The End

            Before delving into the issue of food waste, I worried little about what filled my trash can.  Sure, I knew that Styrofoam is terrible because it isn’t biodegradable. Sure, I tried to always recycle my milk cartons and newspapers. But I thought nothing of that leftover dinner or those vegetable trimmings. I unconsciously believed that when the garbage truck came beeping down the dark morning streets, these food scraps would be taken to some faraway landfill where they would harmlessly decompose and return to the soil. That is how nature works, right? Well, that is how it’s supposed to work. Nowadays, “the simple principle of recycling waste back into nature becomes a heroic task,” according to Tim Lang, professor of Food Policy at City University London.  Indeed, landfills are not as innocent as I thought. Evidence shows that they account for 17% of all methane emissions in the United States, and most of this methane, a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide, is produced by the anaerobic decomposition of food (Gunders 14). Needless to say, I am horrified. Though I did laugh at the idea that “in a nation with robotic vacuums and phones that can give us directions, we’re essentially using a Stone Age solution – digging a hole in the ground and dumping stuff in it – to handle our waste” (Jonathan Bloom 18). In addition to landfills, my increased awareness about the magnitude of land, water, and energy we waste on uneaten food has the effect of making me feel uneasy when I look in my fridge.  I think of the success of modern-day agriculture in wealthy nations, and I think that alongside our fruitful fields we have grown blind, we have grown careless, we have grown spoiled. Even though “a country like America has twice as much food on its shop shelves and in its restaurants than is actually required to feed the American people,” nearly 15% of households were food insecure in 2012 (Stuart; Coleman-Jensen, Nord, and Singh 4). My research has convinced me that food waste is neither sustainable nor ethical. Most food waste activists and even historians will tell you that we no longer appreciate food in the way that our grandparents did. However, professor Lang reveals that it is not simply the consumers’ fault because the entire culture and business of food encourages waste.  He asked me and here I’m asking you: “Now, we need to ask how cheap is cheap?  If cheap food encourages unhealthy eating, and dumps costs on the environment and healthcare, is it cheap?” (Lang).

3 reasons why

Although I have yet to find anyone who is pro-food waste, the major challenge would be people who are obvious or indifferent to food waste. Unfortunately, that would be most of the world’s population. Opponents of food waste attempt to appeal to the diverse people of the world through three basic arguments: environmental sacrifices, financial consequences, and ethics.

The reasons for environmental and financial consequences often overlap. By wasting food, we waste the energy, land, and water used to make that food, and thus, the environmental and financial cost is for nothing. Some sources focus on the financial loss because most people and all businesses see money as a top priority. Certainly, the 750 billion dollars spent on wasted food each year will shock most people. One source argues that our food system is corrupted and our entire economy is wasteful; a valid point considering that rich nations overproduce. In addition to financial problems, sources that seek to appeal to those who are eco-conscious emphasize environmental impacts such as methane emissions from landfills, water usage, destructive agriculture, and groundwater pollution.

The ethics argument uses facts to support opinions about moral responsibility. For instance, it is hard to be indifferent when someone informs you that 870 million people go hungry each day during which the world wastes 30% of the food it produces. In my research, I noticed that many sources used contrast as an effective tool of persuasion. They juxtaposed surplus and scarcity, appreciation and carelessness, knowledge and ignorance. I found it useful that some sources explained how older generations valued their food more due to hardships they lived through, suggesting that the new generation should consider themselves lucky and not abuse their good fortune. They also argued that the more fortunate should help the needy by redistributing unwanted food. Interestingly, one source quoted different religious texts to strengthen their argument that wasting food is immoral.

Overall, the financial, environmental, and ethical rationales are all backed up by valid evidence. Opinions come into play when people disagree about whether the evidence is significant.  Thus, the most effective arguments combine facts about these three areas in order to appeal to people with different ideas about what matters most.

Today and Yesterday

Although I have mentioned before that America has not conducted a comprehensive study on food waste since 1997, the EPA does publish a report on “Municipal Solid Waste in the United States “every year, the most recent from 2012. Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) is simply garbage, excluding industrial, hazardous, or construction waste. I hope that by now you are not surprised when I tell you that food waste is the largest component of discards at 21.1 %. Understandably, 21.1% is not a particularly outrageous number, so hopefully these additional percentages will clarify the situation. In composting and recycling, only 4.8% of food waste generated is recovered, whereas 64.6% of paper is recycled. The amount of paper recovered is equivalent to subtracting 27 million cars from the roads in a year. While America’s recycling has skyrocketed over the years, why has the number of community composting programs decreased from 2002 to 2012 when food waste has increased? If we are such diligent recyclers, then we can certainly become avid composters! However, most people are probably reluctant to place a stinky compost container in their backyard, which is why local governments need to get involved. Just imagine: resting on the curb next to your trash can and blue recycling bin, is a lovely green bin filled with food waste to be emptied into a truck and taken to the nearest composting site.

