Trash Talk: Fresh Takes on Food Waste

Trash Talk: Fresh Takes on Food Waste

From Climate One by Climate One from The Commonwealth Club

March 13, 2026 · 1h 3m

About this episode

The episode discusses the significant impact of food waste on greenhouse gas emissions and explores innovative solutions to address the issue.

Food loss and waste account for up to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions and cost $1 trillion annually, according to the United Nations. About a third of all food grown on the planet gets wasted, rather than eaten. In developing countries, waste usually occurs between the field and the store, due to poor infrastructure, lack of refrigeration, and broken supply chains. In rich countries, most waste happens after food reaches the store, where consumers don’t buy imperfect food – or buy too much and toss what they don’t get around to consuming. How much pollution, deforestation and starvation could be reduced if we got this problem under control? And how can new tech, including AI, be brought to bear on the problem? Guests: Matt Rogers, Co-Founder and CEO, Mill Industries; Co-Founder, Nest Page Schult, CEO, Topanga Kayla Abe, Co-Owner, Shuggie’s David Murphy, Co-Owner and Chef, Shuggie’s For show notes, related links, and episode transcript, visit climateone.org/podcasts. Highlights: 00:00 – Intro 04:30 – Matt Rogers on surviving Hurricane Andrews and his climate journey 06:30 – On the climate impact of HVAC and the creation of Nest thermostat 08:30 – On creating Mill food…

People in this episode

Guests: Matt Rogers, Page Schult, Kayla Abe, David Murphy

Topics covered

  • food waste
  • greenhouse gas emissions
  • climate impact
  • technology solutions
  • supply chain
  • consumer behavior

Keywords

  • food loss
  • greenhouse gas
  • climate solutions
  • AI
  • food recycling
  • consumer waste

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Mill Industries, Nest, Topanga, Shuggie’s, Whole Food, Silicon Valley, United Nations

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