Thanksgiving_ Dear friend, The holidays are all about excess, Overpriced gifted, Overbooked Schedules, and_ of_course too much food.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Danielle Nierenberg, Food Tank" <danielle@foodtank.org>
Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2013 16:35:00 +0000
Subject: Thanksgiving
To: Friend <mmisungwi@gmail.com>

Dear Friend,

The holidays are all about excess. Overpriced gifts, overbooked
schedules, and—of course—too much food.

Some five million tons of food—enough to fill the John Hancock
Building more than 14 times—will be wasted between Thanksgiving and
the end of 2013. Worldwide, some 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted
annually, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

In the United States, roughly one-third of food is thrown away as a
result of over-buying and misinterpretation of expiration and sell-by
dates. In the developing world, an equal amount of food is lost
because of poor infrastructure, pests, and disease. As a result, all
the hard work that farmers do to fertilize and irrigate crops goes to
waste, putting them further into poverty.

And while wasting food presents a moral conundrum, it also presents
environmental and social challenges that policy-makers, business
leaders, and eaters need to be solve today, not tomorrow.

Food loss and waste is insidious. A little bit is lost in fields, a
little is lost during transport, a little is lost in storage, and a
little bit is lost in homes. The amount of food wasted in the U.S.
each year totals some US$165 billion—and more than US$40 billion of
that waste comes from households, according to the Natural Resources
Defense Council.

Recently, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon called issued the Zero
Hunger Challenge, propelling nations to increase access to food,
prevent stunting, improve environmental sustainability in the food
system, and increase productivity on farms as well as reduce all food
loss and waste to zero.

And while Moon's goal may seem ambitious, they're more needed than
ever before. According to the FAO, hunger has decreased by roughly 17
percent since the early 1990s to 842 million hungry people today. But
progress has been uneven. More than 265 million people sub-Saharan
Africa alone are hungry and at least 100 million tons of essential
foods in the region are lost because of lack of roads, proper storage
facilities, and markets.

Earlier this year, Moon called for nations to correct the inequity of
food waste in a world plagued by hunger. "By reducing food waste, we
can save money and resources, minimize environmental impacts and, most
importantly, move towards a world where everyone has enough to eat,"
he urged.

Farmers, food processors and retailers, and consumers are already
taking the initiative to alleviate food loss and waste by finding
innovative ways to reduce food loss and food waste. Some of the most
interesting solutions are from organizations such as Growing Power,
which picks up and composts some 400,000 pounds of food waste from
Midwest businesses each week. In New York, City Harvest collects food
that would have otherwise been wasted from restaurants and distributes
it to those in need. And the Food Recovery Network is mobilizing
university students around the country to distribute food from college
cafeterias and catering facilities to homeless shelters.

On the other side of the world, fishers in The Gambia are smoking
abundant fish harvests. In India, farmers are drying papayas and
mangos to help make sure that families have access to vitamin A and
extra income from the sale of dried fruit throughout the year.

And in Pakistan, the United Nations helped farmers reduce grain
storage losses by up to 70 percent by replacing jute bags and mud
silos with metal grain storage containers that prevent moisture and
vermin from eating grain.

On the policy side, the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration need to work
together to ensure sell-by, expiration dates, and use-by dates are
regulated and easy for consumers to understand.

And more is needed to combat food loss and waste internationally.

This week, at the Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition 5th Annual
Forum, the Milan Protocol will be released, calling on international
leaders and food system stakeholders to improve agricultural
sustainability, control food price instability, encourage healthy food
choices, improve land rights—and combat food waste.

In 2014, the world leaders, businesses, civil society, and eaters
should resolve to make waste in the food system part of our past, not
our future.

What do you think? Email me at anytime at danielle@foodtank.org!

Onward!

Danielle Nierenberg
(http://www.DanielleNierenberg.com?utm_source=Food+Tank%3A+The+Food+Think+Tank&utm_campaign=09d9467694-Holidays&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c6d5c4b977-09d9467694-12619037)
Co-Founder, Food Tank
(http://www.FoodTank.org?utm_source=Food+Tank%3A+The+Food+Think+Tank&utm_campaign=09d9467694-Holidays&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c6d5c4b977-09d9467694-12619037)
foodtank.org
Email: danielle@foodtank.org
Phone: 202-590-1037
JOIN Food Tank:
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Get Rid of the 'Food Desert' Label LINK:
http://foodtank.org/news/2013/11/get-rid-of-the-food-desert-label?utm_source=Food+Tank%3A+The+Food+Think+Tank&utm_campaign=09d9467694-Holidays&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c6d5c4b977-09d9467694-12619037
The food desert diagnosis too easily turns into a club used to beat
families most in need. Being labeled a food desert makes a
neighborhood undesirable, rather than a target of opportunity.