I also read Nancy MacDonald’s article “What a Waste,” and let me just say, it is the most strongly-worded piece I’ve read so far. MacDonald is pushing the fine line between passionate and angry-accusatory-offensive. For instance, she condemns the destruction of crops to increase market prices as a “legal, if disgusting, measure” and criticizes the fact that “Laws, perversely, seem to bolster food waste.” However, MacDonald argument does remind me of some important points such as the relationship between cheap prices, caloric intake, and food waste. Before 1952, “Americans spent more than 20 percent of their incomes on food. Last year that portion hit an all-time low of 5.6 percent—even as the number of calories available per person per day rose by 9 percent (In Pakistan, by comparison, the percent of spending on food can reach 75 percent of income).” Like many other sources, MacDonald mentions the significance of “ugly” food which is discarded by growers for being “outsized, double-lobed, too small, too big, too wonky, with eyes, not perfectly smooth, [or] not perfectly rounded.” Hey! I’m most of those things and I’m fine (and the produce is too!). Nowadays, people are always talking about embracing your imperfections, but how can we apply that idea to people if we don’t even eat externally imperfect produce?

Ugly Lemon wants to be eaten too! (Photo by Uli Westphal)

My last source, Waste and Want: A Social History of Trash, is quite different froom everything else I’ve read because Susan Strasser focuses on how the culture of throwing away things has dramatically shifted in America. She analyzes old household manuals and cookbooks to formulate an idea of a certain time period. I was utterly fascinated as Strasser explained the ways Americans used food waste as far back as the 1800s. On the farm, food scraps were saved in a pail to feed the animals. As for the smell? Strasser says that back then people weren’t fussy; “even the most refined could scarely have been squeamish about malodorous garbage.” Furthermore, urban food waste was also eaten by animals. How? Get this: scavenger pigs, goats, dogs and cows roamed the city streets, eating any accessible trash. Sadly, these scavenger snimals were banned by most cities after the civil war, despite their extraordinary effectiveness in cleaning up garbage. Additionally, Strasser describes how most households saved their cooking grease to reuse or make into candles and soap. However, after industrialization, many families turned to commercial products rather than make their own. She laments how the change from “home to factory, from production to consumption, from handicraft to purchasing” has caused “Kitchen scraps, reused in the more productive household of the nineteenth century, [to be] discarded with the packaging or ground up and washed down the drain.” Strasser’s research has enlightned me on our frugal ways of the past. While I don’t advocate letting feral pigs loose in New York City, I do believe we can learn a great deal from our traditional roots. For example, we can fully encourage giving food scraps to pig farms and not ban the practice like Great Britain did in 2001. We should cook creative traditional recipes, such as bread pudding and potato skin soup. Perhaps we can all adopt the Depression Era motto “Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without!”

From Farm to Fork to Landfill

At this point in my research, Dana Gunders’ 25 page paper for the Natural Resources Defense Council sounds all too familiar. I take this as a good sign that I have become more aware about the issue of food waste! Her paper echoes many of the same beliefs and suggestions as the book I recently finished: American Wasteland. Additionally, the studies and reports she synthesizes are identical to ones used by other arguments I’ve read. Unfortunately, these reoccurring sources demonstrate the extremely limited number of studies conducted on food wastage in America. In fact, the last comprehensive report on food loss in the U.S. was issued by the USDA in 1997 (the year I was born).  I’m sixteen now and I would appreciate having a report from the 21^st century for solid evidence, so get on it USDA!

I realize that I haven’t shared many statistics with you guys, since frankly, numbers are hard to visualize. But when a percentage shocks me into flailing my arms and ranting to my mom while she’s cooking dinner, it must be good. Take a minute to really think about these numbers: “Getting food to our tables eats up 10 percent of the total U.S. energy budget, uses 50 percent of U.S. land, and swallows 80 percent of freshwater consumed in the United States. Yet, 40 percent of food in the United States today goes uneaten” (4). I am ashamed.

The majority of that food is ditched at landfills where it “accounts for 23 percent of all methane emissions in the United States… and [gives] off methane, a greenhouse gas at least 25 times more powerful in global warming as carbon dioxide” (14).

Helpfully, Gunders gathers every possible idea to reduce food waste into a surprisingly clear and concise plan for increased efficiency. She emphasizes that businesses, government, and consumers must all attempt to remove inefficiencies at each stage in the food supply system. Otherwise, it will be impossible to feed the expected 9.1 billion people with increasingly meat-dependent diets by 2050.

