003: Reducing Food Loss through Gleaning: The Recovery of Flawed and Forgotten Foods with Lisa Johnson and Lynette Johnson

<p><strong> </strong><em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">“There are all sorts of reasons why food is left behind but none of those state that it's not good quality food or not worth eating.”</span></em> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">-Lynette Johnson</span></p> <p> </p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">“There are huge social and environmental problems that can be solved by fixing food waste.”</span></em> <span style="font-weight: 400;">-Lisa Johnson</span></p> <p><br /> <br /></p> <p><strong>Episode Description:</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">What should a tomato look like? There are different ways to picture a tomato- red, green, tiny, larger...but seldom would one picture one with loads of imperfections.  In most cases, those tomatoes are tossed aside and discarded during a farmer’s harvest, because they won’t sell to perfection-obsessed consumers in grocery stores. The same goes for other fruits and vegetables...and thus we see how the story of one imperfect tomato quickly adds up- to millions of tons of food loss/waste in the United States each year.  So, where do these food items go? Join Justine and this week’s co-host,</span> <a href="https://www.justinereichman.com/podcast-episodes/lisa-johnson-adam-kaye"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Lisa Johnson</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">as they talk with the Executive Director of the</span> <a href="http://endhunger.org/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Society of St. Andrew</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">, Lynette Johnson.  Lynette talks about the Society of Saint Andrew’s work with respect to reducing food waste- in cooperation with farmers- a process known as gleaning.  In gleaning, teams recover discarded crops or harvest surplus farm crops from the fields of participating farmers once their initial harvest is complete.  This prevents waste and nourishes local families.  Last year, SOSA’s Gleaning Network collected and distributed 37,068,221 pounds of fresh produce.   </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight