writeaboutwarming

November 8, 2010 - I’ve been waiting for this one, and Jonathan Bloom has finally written it - a new book called American Wasteland: How America Throws Away Nearly Half of its Food. Don’t worry: no one’s going to lecture you about children in Haiti starving. This might be a very good time, though, to give thoughtful attention to the adage “Waste not, want not.” It all has to do with the human tendency to disregard that which is plentiful. Funny, isn’t it? We worry constantly about the lack of time, but steadfastly believe that food will always be there when we’re hungry – or even if we’re not. To all appearances, we have the food to waste, if that’s what we want to do with it. There’s a vague sensation that this might be wrong, but with each meal relentlessly pressing down on us, who has the time to worry about matters like portion sizes, buying unusable quantities in the name of variety, and forgetting what we still have back home in the fridge? If the head cook works ou...