This land is our land: The struggle for land rights in Papua New Guinea
LINK: http://foodtank.org/news/2013/11/this-land-is-our-land-the-struggle-for-land-rights-in-papua-new-guinea?utm_source=Food+Tank%3A+The+Food+Think+Tank&utm_campaign=09d9467694-Holidays&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c6d5c4b977-09d9467694-12619037
In Papua New Guinea, in a matter of a few years, more than 5.5 million
hectares, or 12 percent of the country, were acquired by foreign firms
through a scheme called Special Agriculture and Business Leases
(SABLs). These land deals constitute one of the swiftest and largest
land grabs in recent history.

Veteran-Veterinarian Combines Skills as Food Safety Consultant for
Farmer Veteran Coalition
LINK: http://foodtank.org/news/2013/11/veteran-veterinarian-combines-skills-food-safety-consultant-farmer-veteran?utm_source=Food+Tank%3A+The+Food+Think+Tank&utm_campaign=09d9467694-Holidays&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c6d5c4b977-09d9467694-12619037
Michele Pfannenstiel uses her unique background in the army and
veterinary medicine to fill a niche as food safety consultant for
Farmer Veteran Coalition (FVC) and mobilizes other vets to use safe
farming practices.

Papaya for Haiya: Philippine Farmers Post-Taiphoon
LINK: http://foodtank.org/news/2013/11/papaya-for-haiya-philippine-farmers-post-taiphoon?utm_source=Food+Tank%3A+The+Food+Think+Tank&utm_campaign=09d9467694-Holidays&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c6d5c4b977-09d9467694-12619037
Local family farm set up a pickling day - Operation: Papaya for Haiyan
- to produce jars of pickled papaya, or "achara" to be sold with all
proceeds providing medical supplies for victims of Haiyan!

Niman is a Pig's Best Friend
LINK: http://foodtank.org/news/2013/11/niman-is-a-pigs-best-friend?utm_source=Food+Tank%3A+The+Food+Think+Tank&utm_campaign=09d9467694-Holidays&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c6d5c4b977-09d9467694-12619037
John and Beverly Gilbert, third-generation pig farmers, are part of
the Niman Ranch Pork Company, a nationally known marketing cooperative
that buys well-raised pork, poultry, lamb, and beef from hundreds of
small farmers across the country who meet their strict animal welfare
standards.

Why Is Obesity Soaring?
LINK: http://foodtank.org/news/2013/11/why-is-obesity-soaring-the-answer-is-more-complex-than-human-behavior?utm_source=Food+Tank%3A+The+Food+Think+Tank&utm_campaign=09d9467694-Holidays&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c6d5c4b977-09d9467694-12619037
A recently published article in the New York Times suggests we should
invest as many research dollars in understanding the biology of
obesity, as we do the behavior of obesity. The results could change
the way we think about solutions and policies to prevent obesity.

Farm to School: Putting Some Crunch in Your Lunch
LINK: http://foodtank.org/news/2013/11/farm-to-school-putting-some-crunch-in-your-lunch?utm_source=Food+Tank%3A+The+Food+Think+Tank&utm_campaign=09d9467694-Holidays&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c6d5c4b977-09d9467694-12619037
From farm gate to lunch plate, farm to school lunch programs are
making an impact on health, nutrition, and education of youth. Among
them an award winning farm to salad bar, run by eight middle school
students.

Seeds Define the South's Legacy
LINK: http://foodtank.org/news/2013/11/southern-seed-legacy?utm_source=Food+Tank%3A+The+Food+Think+Tank&utm_campaign=09d9467694-Holidays&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c6d5c4b977-09d9467694-12619037
What defines the legacy of a place? Is it its history, its citizens,
its architecture? For the Southern Seed Legacy, it's all about what
grows in the soil.





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