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Flashfood, Price Rite to Boost Fresh Sales, Cut Waste
Flashfood, an app-based marketplace that strives to eliminate retail food waste by connecting consumers with discounted food nearing its best by date, is adding more stores to its U.S. footprint through a new pilot program with Price Rite Marketplace.
August 12, 2021
Flashfood, an app-based marketplace that strives to eliminate retail food waste by connecting consumers with discounted food nearing its best by date, is adding more stores to its U.S. footprint through a new pilot program with Price Rite Marketplace. Price Rite Marketplace customers in the western New York area can now save up to 50 percent off select groceries that would otherwise go to waste.
The Flashfood app allows shoppers to browse and purchase fresh food, including produce, meat, deli and bakery products, nearing its best before date at significantly reduced prices. Shoppers can find great deals and purchase through the app, then simply pick up their items at the Flashfood zone located at their selected Price Rite store.
“We’re thrilled to work with Price Rite Marketplace as our newest partner committed to fighting food waste while helping their customers save significantly on their groceries,” said Josh Domingues, CEO of Flashfood. “Flashfood is a triple-win for our partners, the planet and people. We look forward to connecting Price Rite Marketplace shoppers with great deals while helping them make sustainable choices.”
In addition to helping customers shop more affordably with Flashfood, Price Rite Marketplace also supports local communities by donating to charitable organizations such as Feed the Children, contributing nearly 3 million pounds of food across 49 cities since 2015.
“Partnering with Flashfood is a natural next step as we continue to create environmentally-friendly neighborhoods and exceptional value for shoppers,” said Jim Dorey, president of Price Rite Marketplace. “We are proud of the concerted efforts our stores have made over the years to minimize our environmental footprint and look forward to seeing the impact of our new partnership with Flashfood.”
To date, Flashfood has partnered with grocery chains across the U.S. and Canada to divert more than 25 million pounds of food from landfills.
PinDuoDuo: Building A More Resilient Food System With Technology - July 14 -15
Join us virtually for our inaugural Food Systems Forum, which will convene experts from around the world to share their insights and spark further connections and potential collaborations
The pandemic has shone a light on how fragile and intertwined our global agri-food supply chain is, making it even more pressing to push for food systems innovation and change. Can we leverage technology to build a more resilient food system that feeds more people and feeds them better?
Join us virtually for our inaugural Food Systems Forum, which will convene experts from around the world to share their insights and spark further connections and potential collaborations.
Register To Join The Conversation
PinDuoDuo: Building A More Resilient Food System With Technology - July 14 -15
Join us virtually for our inaugural Food Systems Forum, which will convene experts from around the world to share their insights and spark further connections and potential collaborations
The pandemic has shone a light on how fragile and intertwined our global agri-food supply chain is, making it even more pressing to push for food systems innovation and change. Can we leverage technology to build a more resilient food system that feeds more people and feeds them better?
Join us virtually for our inaugural Food Systems Forum, which will convene experts from around the world to share their insights and spark further connections and potential collaborations.
Register To Join The Conversation
China Enacts Food Waste Law, Brings In Bans For Binge-Eating & Fines For Leftovers
The food waste law also introduces a fee that restaurants can charge to their patrons if they leave “excessive” amounts of uneaten food at the end of their meals. Vendors that “induce or mislead consumers into making excessive orders” can now be fined up to ¥10,000 ($1,540)
May 4, 2021
The Chinese government has passed a wide-ranging law aimed at reducing food wastage in the world’s most populous country.
Among the provisions of the food waste law are a ban on competitive eating and hefty fines of up to ¥100,000 ($15,400) for making “binge-eating” videos where vloggers “usually leave a lot of food uneaten and often vomit what they have consumed,” according to the state-owned Global Times.
The social media phenomenon of livestream eating originated in South Korea where it is called mukbang, meaning ‘eating broadcast.’ The Chinese term for the genre, chībō, means the same thing. Chībō has become wildly popular throughout China in recent years – though not without controversy.
The food waste law also introduces a fee that restaurants can charge to their patrons if they leave “excessive” amounts of uneaten food at the end of their meals. Vendors that “induce or mislead consumers into making excessive orders” can now be fined up to ¥10,000 ($1,540).
Restaurants that consistently waste “large amounts” of food face fines of up to ¥50,000 ($7,720).
The law was first proposed to China’s legislature, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, late last year after Chinese president Xi Jinping described the country’s food waste problem as “shocking and distressing.”
According to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, restaurants in the country’s major cities waste 18 million tonnes of food a year, which the Academy estimates as being enough to feed up to 50 million people in the same timeframe.
While the Communist Party-affiliated Times claimed the “adoption of the legislation against food waste does not imply that China is facing an immediate food shortage risk, but [is] a far-sighted move for food security,” China simply can’t afford to waste this much food.
With 1.4 billion mouths to feed and issues such as a growing but ageing population, desertification of already limited cultivable land, and deteriorating relations with major food exporter countries, China is facing significant food shortage risks over the medium to long term.
The Academy predicts a domestic grain supply shortfall of 130 million tons by 2025, with China’s dwindling rural workforce cited as a key factor – meaning that the country can’t simply turn to traditional agriculture as a solution.
In recent years, investment has been pouring into China’s burgeoning agrifoodtech space, with much of it targeted at solving the country’s food security and resilience issues.
Released last month, AgFunder‘s China 2021 Agrifood Startup Investing Report found that agrifoodtech funding in the country rose 66% year-on-year in 2020 to reach $6 billion.
While most of that capital went to e-grocery companies, upstream categories raised a total of $1.4 billion, taking a 24% share of overall agrifood investment compared to 14% a year earlier. In particular, business models and technologies aimed at bringing efficiencies and smaller environmental footprints to farming – such as robotics and drones, farm management software, and biotech solutions – received substantial funding; while startups developing alternative protein sources with the objective of reducing China’s reliance on animal agriculture also saw a pop in funding.
However, solutions specifically targeting food waste reduction and valorization were notably absent from China’s top agrifoodtech funding deals last year – perhaps indicating a major area of white space for entrepreneurs and prospective investors to keep an eye on going forward.
Where Vertical Farming and Affordable Housing Can Grow Together
Some vertical farms grow greens in old warehouses, former steel mills, or other sites set apart from the heart of cities. But a new series of projects will build multistory greenhouses directly inside affordable housing developments
Some vertical farms grow greens in old warehouses, former steel mills, or other sites set apart from the heart of cities. But a new series of projects will build multistory greenhouses directly inside affordable housing developments.
“Bringing the farm back to the city center can have a lot of benefits,” says Nona Yehia, CEO of Vertical Harvest, a company that will soon break ground on a new building in Westbrook, ME, that combines a vertical farm with affordable housing. Similar developments will follow in Chicago and in Philadelphia, where a farm-plus-housing will be built in the Tioga District, an opportunity zone.
Inside each building, the ground level will offer community access, while the greenhouse fills the second, third, and fourth floors, covering 70,000 square feet and growing around a million pounds of produce a year. (The amount of housing varies by site; in Maine, there will be only 15 units of housing, though the project will create 50 new jobs.)
In Chicago, there may be a community kitchen on the first level. In each location, residents will be able to buy fresh produce on-site; Vertical Harvest also plans to let others in the neighborhood buy greens directly from the farm. While it will sell to supermarkets, restaurants, hospitals, and other large customers, it also plans to subsidize 10% to 15% of its harvest for local food pantries and other community organizations.
“By creating a large-scale farm in a food desert, we are creating a large source of healthy, locally grown food 365 days a year,” Yehia says.
Bringing The Future To life In Abu Dhabi
A cluster of shipping containers in a city centre is about the last place you’d expect to find salad growing. Yet for the past year, vertical farming startup Madar Farms has been using this site in Masdar City, Abu Dhabi, to grow leafy green vegetables using 95 per cent less water than traditional agriculture
Amid the deserts of Abu Dhabi, a new wave of entrepreneurs and innovators are sowing the seeds of a more sustainable future.
Image from: Wired
A cluster of shipping containers in a city centre is about the last place you’d expect to find salad growing. Yet for the past year, vertical farming startup Madar Farms has been using this site in Masdar City, Abu Dhabi, to grow leafy green vegetables using 95 per cent less water than traditional agriculture.
Madar Farms is one of a number of agtech startups benefitting from a package of incentives from the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) aimed at spurring the development of innovative solutions for sustainable desert farming. The partnership is part of ADIO’s $545 million Innovation Programme dedicated to supporting companies in high-growth areas.
“Abu Dhabi is pressing ahead with our mission to ‘turn the desert green’,” explained H.E. Dr. Tariq Bin Hendi, Director General of ADIO, in November 2020. “We have created an environment where innovative ideas can flourish and the companies we partnered with earlier this year are already propelling the growth of Abu Dhabi’s 24,000 farms.”
The pandemic has made food supply a critical concern across the entire world, combined with the effects of population growth and climate change, which are stretching the capacity of less efficient traditional farming methods. Abu Dhabi’s pioneering efforts to drive agricultural innovation have been gathering pace and look set to produce cutting-edge solutions addressing food security challenges.
Beyond work supporting the application of novel agricultural technologies, Abu Dhabi is also investing in foundational research and development to tackle this growing problem.
In December, the emirate’s recently created Advanced Technology Research Council [ATRC], responsible for defining Abu Dhabi’s R&D strategy and establishing the emirate and the wider UAE as a desired home for advanced technology talent, announced a four-year competition with a $15 million prize for food security research. Launched through ATRC’s project management arm, ASPIRE, in partnership with the XPRIZE Foundation, the award will support the development of environmentally-friendly protein alternatives with the aim to "feed the next billion".
Image from: Madar Farms
Global Challenges, Local Solutions
Food security is far from the only global challenge on the emirate’s R&D menu. In November 2020, the ATRC announced the launch of the Technology Innovation Institute (TII), created to support applied research on the key priorities of quantum research, autonomous robotics, cryptography, advanced materials, digital security, directed energy and secure systems.
“The technologies under development at TII are not randomly selected,” explains the centre’s secretary general Faisal Al Bannai. “This research will complement fields that are of national importance. Quantum technologies and cryptography are crucial for protecting critical infrastructure, for example, while directed energy research has use-cases in healthcare. But beyond this, the technologies and research of TII will have global impact.”
Future research directions will be developed by the ATRC’s ASPIRE pillar, in collaboration with stakeholders from across a diverse range of industry sectors.
“ASPIRE defines the problem, sets milestones, and monitors the progress of the projects,” Al Bannai says. “It will also make impactful decisions related to the selection of research partners and the allocation of funding, to ensure that their R&D priorities align with Abu Dhabi and the UAE's broader development goals.”
Image from: Agritecture
Nurturing Next-Generation Talent
To address these challenges, ATRC’s first initiative is a talent development programme, NexTech, which has begun the recruitment of 125 local researchers, who will work across 31 projects in collaboration with 23 world-leading research centres.
Alongside universities and research institutes from across the US, the UK, Europe and South America, these partners include Abu Dhabi’s own Khalifa University, and Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, the world’s first graduate-level institute focused on artificial intelligence.
“Our aim is to up skill the researchers by allowing them to work across various disciplines in collaboration with world-renowned experts,” Al Bannai says.
Beyond academic collaborators, TII is also working with a number of industry partners, such as hyperloop technology company, Virgin Hyperloop. Such industry collaborations, Al Bannai points out, are essential to ensuring that TII research directly tackles relevant problems and has a smooth path to commercial impact in order to fuel job creation across the UAE.
“By engaging with top global talent, universities and research institutions and industry players, TII connects an intellectual community,” he says. “This reinforces Abu Dhabi and the UAE’s status as a global hub for innovation and contributes to the broader development of the knowledge-based economy.”
Forget Politics, Danny Ayalon Wants to Effect Change on The Ground
Having transitioned from politics to agriculture, Danny Ayalon shares how vertical farming, which provides fresh fruits and vegetables all year round, and lab-grown meat can rehabilitate the environment and dramatically reduce household expenditures
Having transitioned from politics to agriculture, Danny Ayalon shares how vertical farming, which provides fresh fruits and vegetables all year round, and lab-grown meat can rehabilitate the environment and dramatically reduce household expenditures.
Image from: Yehoshua Yosef
The coronavirus pandemic has drawn attention to humankind's carbon footprint. More than ever before we ask ourselves, how can we become more sustainable? Can we prevent pollution? How can we minimize waste? What about lowering emission levels? Will there be enough food for everyone in the future?
Danny Ayalon, a former ambassador and foreign policy adviser to three prime ministers-turned entrepreneur, believes that the answer to many of the world's problems lies in modern agriculture.
Having transitioned from politics to agriculture, he works with Future Crops, an Amsterdam-based company focused on vertical farming – the practice of growing crops in vertically stacked layers that often incorporates controlled-environment agriculture, which aims to optimize plant growth – and MeaTech, a company that creates lab-grown meat.
"Ever since the coronavirus came into our lives, we realized that man is not in charge of the universe," Ayalon told Israel Hayom.
"Our control over the forces of nature, of Earth, of our future is more limited than we had thought. And when we are no longer in charge of the world, only three things guarantee our lives here: food, water, and energy security. Food, water, and energy are three resources that can be depleted and therefore literally cast a cloud on our world.
"Experts have come to a conclusion that one of the most important fields to focus on is agriculture, and indeed we are currently witnessing the most significant agricultural revolution ever since the first agricultural revolution that took place about 10,00 years ago."
Q: Back then, in the first agricultural revolution, there was a need for a lot of land.
"But today we have technology. The name of the game is to reach maximum output with minimum input in the smallest space possible. This is the holy grail of the new revolution. And that is how technology enters the picture. To grow fruits, vegetables and spices today requires lots of space. The technology we developed at Future Crops allows us to minimize the space, increase production and redefine the food supply chain."
Q: How exactly?
"We have a nine-story hangar in Amsterdam to grow crops like coriander, basil, dill, and parsley. It has LED lights, and each plant gets exactly the amount of light it needs. We are the plant psychologists, [we] listen to all its needs and do everything to make sure the plant grows in the most optimal way.
Image from: Future Crops
"If it lacks something, it immediately receives water. Everything is done without a human's touch. We use algorithms and big data in collaboration with world-class researchers from the Weizmann Institute. It is essentially the application of vertical farming, growing various crops in vertically stacked layers, in enclosed structures, on soil platforms.
"For example, if it takes a month to grow lettuce in an open field, in a vertical farm, it takes two weeks, half that time. There's also a significant reduction in water consumption, and no pesticides or sprays are used at all. Also, the produce is available in all seasons; it does not depend on the temperature. Whoever likes mangos and strawberries, for example, will be able to enjoy them all year round."
Q: So if produce is grown faster and within a smaller space, is it going to cost less?
"The prices might be a bit higher today because this technology and the various infrastructures require an economic return of the initial investment in them. With time, the process will become more efficient, and the investments will be repaid, so in the end, the prices that the consumer will need to pay will be lower than today.
"Let me give you a simple example. Do you know how much a kilogram [2.2 pounds] of basil costs in Europe today? €90 ($108). In Israel, the price is €20 ($24). In the [United Arab] Emirates, where almost everything connected to food is imported – the prices go accordingly as well. Once you have more innovative vertical farms, consumers will pay much less."
Q: Should we expect vertical farm skyscrapers to pop up all over?
"I'm not sure that we will need skyscrapers, as with time the facilities will become smaller. Imagine that in every supermarket there will be a vertical produce stand with all the vegetables and spices, and later also fruits which you pick on the spot, without the need to move the produce from place to place. That is why vertical farming is also called urban farming, meaning there is no need for fields; you can grow [produce] on the rooftop. No resource limits you."
Q: What about the taste?
"Ours is a fresher and tastier product. I ought to give credit to the Weizmann Institute here. The challenge for them wasn't the quality of the vitamins but the taste, and they managed to achieve a great taste. In the Netherlands, Future Crops already sells parsley, and it tastes outstanding."
Q: Regular parsley lasts for about two weeks in the fridge. What about Future Crops parsley?
"Our parsley has a two-month shelf life, and it does not oxidize within a week or two."
Q: If every country will be self-reliant in terms of agriculture, do you think it will affect relations between countries?
"Economies will become self-sufficient eventually, which will ensure security with far fewer conflicts. There is less and less water in the Middle East, which might someday lead to tensions. We hope technology will reduce the tensions between countries, and territory will be less critical. Our world faces crucial challenges. Food and water security have the potential to either divide or bring us together and ensure our long-term existence.
"By the way, in every developed Western country, like the United States, Australia, and also in Europe, issues of food security, climate, and greenhouse emissions are on the top of the political agenda. We are not talking about it [in Israel,] as security and foreign affairs take the central stage, but Israel does have a lot to offer here."
Q: Do we have the potential to become the Silicon Valley of advanced agriculture?
"Israel takes tremendous pride in its actions that help save the world. Will we become the Silicon Valley of agriculture? There is no doubt about it. We can already see foreign investors who come here to look for opportunities, including my business partner Lior Maimon, co-founder and CEO of Silver Road Capital, and Steven Levin, one of the leaders of the US food industry. Silver Road Capital is a holdings and financial advisory firm with a broad portfolio of high-tech companies, as well as agricultural and food technologies, and represents international companies and funds in investments in Israel and the world.
"Future Crops's goal is to raise 35 million shekels on the Israeli stock exchange to invest in enlarging the existing facilities and [set up] other production lines and facilities in Europe and other continents. We cooperate with the Albert Heijn supermarket chain [in the Netherlands] and a leading food chain in France."
Q: Vertical farming is estimated at $3 billion. Google and Amazon have invested hundreds of millions in the field as well. What is their goal?
"A simple answer would be profit. A longer answer is that they [large corporations] understand that food has the highest demand. People cannot live without food and water, and Google and Amazon understand that potential."
Q: US President Joe Biden took office with the largest team of climate experts ever. That ought to give the field momentum.
"Green energy and vertical farming will get a considerable boost. Climate change and green energy are well-rooted in the Democratic Party's ideology.
"It is also possible that large companies entered the agriculture fields precisely because of the Biden administration; they are worried about their future. They are afraid of a certain dismantling, so focusing on secondary fields is part of a security scenario for them."
Q: Biden also wants to address greenhouse emissions, which are the result of the food production industry, mainly meat. Are Amazon and Google's food counterparts - McDonald's and Burger King - looking for meat substitutes?
"Firstly, cultured [lab-grown] meat does not require grazing land, cows do not need to be fed, and so much land can instead be turned into forests that support the environment. This is an optimistic industry that leaves us with a better world.
"As for the meat alternatives market, there are two major companies in the US that produce plant-based protein, Beyond Meat, and Impossible Foods.
"Impossible's burgers are already at Burger King, McDonald's has partnered up with Beyond Meat, and last November, it announced that it would create its own plant-based burger.
"The problem is that pea protein [used in plant-based burgers,] does not have all the amino acids that animal protein contains. Also, they need to add additives to supplement for taste and smell.
"At MeaTech, where I'm a director, we are on our way to producing animal meat, cultured meat, real stakes: we take a cow's own stem cell from which meat can be produced in almost unlimited quantities. We also use 3D digital printing technology. And we also created a thin layer of meat, carpaccio. Needless to say, no cow was harmed in the process."
Image from: MeaTech
Q: Why do you use 3D printers?
"Because there is no need for a human being's involvement. It is relevant now during the coronavirus pandemic when the food supply chain is disrupted. With such printers, your production can continue without delays, whenever you want.
Also, it is theoretically possible to provide food for space flights. Astronauts who go out into space will not have to take food with them; rather, they will be able to produce it on the spot.
"People understand that crises like the coronavirus can disrupt the supply chain and are looking for alternatives. A 3D printer allows restaurants, supermarkets, and butcher shops to have meat without relying on the supply chain."
Q: The death rate from obesity is higher than the death rate from hunger. How will cultured meat affect these statistics?
"It is possible to create meat with much less fat and more protein in each portion and add various nutrients in the future to strengthen the immune system and prevent disease. This, of course, requires a lot of research and approvals. Just like there's talk about customized medicine, so it will be possible to produce food that suits a person's genetic structure and body in the most optimal way."
Q: Will the cost of this meat also be optimal?
"They will cost more in the beginning compared to regular meat because there are initial costs that have to be repaid. When it becomes a mass production, prices will drop over time."
Q: With your vast experience in politics, what do you think of Israeli politics these days? Do you ever consider a political comeback?
"No election campaign goes by without someone making me an offer [to return to politics] but I'm not interested. Unfortunately, the Israeli government, and all governments in the Western world, have not been able to run their countries properly in recent years.
"For example, more of the government's national taks are transitioning to the private market or the third sector. We see that associations [are the ones] who take care of the needy, establish settlements in the Negev and in the Galilee, bring immigrants to Israel and provide Israelis with information. All these things should be done by the government.
"The Israeli government lacks vision, ideologies, every matter is personal and is charged with negative sentiments. If I do return one day, it will only happen after we change the government system which will take its power from small [political] parties.
"In my opinion, we need to transition to a regional choice, by district. This will result in higher quality politicians. How so? Because whoever wants to be elected will need to run and convince the people who live in his area and district, and they are the ones who know his activities best. Also, closed primaries should be avoided because they make all kinds of deals possible. That needs to change."
Is AppHarvest the Future of Farming?
In this video from Motley Fool Live, recorded on Jan. 28, Industry Focus host Nick Sciple and Motley Fool contributor Lou Whiteman discuss AppHarvest, one such SPAC that is looking to disrupt the agriculture industry. Here are the details on what AppHarvest wants to do, and a look at whether the company represents the future of farming.
Special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, are red-hot right now, with investors clamoring to get into promising young companies.
In this video from Motley Fool Live, recorded on Jan. 28, Industry Focus host Nick Sciple and Motley Fool contributor Lou Whiteman discuss AppHarvest, one such SPAC that is looking to disrupt the agriculture industry. Here are the details on what AppHarvest wants to do, and a look at whether the company represents the future of farming.
Nick Sciple: One last company I wanted to talk about, Lou, and this is one I think it's -- you pay attention to, but not one I'm super excited to run in and buy. It was a company called AppHarvest. It's coming public via a [SPAC] this year. This vertical farming space. We talked about Gladstone Land buying traditional farmland. AppHarvest is taking a very different approach, trying to lean into some of the ESG-type movements.
Lou Whiteman: Yeah. Let's look at this. It probably wouldn't surprise you that the U.S. is the biggest global farm exporter as we said, but it might surprise you that the Netherlands, the tiny little country, is No. 2. The way they do that is tech: Greenhouse farm structure. AppHarvest has taken that model and brought it to the U.S. They have, I believe, three farms in Appalachia. The pitches can produce 30x the yields using 90% less water. Right now, it's mostly tomatoes and it is early-stage. I don't own this stock either. I love this idea. There's some reasons that I'm not buying in right now that we can get into. But this is fascinating to me. We talked about making the world a better place. This is the company that we need to be successful to make the world a better place. The warning on it is that it is a SPAC. So it's not public yet. Right now, I believe N-O-V-S. That deal should close soon. [Editor's note: The deal has since closed.] I'm not the only one excited about it. I tend not to like to buy IPOs and new companies anyway. I think the caution around buying into the excitement applies here. There is a Martha Stewart video on their website talking up the company, which I love Martha Stewart, but that's a hype level that makes me want to just watch and see what they produce. This is just three little farms in Appalachia right now and a great idea. This was all over my watchlist. I would imagine I would love to hold it at some point, but just be careful because this is, as we saw SPACs last year in other areas, people are very excited about this.
Sciple: Yeah. I think, like we've said, for a lot of these companies, the prospects are great. I think when you look at the reduced water usage, better, environmentally friendly, all those sorts of things. I like that they are in Appalachia. As someone who is from the South, I like it when more rural areas get some people actually investing money there. But again, there's a lot of execution between now and really getting to a place where this is the future of farming and they're going to reach scale and all those sorts of things. But this is a company I'm definitely going to have my radar on and pay attention to as they continue to report earnings. Because you can tell yourself a story about how this type of vertical farming, indoor farming disrupts this traditional model, can be more efficient, cleaner, etc. Something to continue paying attention to as we have more information, because this company, like you said, Lou, isn't all the way public yet. We still got to have this SPAC deal finalized and then we get all our fun SEC filings and quarterly calls and all those sorts of things. Once we have that, I will be very much looking forward to seeing what the company has to say.
Whiteman: Right. Just to finish up along too, the interesting thing here is that it is a proven concept because it has worked elsewhere. The downside of that is that it needed to work there. Netherlands just doesn't have -- and this is an expensive proposition to get started, to get going. There's potential there, but in a country blessed with almost seemingly unlimited farmland for now, for long term it makes sense. But in the short term, it could be a hard thing to really get up and running. I think you're right, just one to watch.
The Wonderful Co. Offers $1 Million For Pomegranate Waste Solution
Dubbed the Wonderful Innovation Challenge, the program offers up to $1 million in funding and development resources for environmentally friendly solutions to the rind, pith, and seeds left from the juicing process
The process to make Pom Wonderful juices generated 50,000 tons of pomegranate rinds, pith, and seeds each year.
By CHRIS KOGER September 28, 2020
The Wonderful Co., Los Angeles, is offering up to $1 million for a solution to the 50,000 tons of pomegranate husks generated each year for the production of Pom Wonderful juice.
ReFED, a nonprofit working to end food loss and waste, is an advisor and managing partner for the challenge, according to a news release.
Dubbed the Wonderful Innovation Challenge, the program offers up to $1 million in funding and development resources for environmentally friendly solutions to the rind, pith, and seeds left from the juicing process.
“The Wonderful Innovation Challenge was born out of our mission to continually push the boundaries of sustainability by embracing bold, innovative ideas,” Steve Swartz, vice president of strategy at The Wonderful Co., said in the release. “This competition will provide a select group of winners the resources they need to grow their business, make a positive impact, and help us fulfill our environmental mission.”
Registration is open through Dec. 7 to apply for the program, which has four review stages:
Submission of a short application with a proposal;
Qualified applicants will submit a detailed plan;
Semi-finalists will participate in a virtual interview; and
Finalists will pitch their solutions virtually to judges.
The finalist will compete for the $1 million award pool and request the amount needed for their proposal, according to the news release.
The competition will generate ideas for the company to help it solve other sustainability issues, according to the release.
“Innovation can play a critical role in driving efficiency and value, as well as in addressing environmental challenges,” Alexandria Coari, director of capital and innovation at ReFED, said in the release. “The Wonderful Innovation Challenge is a call for inventive solutions that can create value from this byproduct.”
The Wonderful Co. has invested more than $1 billion in environmental sustainability and climate change projects, including $400 million in water-efficient irrigation, cutting energy use, and $60 million in solar energy projects.
A year ago, The Wonderful Co. owners Stewart and Lynda Resnick pledged $750 million to Caltech to support its environmental sustainability research
Related news:
The Wonderful Co. owners pledge $750 million for sustainability
New York City Startup Called Re-Nuble Turns Food Waste Into Fertilizer
A New York City startup is using potato peels, apple cores, and rotten tomatoes to help farmers grow fresh fruits and vegetables
It Can Be Used To Grow Crops in Indoor Hydroponic Farms.
February 5, 2020
Re-Nuble CEO and founder Tinia Pina. (Image credit: Re-Nuble video)
A New York City startup is using potato peels, apple cores, and rotten tomatoes to help farmers grow fresh fruits and vegetables.
“We take produce waste from food distributors and food processors – anything that can’t go to a food bank or farm,” says Tinia Pina, founder, and CEO of Re-Nuble.
The company converts food waste into organic fertilizer pellets that can be used in indoor, hydroponic farms.
Pina says when dissolved in water, the pellets make the nutrients immediately available to the plant, mimicking the biological nutrient systems found outdoors.
So she says the technology can help make it easier to grow organic food indoors in urban areas, where fresh local food is often scarce.
And it helps the climate. It keeps food out of landfills, where it would otherwise decompose and release methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
It also reduces the need for synthetic fertilizers, which create a lot of carbon pollution when they’re manufactured.
So far, the company has facilities in New York City and Rochester, New York, and plans to expand to the West Coast. Pina hopes to eventually help cities across the country use their food scraps to grow local, organic food.
Reporting credit: Sarah Kennedy/ChavoBart Digital Media.
How Urban Agriculture Can Contribute To Food Security
Urban agriculture has a major role to play in providing healthy, affordable and accessible food to poor urban households in South Africa, according to Prof Juaneé Cilliers, chair of the Urban and Regional Planning Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management at North-West University
October 23, 2019
Urban agriculture has a major role to play in providing healthy, affordable and accessible food to poor urban households in South Africa, according to Prof Juaneé Cilliers, chair of the Urban and Regional Planning Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management at North-West University.
Worldwide, an average of three babies are born every second. This means that the global population grows by about 162 600 people per day, roughly equivalent to the population of George (157 000) or Midrand (173 000).
At the same time, spatial change is at a peak within the urban landscape, with 65% of South Africa’s population currently residing in cities.
READ How agriculture can ease the global urban water shortage
Our growing cities are also increasingly expensive living places characterized by urban sprawl and amplified travel distances, growing carbon footprints, increased energy consumption, and complicated distribution networks.
All this leads to higher food prices and greater food wastage, neither of which are beneficial to the urban poor. Recent data from Statistics South Africa suggests that 70% of urban households in South Africa live in conditions of food insecurity.
Bringing green spaces to urban areas
The world’s growing cities host more people, but less nature. Green spaces in cities have been susceptible to urban development pressures, evident in the depletion of green spaces and the associated downward spiral of living conditions.
In the search for “inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities”, one of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, the interrelated role of nature as a catalyst to reach the objectives of sustainability, is emphasized.
READ Eastern Cape urban agri projects to be rejuvenated
There is a consensus that we need to reclaim nature in cities in order to mitigate the challenges associated with these growing urban sprawls while capitalizing on the range of ecosystem services provided by nature.
Cities, which were once viewed as places where nature ends and urbanization begins, are today considered as a central nexus in the relationship between people and nature.
It is within these contemporary cities that we need to find sustainable future solutions as a matter of urgency because the challenge of sustaining life as we know it is becoming more complicated by the day.
Growing cities, increasing populations and escalating poverty levels mean that we cannot continue with a business-as-usual attitude.
One of the most important conservation issues of the 21st century is where and how food is produced in order to feed a growing and fast-urbanizing population.
Traditional agricultural practices have been widely criticized for their negative environmental impact.
This includes deforestation, threats to wild species, the destruction of habitats and biodiversity, pollution of water, air and soil, high water consumption and water quality degradation, as well as greenhouse gas emission and climate change.
Growing cities place further pressures on agricultural practices. With urban sprawl comes prolonged distribution networks, complex food supply chains, more costly processing, and packaging, and ultimately, more expensive produce, greater food waste and increased food insecurity.
Despite these negatives, agriculture remains one of the most important frontiers for conservation at the moment due to the industry’s deep connections with the global economy, human societies, and biodiversity.
Our challenge lies in finding ways to best utilize space, energy, and logistics in order to sustain an increasing urban population. In short, we need to rethink our cities, but we also need to rethink traditional agricultural practices.
Smart cities: easier accessibility and greater choice
The concept of smart cities is increasingly recognized as part of the discourse on sustainable cities.
To most people, a ‘smart city’ is one that is technology-driven and futuristic, where real-time intelligence informs decision-making and anticipates and mitigates a range of societal problems. From a spatial planning perspective, a smart city implies accessibility and choice.
Accessibility refers to better-structured networks and connections between communities and their host cities, while choice refers to a range of housing and transportation options. From an agricultural perspective, accessibility and choice pertain to options to ensure food security within the contemporary city.
Agricultural technologies and smart data and analytics are set to increase food production within cities. They will also help meet the ever-growing global demand and logistical distribution of food without further disturbing the urban environment. This smart city solution is encapsulated in the notion of urban agriculture.
Grow food in places where it was previously impossible
Urban agriculture offers innovative, sustainable solutions to the improvement of food security in cities, and simultaneously assists with mitigating the environmental challenges faced by cities.
Urban agriculture can be as simple as small, outdoor community, rooftop and backyard gardens, or as complex as indoor vertical farms with nutrient-enriched water and UV lighting to mimic the effects of the sun.
READ Women in agriculture are key to boosting food security
New technologies enable food to be grown in places where it was previously difficult or impossible, making urban agriculture a viable option for cities where space is limited.
Although not all crops can be grown indoors, urban agriculture has the potential to become a dynamic economic sector that can quickly adapt to changing urban conditions and demands, diversifying the functions of the city.
Urban agriculture makes it possible to produce fresh, nutritious food with low carbon and water footprints, while conserving land, reducing emissions and waste and providing healthy, affordable, accessible food to a city’s poorest residents.
It is, therefore, not surprising that a growing number of cities worldwide have already designed policies and programs to include urban agriculture as part of city planning.
Perhaps South Africa, too, should consider the integration of urban agriculture in mainstream spatial planning, and guide cities towards the creation of demarcated zones for urban agricultural production.
When urban agriculture is formalized as a land use, it has the potential to change the entire urban and agricultural landscape, increase access to healthy food options in urban areas, and mitigate the environmental impact of feeding the world.
Although urban agriculture might not be the only solution to solving food security across the world, it is certainly part of the solution to feed the 70% of urban poor households in South Africa, adding to the development of sustainable, socially inclusive, food-secure and environmentally healthy cities.
The views expressed in our weekly opinion piece do not necessarily reflect those of Farmer’s Weekly.
Email Prof Juaneé Cilliers at juanee.cilliers@nwu.ac.za.
The World Loses $400 Billion of Food Before It Reaches Stores
Some 14% of all food produced is lost annually, with central and southern Asia, North America and Europe accounting for the biggest shares, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization said in a report, citing the latest data as of 2016
October 14, 2019
About 14% of food supplies are lost each year: the United Nations
Food wastage causes unnecessary pressure on the environment: FAO
The world loses about $400 billion of food before it evengets delivered to stores, according to the United Nations.
Some 14% of all food produced is lost annually, with central and southern Asia, North America and Europe accounting for the biggest shares, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization said in a report, citing the latest data as of 2016. Better cold storage and infrastructure would help reduce losses, but more detailed data on the supply chain is needed to tackle the problem, it said.
Food wastage is drawing increased scrutiny because of the contribution to greenhouse gas emissions and as more than 820 million people are estimated to go hungry each day. World leaders have pledged to try to halve global food waste at retail and consumer levels by 2030 and reduce food production losses. Companies are also trying to improve efficiency in the food industry.
Perished Food
Share of food that's lost from post-harvest to distribution
“Losing food implies unnecessary pressure on the environment and the natural resources that have been used to produce it in the first place,” Qu Dongyu, director-general of the Rome-based FAO, said in the report. “It essentially means that land and water resources have been wasted, pollution created and greenhouse gases emitted to no purpose.”
Consumers also squander huge amounts. As much as 37% of animal products and potentially a fifth of fruit and vegetables may be wasted after being purchased, according to the FAO. Rich nations have higher levels of waste due to limited shelf life or poor consumer planning, while poorer countries typically grapple with climate and infrastructure issues.
Lost Produce
Share of produce lost from post-harvest to distribution
Reducing the world’s food losses and waste is a challenge because more information is needed in order to take effective action, the FAO said. Still, adequate cold storage, in particular, can be crucial, as well as good infrastructure and trade logistics. Boosting farm productivity through research and development has been found to be more cost-effective than curbing post-harvest losses, it said.
RELATED COVERAGE
Explore Future of Food In Virtual Reality At University of Cambridge Festival of Ideas
Did you know that only 20 per cent of the fish we harvest each year actually ends up in our stomachs? Now Natural Machines is using its Foodini 3D printing technology to create an edible product from offcuts that would otherwise be wasted
By Paul Brackley- paul.brackley@iliffemedia.co.uk
08 September 2019
Did you know that only 20 percent of the fish we harvest each year actually ends up in our stomachs?
Now Natural Machines is using its Foodini 3D printing technology to create an edible product from offcuts that would otherwise be wasted.
Future Kitchen VR workshop in the Botanic Garden's classroom, Esme Booth with a device being placed on Emanuel Bernardo. Picture: Keith Heppell. (15994444)
And, in an immersive virtual reality video that you can see at the University of Cambridge’s Festival of Ideas, you can go inside the 3D printer as it operates.
It is one of an extraordinary series of food technology videos released on FoodUnfolded.com, created by an international team involving the university.
Designed to show how food tech can improve the sustainability of our food and transform ways it is produced, the series of videos in the ‘Future Kitchen’ project gives viewers a 360-degree, fully immersive experience that makes them feel like they are part of the story
.Dr Holly T Kristinsson, consultant for innovation and market analysis at Matis and co-ordinator of the Future Kitchen project, says: “We are trying to explore the potential of virtual reality to connect people with food tech more effectively.
“With consumer trust in the food system at an all-time low, we need to step up, reconnect with people and inspire them.”
Another video explores how farmers in Iceland are able to grow tomatoes despite the sub-zero temperatures outside. Viewers get to look around the greenhouses, powered by geothermal or hydropower energy. Bees are brought in to pollinate the tomato plants - and no pesticides are required.
“When we are using the bees, we get something like a 90-95 per cent yield from the plants, which is an enormous increase from a farmer’s point of view,” horticulturalist and biologist Guðríður Helgadóttir tells viewers.
A third video explores Plantcube, an intelligent vertical farming system for the home, created by Agrilution.
The German company was founded by Max Loessl and mechatronics engineer Philipp Wagner to bring the freshest vegetables, salads and herbs to the home, grown without pesticides and as close and to the place of consumption as possible. The Plantcube - which will set you back 2,979 euros - provides an indoor garden for growing lettuce, microgreens and herbs on eight ‘fields’, with automated watering, optimal LED lighting and sensor-based climate control.
Future Kitchen VR workshop in the Botanic Garden's classroom, Esme Booth with a device. Picture: Keith Heppell. (15994450)
This vertical farming system even notifies you via an app of the perfect time to harvest to your food.
The VR project is funded by EIT Food, Europe’s leading food innovation initiative, and is a response to the need to connect, and reconnect, people with food.
While technology in a food context tends to have negative connotations among the public, the series aims to show how it can be used to improve sustainability.
The makers believe it could act as a pilot for the food industry to help engage consumers as well as entice those interested in food-related careers.
Further videos are coming, which will introduce viewers to future kitchen devices, explore the origin of food, robotics, metabolomics, personalised nutrition, macro and micro algae processing and novel food processing, including how alternative proteins are made.
Regular focus group lunchtime sessions are being held in Cambridge where visitors can view the videos and share their thoughts.
After watching the Foodini video, one University of Cambridge student said: “I never knew how 3D printing food worked, and to be immersed in the whole process is fascinating.”
And at the Festival of Ideas - supported by the Cambridge Independent once more this year - two sessions will be held at the Alison Richard Building on West Road on Saturday October 19 to introduce members of the public to the videos. Bookings open on September 23.
Tom Dixon and IKEA's Urban Farming Solutions Will Be Available as Early as 2021
The two-level garden will feature over 4,000 plants, as well as a horticultural lab that integrates technology into the system
By Emily Engle - May 14, 2019
As part of the 2019 RHS Chelsea Flower Show, Tom Dixon and IKEA have designed an experimental model for urban farming. Titled "Gardening will Save the World," the exhibition demonstrates how people can grow food at home and do their best to reduce food waste, through the combination of design and technology.
The two-level garden will feature over 4,000 plants, as well as a horticultural lab that integrates technology into the system. "Aiming to give back to cities and create productive landscapes within urban zones, the garden includes a raised modular landscape with edible and medicinal plants and an enclosed based garden fueled by hydroponic systems and controllable lighting," says Dixon.
IKEA has explored gardening systems in the past, but this is the first time the company is working on a scalable system that can be applied to both large spaces and the individual home. "We want to create smart solutions to encourage people and to make it easier for them to grow plants anywhere they can, whether that's in their community garden, rooftop or in containers on balconies and window sills," says James Futcher, Creative Leader at IKEA Range and Supply.
A few of the solutions for urban growing that resulted from this collaboration will actually be available at IKEA stores globally in 2021. After the Chelsea Flower Show comes to a close, "Gardening will Save the World" will be donated to Participatory City and moved to East London for at least three years.
Emily is Core77's Editor, footwear enthusiast and resident stress baker.
How Google Saved Over 6 Million Pounds of Food Waste in its Cafés
Five years ago, Google starting measuring the quantity and value of food being tossed at its facilities. It’s still got a long way to go, but it’s an object lesson in how focusing on a problem can bring solutions
04.24.19
Five years ago, Google starting measuring the quantity and value of food being tossed at its facilities. It’s still got a long way to go, but it’s an object lesson in how focusing on a problem can bring solutions.
[Photo: courtesy Google]
In a kitchen at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California, as chefs work on part of the lunch menu for the day–vegan fajitas over sapporo noodles, and a quinoa bowl–any ingredients that can’t be used end up in trays on a scale, where the staff tracks exactly how much food is wasted each day. It’s part of the company’s strategy to cut food waste as much as possible, part of its overall mission to become a more sustainable company. Over the last five years, the company calculates that it has avoided more than 6 million pounds of food going to landfills or compost.
[Photo: courtesy Google]
Each day, the company serves more than 200,000 meals in its office cafés, from pulled pork tacos to lobster, and it recognizes that its operational scale makes food waste a critical problem to deal with both from an economic and environmental perspective. “We know [food waste] is such a massive global problem and even worse in the U.S.,” says Kristen Rainey, the global procurement and resource utilization manager for Google’s food program. Worldwide, around one-third of the global food supply is thrown out. “So we really feel like we have an obligation and an opportunity to take it seriously in everything we’re doing every day.”
[Photo: courtesy Google]
In 2014, Google started working with Leanpath, a company that provides equipment to measure and track food waste, and it coaches chefs on how to use that data. “Most chefs are deeply interested in food waste prevention–they were taught that food had value and you want to avoid wasting it, so that’s an instinct,” says Andrew Shakman, CEO of Leanpath. “But then they get into the day-to-day challenge of running a high-volume food service operation, and they typically don’t have a lot of time to spend analyzing data and understanding some of the trends.”
[Photo: courtesy Google]
Just collecting that data started to change kitchens. “The reality is that the act of measurement is, in and of itself, a very profound intervention,” Shakman says. “The moment that you ask someone to take the time to pay attention to food waste, you are communicating that that is a significant concern and an opportunity.” The dashboard on the equipment that weighs the food automatically displays the value of the wasted food, something that Rainey says gives additional motivation to chefs.
Using the data, teams can adjust how much food they’re ordering or begin to make other changes, including repurposing food for the next meal; leftover risotto might turn into arancini, or the stems from root vegetables might be used to make pesto or chimichurri sauce. Leftover bananas from one of the company’s “micro kitchens,” where employees make snacks, might be used in banana bread or added to other leftover fruit at a DIY crepe bar. At a juice bar, whole carrots go into blenders along with the carrot tops, and dehydrated fruit pulp can become a powder to add to other food.
The company also sources some foods that reduce waste earlier in the system, like a type of nutrient-rich flour made from coffee cherries, the fruit around coffee beans that is normally wasted. “For us, that’s a huge win because it’s providing jobs in a coffee-growing community, it’s using a waste product that might otherwise just have rotted, and then it’s actually making some items more nutritious than they would be otherwise,” says Rainey. Chefs have experimented with using the flour in brownies, tortillas, and other foods. “We’re really trying to think about items that we could scale so that we could actually be using a significant amount of the product and make a difference,” she says.
[Photo: courtesy Google]
At the cafés, chefs cook in batches to avoid preparing too much food, and adjust through a meal. Near the end of lunch, they might change to shallower pans at the salad bar. “It’s still giving an impression of abundance, but it’s actually much less likely to have tons left over,” says Rainey. Many of the changes focus on what happens in the kitchen, but the company is also beginning to work on the problem of employees throwing food out–something that can be even more of a challenge when everything on the menu is free and there’s no financial incentive to eat what you paid for. In some cafés, employees have the choice of smaller plates, something that can also help people eat less. The company serves some foods, like desserts, in smaller portions. In some cafes, it works with Leanpath to measure wasted food, not only in kitchens, but also at the point where employees return plates, and then uses a digital display to track that waste so it’s visible to diners when they order. “We’ve worked with behavioral scientists to optimize the messaging to figure out what is most likely to cause people to pay attention and take only what they need,” Shakman says.
The LeanPath systems are now in daily use in 189 of Google’s cafés, in 26 countries. “We know that this is a daily habit that has to be kept central in people’s minds, and measurement does that,” Shakman says. As menus and staff change, the system keeps the focus on waste. “It’s not just about discovering an insight once and then fixing it and moving on. It’s really about continuous learning and improvement.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Adele Peters is a staff writer at Fast Company who focuses on solutions to some of the world's largest problems, from climate change to homelessness. Previously, she worked with GOOD, BioLite, and the Sustainable Products and Solutions program at UC Berkeley.
USDA Launches Ace The Waste! Food Waste Contest For Students
WASHINGTON, April 23, 2019 – Food waste is a problem everyone can tackle, including our nation’s youth. As part of Winning on Reducing Food Waste Month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), is launching Ace the Waste! A student competition for food waste reduction ideas. This first-ever competition calls on students to come up with creative solutions to reduce food loss and waste in the United States.
The problem of food waste affects everyone. More than one third of food in the U.S. is lost or wasted. This amounts to 133 billion pounds, or $161 billion worth of food each year. Food is the single largest type of waste in landfills. Students age 11 to 18 are encouraged to submit proposals on reducing food loss and waste anywhere along the supply chain, from the farm to the dinner table and beyond. Topic ideas for the proposal include:
Preventing food waste - such as ideas to prolong the storage life of food; improve efficiencies in the processing of food and its distribution; and create new products from unharvested or unsold crops (like so-called “ugly fruit and vegetables”) or from food processing by-products.
Recovering wholesome, excess food to feed people – such as innovative approaches for getting excess food to people who need it and measuring the value of food donations.
Recycling food scraps to keep them out of landfills – such as ideas to connect food waste generators with recyclers and to create animal feed, compost, and energy.
Raising awareness – such as ideas about how to make students more aware about the amount of food being wasted and let them know how to reduce it.
Students may submit 1-2 page proposals or 1-2 minute videos. Proposals will be judged on impact potential; originality and creativity; clarity of expression; and adherence/appropriateness to theme. Judges will include representatives from USDA, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). One winner will be selected from each of two categories – ages 11-14 and ages 15-18. The winner of the challenge will be honored with recognition on USDA’s social media accounts and website, receive a certificate of appreciation, and will have the opportunity to discuss their proposals with USDA leadership.
The deadline for proposals is 5 p.m. EDT, Friday, May 24, 2019. Submit your ideas to the Ace the Waste! competition (PDF, 238 KB) today.
About the Winning on Reducing Food Waste Initiative
The Winning on Reducing Food Waste Initiative is a collaborative effort among USDA, EPA, and FDA to affirm their shared commitment to work towards the national goal of reducing food loss and waste by 50 percent by 2030. The agencies agree to coordinate food loss and waste actions such as: education and outreach, research, community investments, voluntary programs, public-private partnerships, tool development, technical assistance, event participation, and policy discussion on the impacts and importance of reducing food loss and waste.
During Winning on Reducing Food Waste Month and beyond, join the conversation on social media with the #NoWastedFood hashtag. Learn more about USDA, EPA, and FDA programs and resources to reduce food loss and waste.
Here's How Much Your Food Waste Hurts The Environment
When you let broccoli rot in your fridge, you add noxious gases to more than just your veggie drawer
You probably bought this, not knowing what it is, but that you might get around to using it.
When you let broccoli rot in your fridge, you add noxious gases to more than just your veggie drawer.
