According to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), one-third of all food produced per year is spoiled before consumed, equaling 1.3 billion tons of wasted food. Research also suggests that high-income countries waste as much food as sub-Saharan Africa produces. That’s a lot of food!
This food waste ends up in landfills to rot, releasing greenhouse gases (GHG). When this is combined with the amount of energy it takes to harvest, manufacture, transport, and store this food, it contributes up to 3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide to the planet. To put that into perspective, if food waste was a country – it would be the third-highest emitter of GHG in the world, after the U.S. and China.
Thankfully, there are various techniques, technologies, and policies that together could reduce global food waste at every stage in the process, from producing to consuming it.
Why is Food Wasted?
According to the FAO, limited storage and food handling knowledge, a lack of infrastructure, and unfavorable climatic conditions can lead to a significant amount of food spoilage and waste in low-income nations.
In contrast, in high-income countries, aesthetic preferences and the labeling of expiration dates means food quickly becomes waste. For example, produce that is too ripe, too small, too big, or even the wrong shape can lead to perfectly good fruits and veggies being wasted.
The increasing global population pressures the world’s food production. This means, to guarantee sufficient nutrition for everyone worldwide, the industry will need to grow by at least two-thirds by 2050.
Yet, despite the urgent need to become more resourceful, food waste is at a record high. If prompt action isn’t taken, food shortages will soon become a reality across the world.
How Can We Ensure The Future of Food Security?
The key to tackling this issue is to adopt a resilient and resourceful “Farm-to-Fork Strategy” to reduce food waste and ensure food security for the growing population. Here are some approaches that can help combat food waste:
Precision Farming and A.I. Drones
Technological applications and overall infrastructure at the earlier stages of the food supply chain can drastically reduce food loss and waste in low-income regions. This is significant because poor harvesting techniques– along with plant diseases and pests – are a massive factor in the high levels of food waste at this stage in the food supply chain.
Previous research suggests that artificial intelligence-powered drones could help farmers become more resourceful and lessen the overuse of pesticides in food production. Pesticides are harmful to the environment and can adversely affect the food ecosystem. They deplete soil fertility, pollute water, and contaminate turf – all of which can result in food loss and waste.
This futuristic approach is better for the environment, improves livestock health, enhances crop yield, and reduces operational costs.
Apps Preventing Food Wastage
Too Good To Go, named a winner in the apps category of Fast Company’s 2021 World-Changing Ideas Award, is an anti-food-waste app that lets you buy whatever food your favorite restaurant has left when it is near closing time. Whether it’s a pasta dish, fresh sushi, or a delicious dessert, you never know what you will get; it’s always a surprise.
According to Fast Company, since the portions left at the end of the day are usually too small of an amount for food banks to pick up, restaurants would wind up throwing the extra food away – and that is precisely what this app intends to avoid.
Food waste in the U.S. is so abundant that it amounts to between 30 to 40% of all food produced. Unfortunately, instead of feeding a hungry person, leftover food is sent to a landfill, turning into methane gas as it decomposes – significantly contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. Thankfully, this anti-food waste app offers a way to keep food out of landfills and into hungry tummies.
Other food-waste apps exist, including Food for All, Food Rescue Hero, Food Cloud, GOMKT, GOODR, Waste NO Food, and Tango Tab: When You Eat, They Eat. However, none of them include the surprise element that you get from the one-price bag of whatever the restaurant has left to offer at the end of the day. All you have to do is order on the app and pick up your bag. It’s that simple.
In addition to partnering with restaurants and cafes, the app also connects with coffee shops, grocers, food stores, and anywhere food is wasted. Well-known NYC establishments, including Stumptown Coffee, Tartinery, Black Seed Bagels, and Breads Bakery, have all signed on.
The service is free for customers to use, and the app takes a cut from the sales price of the food, which is typically about one-third of the cost of ordering from the menu. Finally, as part of being environmentally conscious, Too Good To Go doesn’t do deliveries; therefore, customers have to pick up their meals in person.
Too Good To Go is helping the environment by ‘cutting food waste one meal at a time.’ “We think we can save more than 2 million meals from the trash in the U.S. in 2021 already. That’s thousands of tons of emissions avoided,” Too Good To Go co-founder Lucie Basch told Fast Company.
Circular Systems and Upcycling
Another resourceful approach to food waste comes via a circular food system, preventing food waste from landfills. For example, it can be converted into renewable energy and eco-friendly energy storage devices. Waste can also be transformed into human food, such as tofu from leftover soybeans, sustainable protein from crop waste, and animal feed.
How Should We Dispose of Food Waste?
The expected decline in the number of landfills across the U.S. coupled with bans – passed in several states – on disposing of substantial amounts of organic waste in landfills has prompted researchers to find other ways to handle the food waste disposal problem.
After researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) analyzed alternatives to food waste disposal in landfills, they identified four options. The researchers determined that no single solution exists in the U.S. for dealing with food waste disposal, but various.
Alex Badgett and Anelia Milbrandt, NREL researchers and coauthors of the analysis, came to that conclusion after investigating the economics involved in five different ways to handle food waste disposal, including a landfill. Their findings are published in the Journal of Cleaner Production.
Badgett explained:
If we are trying to develop an optimized waste management system in the U.S. that diverts all food waste from landfills, there is not necessarily anyone technology that will work for all areas of the country. Therefore, an optimized system would likely use different technologies in different locations and in different sizes.
The researchers claim that 75% of food waste ends up in landfills. However, many landfills are running close to capacity, and a significant number are slated to close by 2050. While plenty of lands are available for new landfills in rural America, more-populated regions will be forced to transport waste far distances for disposal.
In addition, organic waste disposal bans passed in several states require food waste disposal in facilities other than landfills. This allows new waste management facilities to innovate and improve pathways for waste streams.
Badgett and Milbrandt inspected five options for handling food waste, including the continued dumping into landfills. These are the other four options:
- Anaerobic digestion – which involves microorganisms breaking down biodegradable material in the absence of oxygen.
- Composting – a biological process involving decomposition of organic matter in a controlled environment to create compost.
- Incineration – where trash is burned for power and heat.
- Hydrothermal liquefaction – in which wet organic material is transformed into biocrude.
However, incineration is not ideal due to increased environmental regulations and public opposition to constructing new facilities. It should also be noted that hydrothermal liquefaction remains in the pilot stage.
Personal Changes
The food waste problem may seem so enormous that it feels out of your hands, but that’s not true. There are tips that you can follow to help.
For example, you can:
- Support businesses or restaurants that use waste foods in their products or meals.-Plan your meals around sell-by dates.
- Avoid throwing out food if it’s wilted or bruised.
- Only buy what you need.
- Buy those odd-shaped potatoes in the supermarket or the overripe bananas at the fruit stall. (You can make delicious banana bread with overripe bananas.)
In the end, it’s not going to be any single thing that solves food waste, but a collective approach that will allow us to make the changes that need to happen for a healthy planet.
