As people ring in the new year, it seems as though American diners and cooks are focusing more on vegetables and other plant-based foods, moving veggies from the side plate to the main dish. Award-winning restaurants such as AL's Place in San Francisco are putting fruit and vegetable dishes that include squash, pears, and persimmons at the center of the plate, while steaks are listed as a side dish.
In addition, such restaurants are not only cooking more with vegetables, but are using the whole vegetable. For example, seeds are roasted and skins are smoked for other dishes.
WastED is a project that hopes to change the way people think about food waste, helping farmers, fisherman, and chefs team up to minimize waste in the food chain, according to NPR. It reuses restaurant scraps including kale stems, carrot ribbons, cabbage cores, romaine hearts, and broccoli stalks.
Food waste is also a concern of the United States government. The Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency are trying to cut food waste in half by 2030.
They report that almost one-third of all food waste in the U.S. (31 percent) originates from the nation's food supply. That is about 133 billion pounds.
NPR points out that Millennials now outnumber Baby Boomers. They will have a big impact on reducing food waste.
The growing popularity of the "no waste movement" can be traced to Dan Barber, according to Yahoo. In 2015 he made headline news with his wastED pop-up window, which offered gourmet dishes made of ingredients that are usually thrown out.
"Top Chef" Tom Colicchio also recently teamed up with Hidden Valley. He gave cooking demonstrations on how to prepare dishes with ingredients that are usually wasted.
Here are some tips for reducing food waste: