Climate change and a projected population of 9 billion by 2050 means we are looking at a future of food insecurity. Agencies across the world are making plans and working on solutions. Food waste is a global problem, with 24% of the calories we grow in the world being wasted.
Waste is assessed as being loss somewhere in the food chain from farm to fork, and includes crop loss from pests, storage loss, loss during transportation, and retail food loss. In the developing world, food waste has different causes from agricultural food loss in the developed world.
In the US and the rest of the developed world, food waste is costing everyone money. There is waste all along the food chain from farm to fork, but the problem is heavily skewed toward the retail end and most of the food loss is fruits and vegetables.
Besides losing money on food that is grown, watered, picked, packed, transported, shelved, and then thrown away, food waste is filling up landfills and producing methane gas, which contributes to climate change. What new tools and techniques can help farmers address this disheartening problem?
- Start to measure your food waste. Include time, labor, water, land use, amendments, packing, transportation, distribution. Data can drive solutions.
- Consider addressing the issue at farm co-ops or community meetings. Consider inviting the new generation of farmers at the Ag schools to participate in discussions and brainstorming. Look at alternative marketing options. CropMobster Community Exchange is driving a new social-media based solution to finding new markets for food that might go to waste. Advertise for gleaners on Facebook. Call the local AmeriCorps director and let the volunteers pick food for the local food banks. The more people involved in thinking up solutions, the more likely we’ll find a solution!
- Connect with the hunger organizations, even the ones outside your immediate area. Forgotten Harvest is one model for an agency that addresses both hunger and food waste. Urban Gleaners addresses one link in the chain– they pick up food that would be wasted and take it to organizations that need it. The Boston Gleaners pick food that needs harvesting and distributes it to food banks and pantries. There are lots of different models, and lots of people who would help if they just knew how, or what to do. If your area needs an organization to address hunger and food waste, who in your community would be the best person to lead it?
- Is there another use for food waste? Can we turn it into fertilizer? Can we turn it into energy? Somebody is already doing that. Feed Resource Recovery Inc. has a zero waste model anaerobic digester. HarvestPower has a good introduction to methods and materials.
Resources: The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN; The Sustainable Table; USDA; Modern Farmer; The Environmental Defense Fund.
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