The Unsettling of America

Berry, Wendell. The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture. San Francisco, CA: The Yolla Bolly Press, 1977. Print. 

- from Lippard's bibliography

- The main thing I gathered from this text was about the agricultural revolution, but I find this interesting to compare it to today's food waste books especially in the fact of how food has become devalued due to society not being as involved with their food as they used to be. 

Food Waste

Evans, D., Food Waste: Home Consumption, Material Culture and Everyday Life. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014. Print

Chapters 2-4

- buying more food than necessary

- status and appearance 

- anxiety from food safety 

- wanting food to be optimal

- blaming children - fussy

American Wasteland

Bloom, Jonathan. American Wasteland: How America Throws Away Nearly Half of Its Food (and what we can do about it). Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2010. Print

Chapter 4

- free food programs create waste - overcompensation

- even children who can't afford food don't like it & have an abundance of it, so it gets wasted

- idea that we learn this idea of wasting food from school at a young age

- overabundance of food = devalue of food

- portion sizes & overeating food 

Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal

Stuart, T. Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal". New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2009. Print. 

Chapters 4 & 5

- In the U.S. there are no federal laws requiring date labelling on food, except for some baby foods

- the government prefers instead to focus on educating the public about how to treat food safely

- dating some food is required by more than twenty states

- this causes cacophony within the United States

- People buy more food than they can possibly eat

- "Good Mother Syndrome" - always wanting to make sure food is plenty & choice

- the way we feed children determines how much food we waste

- unconscious of food wasting

Waste Matters (One Chapter)

Evans, D., Campbell, H., and Murcott, A. Waste Matters: New Perspectives on Food and Society. Malden, MA: John Wiley & Sons, 2013. Print. 

From Arbiters of waste: date labels, the consumer and knowing good, safe food

- history of date labelling system in the UK

- "she described how the guidance would 'end the food labelling confusion' and 'make it clear once and for all when food is good and safe to eat' -- Why did this happen though?

- "the date labelling system reflects societal anxieties about the food system and incorporate changing understandings of the consumer role - from concerned housewife, to neoliberal agent of food safety, to environmentally responsible actor" 

- freshness and stock management

- the consumer's right to know

- ensuring food safety 

- waste and uncertainty 

- decision tree for labelling

The Natural Kitchen

Tull, Deborah E., The Natural Kitchen: Your Guide to the Sustainable Food Revolution. Port Townsend, WA: Process Media, 2010. Print.

Chapter 2 -

Just from skipping ahead to the second chapter of the book, the most central theme of the book is the author's journey as a "Zen monk". The piece definitely uses persuasion as a writing tool.
- "ACCORDING TO THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY, THE average American produces about 4.4 pounds of garbage a day"
- U.S. produces 30% of the world's trash.
- U.S. consumes 30% of the world's resources. 

Chapter 3 - 

FOOD WASTE AND COMPOSTING

- Shop responsibly (I feel like this is something that not a lot of people do)
- Teaches how to make a compost

Overall, this book was only helpful for small tidbits.

Food Waste Article #2

Hall, K., Guo, J., Dore, M. and Chow, C. "The Progressive Increase Of Food Waste In America And Its 
      Environmental Impact." Plos ONE 4.11 (2009): 1-6. Academic Search Premier. Web. 6 Oct. 2015.

The above graph shows some research done on the progression of food waste over time. Clearly, the numbers are increasing. Part of this may have to do with the fact that food production has also increased, but food waste has still been on the rise even with that factored into the equation. 

The article focused on the United States and - honestly - had a lot of math towards the end of the article, which made it all the more confusing to me. Also, this seemed to focus more on the weight gain of Americans versus food waste and its environmental impact, as I assumed it would be based on the title. 

This did make me think back to Just Eat It when Grant Baldwin was saying that he had gained 10 pounds in the process of only eating food waste, but other than that and a few iterations of the sheer energy that is wasted by wasting food, this article was not fantastic in adding to my research. 

Food Waste Article #1

Haibo, Huang, Vijay Singh, and Nasib Qureshi. "Butanol Production From Food Waste: A
     Novel Process For Producing Sustainable Energy And Reducing Environmental Pollution."
     Biotechnology For Biofuels 8.1 (2015): 1-12. Academic Search Premier. Web. 5 Oct. 
     2015.