By Sara Chodosh September 5, 2018
Our species is pretty good at wasting food. Some we discard at the farm for being undersized or oddly shaped. Others we allow to decay in their shipping containers, thrown away before they even reach shelves. We leave even more foodstuffs wasting away in grocery stores, often by letting it sit there until it reaches its sell-by date. As consumers, we don’t have much control over most of the process that brings our food to the grocery store, but we do have control over how much food we personally waste.
Let's face it: We’ve all found liquified lettuce in our veggie drawers. Don't fret. It's arguably impossible to consume 100 percent of the food we buy. But a healthy reminder of the effect food waste has on the environment might help us all to be more conscious of the amount of food we eat—and don't eat.
Consumer food waste varies extensively depending on the area. In South and Southeast Asia, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that only around 5 percent of total wastage comes from consumers. Most, instead, comes from the agricultural and handling/storage phases of production. But in America, as in Europe and “Industrialized Asia” (that’s China, Japan, and South Korea), consumers are responsible for about a third of all food wastage. Agriculture also accounts for about a third, and the remaining third is split evenly between the handling/storage, processing, and distribution phases.
That’s no small amount for consumers to be wasting. Globally, we fail to use about a third of all food produced for human consumption. The FAO cites both bad “purchase planning” and “exaggerated concern over ‘best-before dates’” as reasons for the significant wastage on the consumer ends in affluent countries. That is, we buy too much food and let it rot in our homes before we get around to eating it, or we throw out perfectly good food because a printed date says it’s expired. Historically, it’s been difficult to figure out just how much impact any specific food has on the environment.
To estimate a number like that, you have to do what’s called a life cycle analysis. For example, to calculate that amount for a tomato, you’d have to work out which agricultural processes go into farming that fruit. How much fuel does the tractor use? How much energy goes into the fertilizer? And when it comes to meat, how much does a cow burp? How much energy do you need to make the feed for chickens? Interestingly, life cycle analysis doesn’t include the emissions involved in transporting food from farm to market. As Martin Heller, a chemical engineer at the University of Michigan’s Center for Sustainable Systems, previously told Popular Science, “The whole local food movement has really emphasized the impact of food miles, but most of the research points out that that’s not really a huge part of the total. What goes on at the farm is a much bigger piece.”
Engineers and other researchers like Heller have put an enormous amount of collective time into calculating exactly how much greenhouse gas emissions are a tomato or a steak embodies. It’s mostly other researchers who use this kind of data, but we here at Popular Science used it to figure out how wasteful we’re really being when we fail to eat the food in our fridges.
The more you learn about beef, the less good you feel about eating it.
Infographic by Sara Chodosh
This is just a small sampling of the database, but there’s a trend that jumps out pretty quickly: Meat is extremely polluting; beef most of all. That’s because animals require a lot of feed, which itself must be grown, and that extra step of growing mostly grain-based chow really adds up. Cows also burp methane, which is about 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a heat-trapping gas.
Cheese also places pretty high, since it requires a lot of milk to make. Depending on the cheese variety, and assuming you’re using cow’s milk, you need around 10 pounds of milk to make one pound of cheese—that’s 10 pounds of milk coming from a burpin’, grain-consumin’ bovine.
You may also notice that oils rank fairly high. Like trendy nut milks, oils have inordinate environmental impacts because they’re purified. A liter of olive oil requires five kilograms of olives (a tree only makes between 15 and 20 in a whole year). That’s why a kilo of the oil represents 3.206 CO2 equivalents, but a kilo of actual olives only represents 0.482 CO2 equivalents.
So the next time you throw out food, think back to this chart. Think about all the fertilizer and tractor fuel that went into making it. And then think about how easy it would be to buy a little less food than you think you might need, or how you could search for recipes to use up that leftover cheese. There’s even a website where you can choose which ingredients you have on hand and it will give you a list of dishes you can make. (Consuming less meat—especially beef—would also help, a lot.) And at the very least, you should make an effort to compost the food you end up throwing away. Otherwise it will continue to produce greenhouse gases as it slowly decomposes in a landfill.
The bottom line is, a third of the food we waste in America gets wasted in our homes, but we have the power to change that.
tags: food pollution greenhouse gas emissions diet environment
Innovative Consortium Reduces Post-Harvest Loss and Food Waste
WASHINGTON and AMES, IOWA (April 17, 2019)
Food loss and waste is a global problem that negatively impacts the bottom line of businesses and farmers, wastes limited resources and damages the environment. The Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR), The Rockefeller Foundation and Iowa State University today launched the Consortium for Innovation in Post-Harvest Loss and Food Waste Reduction at the 2019 Iowa International Outreach Symposium. Through this consortium, thought leaders and experts from across the globe will work in tandem with industry and nonprofit organizations to address social, economic and environmental impacts from food loss and waste.
“Feeding a growing global population demands innovation at all levels — from planting to processing to consumption. This consortium will help farmers across the globe use technology to continue using resources efficiently,” said Sally Rockey, FFAR’s executive director. “Optimizing food production practices is critical for ensuring that farmers are profitable, food is plentiful and accessible, and the environment is preserved.”
Due to the volume of food that is moved globally, food loss and waste affects producers, manufacturers, distributors and end-users. More than 40 percent of fruits and vegetables in developing regions spoil before they can be consumed. These goods include mangoes, avocadoes, pineapples, cocoa, and bananas, many of which are exported to the United States. This loss negatively impacts the bottom line for farmers, who are not compensated for their products. Consumers then don’t have access to these popular foods. Additionally, food waste forces farmers to use precious natural resources producing food that either never makes it to the supermarket or is otherwise thrown out by consumers due to quality issues, creating a significant drain on environmental resources.
In 2016, The Rockefeller Foundation launched the YieldWise Initiative aimed at reducing both food loss in developing nations like Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania, and food waste in developed markets like the United States. In sub-Saharan Africa, YieldWise provides farmers with access to segmented markets, technologies and solutions that curb preventable crop loss and facilitates training that helps them solidify buyer agreements with markets in African communities.
“To nourish, sustainably, nearly 10 billion people by 2050, we must implement a menu of solutions that simultaneously shift diets toward plant-based foods, close the yield gap, and reduce food loss and waste,” said Rafael Flor, Director, Food, The Rockefeller Foundation. “This is paramount to meeting both the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 12. Failing to reduce food loss and waste will make the challenge of achieving a sustainable food future significantly more difficult.”
Food loss and waste highlights the inefficiencies in our food system. According to the FAO*, nearly 1.3 billion tons of food—costing roughly $940 billion—are either lost or wasted yearly, generating about 8 percent of annual global greenhouse gas emissions. Food is lost more at the consumption stage in higher-income countries, while more food is lost at handling and storage stages in lower-income regions.
This consortium will work collaboratively to develop a scalable approach for adoption of the YieldWise model and provide farmers with cost-effective strategies and technologies that link their crop supply to the market demand. This will allow farmers to gain more value from their crops and become more profitable, while also stimulating local economic growth and improving the resiliency of rural communities.
“Our consortium approach will build academic and entrepreneurial capacity of the next generation by engaging researchers and students in multi-national, multi-disciplinary teams in the project identification, planning, and execution phases together with professionals from the private and public sectors,” said Dirk Maier, a professor in the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering at Iowa State University and the consortium director.
FFAR is contributing $2.78 million for this three-year project, which partner organizations from around the world are matching for a $5.56 million project budget. Participating institutions include The Rockefeller Foundation, Iowa State University, USA; University of Maryland, USA; Wageningen University and Research, Netherlands; Zamorano University, Honduras; University of São Paulo, Brazil; Stellenbosch University, South Africa; University of Nairobi, Kenya; Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana; and the Volcani Center, Israel.
###
Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research
The Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR), a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization originally established by bipartisan Congressional support in the 2014 Farm Bill, builds unique partnerships to support innovative and actionable science addressing today's food and agriculture challenges. FFAR leverages public and private resources to increase the scientific and technological research, innovation, and partnerships critical to enhancing sustainable production of nutritious food for a growing global population. The FFAR Board of Directors is chaired by Mississippi State University President Mark Keenum, Ph.D., and includes ex officio representation from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and National Science Foundation.
