It's a big enough problem that is touching enough of these different segments of the industry: restaurant, retail, consumers, institutional, farm...that here in the Denver Metro area, there's room for a lot of solutions..." – Brendan McCrann, Future Pointe

Food waste. Over the last year or two, this issue has been finding its way into the headlines more and more, both at home and abroad. From features on John Oliver's HBO show Last Week Tonight to major national initiatives in Europe, food waste has reached the mainstream consciousness. And Denver, of all places, is becoming a focal point for solving our food waste problem here in the US.

In this episode, we're going to talk about what's happening now in food waste at the national, state and local levels as well as what we might see in the future. Exactly where we'll go is unclear, as it's still early days, but significant efforts are starting to come together and again, with Denver as a national focal point.

Brendan McCrann is President of Future Pointe LLC, a Colorado-based enterprise recognized for its extensive experience and expertise developing solutions for food waste, including emergent technologies which mitigate harmful greenhouse gasses, generate fertilizer inputs and provide other societal benefits. Brendan founded Future Pointe in 2009.

Reuben Gregory, a Denver local who serves on the mayor-appointed Sustainable Food Policy Council, is a Consultant with Future Pointe.  Reuben has developed and implemented projects for food banks and farmers which keep food waste in the food system while saving - and often earning - money in the process.

– IN THIS EPISODE, YOU'LL LEARN –

• Are we at a tipping point with respect to action on food waste?
• How food waste impacts global climate change
• How much food we're wasting, exactly
• What coalitions and actions are taking shape at the national, Colorado and Denver levels
• What major steps have already taken place, creating momentum
• What the focus on Denver could mean for us over the next few years, though it's still too early to know for sure
• What citizens can do to stay informed and get involved in food waste solutions

– LINKS & RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE –

• Future Pointe LLC
• [email protected] and [email protected]
• Food Waste: HBO's Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (YouTube)
• Dan Barber's 2015 NYC "wastED" experiment (The New Yorker) and now moving to London in 2017 (Eater)
• Food Recovery Act (Eater)
• "Wasted" NRDC 2012 Issue Paper (PDF)
• Virginia Till, EPA Region 8 ([email protected], 303-312-6008)
• Boulder Food Rescue and Denver Food Rescue
• We Don't Waste
• We Don't Waste and Coors Field (Colorado Public Radio)
• Metro Caring and Denver International Aiport (The Denver Post)
• Food Donation Takes off at PDX (Portland Airport)
• "Largest-ever campaign in Denver launched to reduce food waste" (video, Fox31 Denver)
• NRDC article on pilot cities of Nashville, New York City, and Denver (NRDC)
• Catherine Cox Blair (NRDC)
• Metro Caring
• Press Release Announcing Further With Food website (The Rockefeller Foundation)
• FurtherWithFood.org

– THANKS FOR LISTENING –

This episode (#28) comes from Mile High Locavorist.