Re: “Farm to Freezer program steps in to help food banks, planet” (June 30, Opinion):
It’s encouraging and inspiring to know that the Farm to Freezer program is using surplus produce to make meals for food banks.
On the other hand, it is somewhat distressing to learn from the editorial that “390,000 tons of food goes to waste in Washington each year,” ending up in landfills as the main source of methane.
There is absolutely no reason to allow this to happen! Yard waste is already separated at most of our urban landfills. It seems to me that farms and rural properties would be plentiful sources of carbonaceous (dry) material in volumes large enough to compost with the excess (mostly wet) produce.
Just as yard waste collection in Seattle has diverted rotting food waste away from garbage cans and landfills to compost piles, a similar effort, on a much larger scale, would keep excess produce out of landfills.
Tom Bell, Seattle
