom noted that $1,000 of food a day is wasted in the KSC dining commons alone.
“Students always request more fresh fruit and we love doing things like local food day, but the money just isn’t on the table. To do more of this I need help from the students,” General Manager of Dining Services Josef Quirinale said.
Despite this request, Bloom said all food waste is not directly from consumers who leave food on their plates. “Food gets wasted from farm to fork,” Bloom revealed.
Bloom said all steps of the food pathway are wasteful. This includes the farms, transit, supermarkets, restaurants and cafeterias and then homes.
“The longer the food chain, the more opportunities there are for this food to be wasted,” Bloom said.
Bloom credited this waste to abundance, beauty, cost, massive portions and expiration dates. He said that two times the amount of food needed is produced, and that people don’t even eat it if shape, size and color are not perfect. In addition, according to Bloom, people overeat and are afraid of expiration dates.
“We don’t spend a lot on our food, so we don’t value it,” Bloom added, “Hunger isn’t history, it’s here today. Fifteen percent of U.S. households are food insecure.”
However, Bloom said he urged people to help prevent furthering this issue. “A lot of people recycle but that’s the easiest thing to do. Re-using is the hardest, but that is what we need,” Bloom said.
The journalist and food waste expert also provided helpful ideas, such as redistributing food, composting, shopping smarter and gleaming, which is picking old crops that have been passed over.
KSC EcoReps member Chelsea Shirshac said, “He [Bloom] talked about a lot of stuff I didn’t know about, it was very eye-opening. I think it would be interesting to continue to relate this information to college students.”
“I kind of knew about food waste but Bloom brought it more to life, Keene can definitely move in a positive direction,” KSC junior Hannah Elliot added.
Some have expressed the KSC community has already begun to execute some of these ideas. According to Quirinale, in the last year, KSC students have reduced their food waste from four ounces per person a day to two ounces.
“We have a huge carrot in the dining commons to represent and remind us that it takes seventy-five days to grow a carrot, four days to ship it to its destination and then another hour or so to prepare it. It takes you two seconds to wipe it off your plate. We also did a display, where we created a building of boxes. We added boxes that were equivalent to the weight of the waste for the day. Jonathan [Bloom] saw this online and thought it was a great idea,” Quirinale said.
In addition, Quirinale said students do have options when choosing their food.
“We do encourage students to ask for a taste or a sample before you take a whole plate. We do make plates now but you don’t have to have what’s on that plate. You can ask for just the vegetables or whatever you want,” he added.
“It’s relevant to all of us here. We’re a young group of people who can become more aware. I’m so glad I came, I got so much out of it,” junior Bryanna Flynn-Kasuba added.
Diana Pimer can be contacted at dpimer@keene-equinox.com