"Food waste is the single largest component of the waste stream in the United States "

One of the first things I read from the article, and my thoughts went back to Just Eat It. 

WHY is no one talking about this? 

Well, people are talking about it (hence this article and all of my other sources are proving). It's just not something that is made widely conscious in the United States. Some areas perhaps, but not in a big city. It seems to be the overall mentality that if you don't like a food, or even if you're just too full - throw it away.  

The goal of this article addresses this but makes it known that this has already happened/is happening. And food waste just sits in a landfill and produces methane that solely pollutes our atmosphere. 

BUT - what if we could use that methane as fuel instead?

Butanol is a common type of fuel that we use, typically using fossil fuels to produce it. Glucose is also a way to produce butanol, but it is extremely expensive and isn't nearly as productive as....

Food waste. 

One of the things I found interesting about this article in comparison to others I have read is that it is acknowledging the problem, but finding a solution to the outcome of the problem rather than finding a solution to the problem itself. 

But my main question after this article is....do we have too much food waste even after using it to process butanol? My guess would be that we do based off of the fact that only in 2012 the US alone wasted 33 million tons of food.

The Art & Science of Dumpster Diving by John Hoffman

Hoffman, John. The Art & Science of Dumpster Diving. Port Townsend, WA: Loompanics

       Unlimited, 1993. Print. 

Photo Source: http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Science-Dumpster-Diving/dp/1581605501

I honestly did not expect this book to be too informative towards my research, but I was hoping for some useful tidbits or some anecdotes that would provide more insight into my research. 

However, this guide was much more persuasive than informative. Yes, there were many informational photographs provided, and the author has great voice - but not exactly what I was looking for towards this paper, especially since it isn't a scholarly article. 

As I hopped from chapter to chapter, the book is a very easy read, but just not what I am looking for in my research, whereas the move Just Eat It had provided me with a plethora of topics to choose from and sources to back it up.

Just Eat It: A Food Waste Story

Just Eat It: A Food Waste Story. Dir. Grant Baldwin. Perf. Grant Baldwin, Jenny

       Rustemeyer. Peg Leg Films, Knowledge Network, 2014. Film.

I saw this movie last Tuesday, and I can honestly say that it provided a new outlook on the food I am eating and whether or not I need to go to the grocery store or if I have food at home that I can eat. 

What made this film so effective was the extremities between the storyline of the couple, where there were such insane facts such as how 40% of what is grown goes to waste and is not eaten. The visuals along with this were impactful as well as the audience is able to see the piles and piles of peaches, bananas, celery, etc., that are thrown into a landfill because they are not seen as "perfect" by the supermarkets and average consumer. 

Just Eat It was also able to provide a look at the multiple different ways that food is wasted - through the growers not being able to sell the food, to the food being tossed away at the grocer, to the food rotting away in someone's refrigerator or counter. 

Photo Source: http://www.foodwastemovie.com

The film also talks about how wasting food actually impacts our planet poorly as it does not simply become compost - it actually creates methane gas in the landfills that the food is thrown into, and since the food is typically in mass quantities instead of just a couple of food servings. 

Overall, this movie helped me to narrow my perspective a bit as to what I want to focus on for my research paper. Now I have decided to focus more on how food is wasted and how this actually negatively impacts the environment and ourselves. 

What This Blog Is All About

Hello!

I'm Maureen Vento, a current sophomore at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, majoring in Fine Arts.

This blog is for my Critical and Creative Forms writing class, in which I will be researching why we as humans waste so much of the food that we make and how it all happens.

As to how I personally relate to this topic, I'm no dumpster-diver for food, but I have begun to make a conscious effort to not waste food as much as I have been raised to do. Throughout my childhood, if you didn't like the food that was given to you - throw it away! was the mentality of my family. Which - because it's my family - is a tactic that I can understand as wanting to please everyone and make everyone happy. However, as a college student on a severe budget, wasting food is not only ridiculous in itself, but now it's wasting money too!

Following today, my posts will result from research on this topic from a variety of sources.



Photo Source: http://www.changefood.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/feel-healthier-bodymind-fresh-food-better-than-canned_32.jpg