Today, at a local market where we get our groceries, I noticed a large garbage can next to the corn display. People can shuck their corn on the spot and toss the husks into the can. I found a produce employee and asked what they did with all the husks, thinking I might take a bag home for the compost bin. She told me that they compost it via the local garbage company. I’m not sure how the garbage company does the composting, or what they do with the finished product. Before I got to ask her for some to take home, she offered a box of lettuce that was bound for the compost bin. I graciously took it. When I got it out to the car and started looking at it, I realized there was absolutely nothing wrong with any of the lettuce. Most of it looks like it had fallen off the bunch and some didn’t look beautiful and presentable, but it was all good. I picked through and took out what I thought we could eat, then gave a huge bag to our neighbor. The rest, I’m afraid, eventually made it to the composter. What a waste! Imagine if the poor people of Larimer County had access to that food (actually, they apparently do, they just don’t know to ask). Such amazing produce goes to waste, and that was just one box of food from one store in one city in……