On Tuesday, June 13th, Dr. Marty Matlock, professor of Ecological Engineering at the University of Arkansas and Executive Director of the University’s Office for Sustainability, appeared the Washington Post discussion panel, “Transformers: Food”.

The panel is a part of the Post’s Transformers series, a journalism series exploring technological advances and business trends that affect everyday life. Dr. Matlock participated in a segment discussing new technologies and practices promoting food safety and security.

The panel discussed the definition of food security, as well as the current state of world famine and how poverty affects food sustainability in the US and globally. Matlock explained,

 In our southern states, we have some counties where we have 30% of the households who are food insecure… That’s in the United States.”

Improvements have been made in the areas of agricultural technology and business practices concerning food sustainability, including genetically modified crops. But these improvements do not attack the main problem – Food Waste.

It doesn’t matter how efficient you are at the production in getting products to the consumers table, if they throw 40% of it away once they get it.”

Matlock suggested that one of the best ways for consumers to benefit the environment is growing their own food.

I don’t care if you live in an apartment; put a window box in with some herbs… you realize just how hard it is, how valuable it is, how much time and effort it takes, and you’ll be a little more forgiving of that blemish…”

Click here for a video of the Food Sustainability portion of the panel and here for a full transcript of the panel.