Connect: @FoundationFAR | @RockTalking
About The Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation advances new frontiers of science, data, policy and innovation to solve global challenges related to health, food, power and economic mobility. As a science-driven philanthropy focused on building collaborative relationships with partners and grantees, the Foundation seeks to inspire and foster large-scale human impact that promotes the well-being of humanity throughout the world by identifying and accelerating breakthrough solutions, ideas and conversations.
*FAO. 2015. Food wastage footprint & climate change. Rome: UN FAO.
UK: Scientists Work On Tech To 'Smell' When Produce Goes Off
Scientists in the UK are working to develop new technology which will be able to ‘smell’ when fruit or vegetables are going off
Scientists in the UK are working to develop new technology which will be able to ‘smell’ when fruit or vegetables are going off. Their aim is to potentially save tonnes of waste; waste advisory body WRAP claims 1,200,000 tonnes of fresh fruit and vegetables are needlessly wasted each year.
Now, a UK-based research team are hoping to develop a new system by utilising a technique commonly used in space science. They say this new technique can assess the quality of the produce, which will help in waste reduction and allow the industry to make better informed assessments of shelf-life.
Not only would this help reduce waste, but allow food suppliers to be able to pinpoint when the produce is at its peak condition and therefore when it has the most nutritional value to consumers.
Researchers have already identified the unique set of molecular markers given off by rocket leaves before they are about to go off, but wanted to see if they could apply this to other produce. However, there are a number of logistical issues to overcome before they can make a device suitable for the food and drink industry.
Small and portable
Initial work utilised an expensive laboratory technique, Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) for this research – which is a way of separating and identifying different chemical compounds. This technology has been used for a number of different applications, from climate science to planetary science.
Farminguk.com quoted Dr Hilary Rogers, from Cardiff University as saying: “Our biggest challenge now is to take this complex technology and apply it to a cost-effective platform so that it can be used at different points in the supply chain, from production through to retail.”
Publication date : 3/12/2019
The Artist Creating Urban Farms To Feed Philadelphia
With fresh fruit and vegetables hard to come by in some of the city’s soup kitchens, Meei Ling Ng plants gardens to provide hyper-local produce to the homeless.
2018
Not many churches can boast their own Garden of Eden, but South Philadelphia’s historic Union Baptist Church (UBC) can. When Loretta Lewis and other veteran congregants of UBC opened a soup kitchen 20 years ago, they made a solemn pledge: “We just vowed that we’re not going feed people anything that we wouldn’t eat or feed our families,” she says. “The people who come are used to eating substandard food, but here they have never had substandard food.”
The soup kitchen volunteers have always prepared for the weekly Friday luncheon by shopping for and cooking food in an industrial kitchen in the church’s basement, adjacent to a dining room with cloth-covered tables, where people from nearby shelters are welcome to enjoy a free, nutritious meal.
And for the past year, sourcing fresh vegetables—often a big challenge for the church—has been easy. The soup kitchen’s pantry is now supplemented by hyper-local produce, harvested the same day from a new garden in a previously underused plot next door to the church.
Meei Ling Ng, an artist and urban grower who lives nearby, began a collaboration with the church a year and a half ago to develop what they’ve jointly called the UBC Garden of Eden. “I want to promote ‘grow food where you live,’” Ng says. “That’s always my project title, everywhere. And ‘provide fresh, healthy food to the needy, to the homeless.’ It benefits the rest of the community, too, through educating how to grow.”
Meei Ling Ng visiting with Loretta Lewis at the UBC Garden of Eden. (Photo courtesy Karen Chernick)
In essence, Ng and UBC have cooperated on of a farm-to-table soup kitchen that supports the church’s need for (often costly) produce, while simultaneously involving the community by inviting them to help tend the garden two days a week. “We were pretty much supporting the soup kitchen on our own,” says Lewis, “but with Meei Ling, even early in the [garden’s first] year, we had salad.”
Ng planted an unusual variety of crops that include black heirloom tomatoes, rainbow chard, summer squash, purple cauliflower, Asian pears, and almonds, all cultivated in raised beds and in an orchard along the church’s perimeter. In a way, she has replicated the model of her childhood home on a five-acre orchid farm in Singapore, where her family self-sustained all of its produce needs.
“We had rows and rows of vegetables and fruit trees everywhere,” Ng recalls. “I grew up in that kind of environment. Everything we picked we ate fresh.” Having lived in Philadelphia for more than two decades, Ng is undeterred by her current home’s urban density in finding places to grow food.
As a working artist, Ng considers the UBC Garden of Eden to be an extension of her multimedia installation sculptures, many of which are food- and farm-themed. Some of her past works in Philadelphia include a musical garden at SpArc Services and the Deep Roots series of installations at two of the city’s urban farms.
The UBC Garden of Eden is the second of her spontaneously developed hunger-relief urban farms; the first such project was at Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission, Philadelphia’s largest homeless emergency shelter. There, a string of raised beds along the edge of the mission’s parking lot have provided the high-volume kitchen with fresh vegetables (such as tomatoes, salad greens, and fresh herbs) since 2015, as well as farming instruction for those overcoming homelessness.
The Sunday Breakfast Mission garden. Photo © Sang Cun
“Fresh produce is extremely hard to come by,” says Rosalyn Forbes, the director of development at Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission. “We rely heavily on donated nonperishable food items, which means that much of the fruits and vegetables we serve are canned. The Sunday Breakfast Farm provides fresh produce that can then be served in our kitchen.”
Salads are composed of freshly harvested greens; the herb garden is thoughtfully situated outside the kitchen door so that it is easy to reach while cooking. “It has elevated the quality of the food being served at the Mission,” Forbes continues. “Too often, those experiencing homelessness also suffer from health problems related to a poor diet.”
Solving the Problem of Scale
Sourcing fresh produce—and staying within budget—is a challenge for many soup kitchens. Individual donations of perishable items are rare, so some organizations choose to work with hunger-relief nonprofits that have the logistical capability to glean fruit and vegetable gifts directly from local farmers. The Philadelphia Orchard Project, which contributed fig, almond, and Asian pear trees to the UBC Garden of Eden this year, has a fruit gleaning program. Philabundance, another local nonprofit, is known by Philadelphia-area farmers as a way to keep excess or less cosmetically attractive produce from going to waste.
Distribution of this donated produce requires complex transportation, however, and so soup kitchens must often meet certain volume criteria in order to receive deliveries. Philabundance, for example, requires that its soup-kitchen member agencies serve at least 500 monthly meals in order to qualify. For smaller-scale operations that don’t reach that number, such as UBC’s soup kitchen (which has fed around 70-80 people per week in previous years and feeds between 20-30 each week now), this usually means they have to purchase produce themselves or rely on non-perishable items.
“Produce is hard to come by [for] smaller operations, and [direct] donations of produce [by farmers] could have a major impact,” says Scott Smith, director of food acquisition at Philabundance.
By growing the produce themselves, Ng and the UBC soup kitchen volunteers are slowly sidestepping the need to seek produce donations or purchase fruits and vegetables for the program. Phil Forsyth, executive director of Philadelphia Orchard Project, praised this solution, saying, “Of course, another approach is for soup kitchens to plant their own gardens and orchards to supply themselves with the most fresh, local produce possible.”
Planter beds in the UBC Garden of Eden. (Photo courtesy Karen Chernick)
Even for larger organizations such as Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission, which serves over 400 meals daily and qualifies for delivery from organizations such as Philabundance, the parking-lot farm developed by Ng serves an important function. “There never seems to be enough donated fresh produce to keep up with the demand,” notes Forbes, “which is why we decided to think outside the box and grow it ourselves.”
As an added benefit, Ng’s farms engage their surrounding urban communities and teach city dwellers that even figs can grow on a city block. An herb garden can flourish in a parking lot, and heirloom tomatoes can thrive in a raised bed built out of salvage materials from the demolition of a nearby growhouse.
The care Ng takes in nurturing the crops at UBC Garden of Eden matches the motivation that the church’s soup kitchen volunteers have for serving food they would feed their own families. The symbiosis has been apparent since Ng’s first harvest last summer. “I was so happy and delighted to see a green area of the plate,” Ng says. “I want to share that experience of fresh produce with people. It tastes different, because it’s so fresh.”
Top photo: Meei Ling Ng in the Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission Farm. (Photo © Sang Cun)