Though America has yet to conduct new research since Gunders’ paper was published in 2012, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) released the 1^st study to analyze global food wastage from an environmental perspective, looking specifically at its consequences for the climate, water and land use, and biodiversity. The FAO found that 1.4 billion hectares of land, or 28 % of the world's agricultural area, is used annually to produce food that is lost or wasted. Also significant is the fact that “developing countries suffer more food losses during agricultural production, while food waste at the retail and consumer level tends to be higher in middle- and high-income regions -- where it accounts for 31-39 percent of total wastage -- than in low-income regions (4-16 percent).” Lastly, the FAO prioritizes actions to reduce food waste; 1) reducing food waste in the first place, 2) re-using within the human food chain, 3) recycling and recovery. 

Flailing and ranting,

Tiffany

American Wasteland: Ch 9-12

In the last chapters of American Wasteland, Bloom focuses on the specific topics of food recovery, traylessness (I'll explain later), Great Britain, and his own hopes for the future of food waste in America.

Food recovery or rescue is the practice of collecting edible but un-sellable food and distributing it to those in need. The collection of food can occur almost anywhere in the food chain, from farms to restaurants and grocery stores. Though money is a limiting factor, Bloom enlightened me another huge setback. "One word makes food recovery much harder than it has to be: liability. If you prefer two words, they are litigious society." In other words, supermarkets and restaurants are hesitant to donate unwanted food because they are afraid of being sued if the food makes someone sick. Bloom points out that this fear is unnecessary because the Bill Emerson Food Donation Act protects ALL organizations from liability when they donate food in good faith.

Another interesting thing that I learned is the concept of traylessness. Apparently, some universities have eliminated trays from dining halls in an effort to reduce how food students can carry, thereby reducing food waste (and promoting healthier eating!). Removing trays from lunch room seems like a good idea to me, though I wouldn't advocate it in primary and secondary schools.

Did you know that there's a name for trash diggers? Yup, they're called freegans. Freegans scavenge for all their food in the dumpsters of restaurants and supermarkets. Bloom questions whether the freegans really are committed to the fight against food waste or if they are just cheapskates. However, I think that whatever their motives are, at least they are eating what would otherwise end up polluting our earth.

I was surprised that Bloom spent a whole chapter commending European countries such as Great Britain for their efforts in diverting food waste from landfills. British government agencies and private organizations have launched massive campaigns to educate the public and work towards their goal of zero landfill waste. Already, only 16.5% of Britain’s food waste is landfilled, compared to 97% in the United States! I share Bloom’s dream that America will soon adopt many of the same strategies used in Britain such as composting, implementing a landfill tax, creating energy with anaerobic digestion, and educating the public on expiration dates. The extreme would be to ban all food and biodegradable waste from landfills, as Norway did in 2009.

Lastly, Bloom advocates his practical ideas for alleviating problem of food waste in America. They address every specific detail, from creating a website for food producers and recovery organizations to communicate easily, to having inmates glean produce from farms rather than clean litter from the highway.  I wholeheartedly agree with Bloom when he argues, “We pay for the amount of water, gas, and electricity we use. Why not our garbage, which also taxes natural resources?”

After finishing this fascinating book, I only hope that more Americans will learn about this issue and food waste will soon become as socially unacceptable as littering.

Sincerely,
Tiffany

What's the real problem? (and some positive news)

            Tim Lang, Professor of Food Policy at City University London, exposed me to a new viewpoint in his article “Food Waste is the Symptom, Not the Problem.” Lang argues that we cannot reduce food waste if we don’t tackle the real problem: “The entire economy is wasteful, a distortion of needs and wants. It overproduces and we under-consume - that’s what the current financial crisis is about.” His ideas opened my eyes to the bigger picture of food waste as an effect of our corrupted food system. There exists a contradiction between production, consumption, environment, health and social values. Although some might blame consumers for our often unhealthy and wasteful habits, Lang defends us. He shifts attention to food corporations who shove products towards us and politicians who have yet to fix the broken system. We are all Alices in Wonderland, surrounded by unnatural things labeled “buy me, eat me, like me.” By the end, Lang poses a thought-provoking question: “If cheap food encourages unhealthy eating, and dumps costs on the environment and healthcare, is it cheap?”

Unlike many of the food waste related texts I’ve read, David Ferry’s article in the Wall Street Journal tells a quite uplifting story. I was thrilled to discover that San Francisco diverts 77% of its waste from landfills! In fact, many big cities are now looking for ways to achieve the ultimate goal of “zero waste” because it is simply unsustainable to continue as they are now. Additionally, I learned that “In 2009, [San Francisco] became the first city in the U.S. to require food composting for residents and businesses, Rather than throw food scraps and dirty napkins into the trash, individuals and businesses must chuck their organic material into city-provided green bins.” Isn’t that great? It makes me want to sprint over to San Francisco just to admire those green bins in all their glory! 

Oh the Places We'll Go!

American Wasteland: Ch 5 - 8

             You would not believe how much information Bloom packed into these 4 chapters about waste at farms, restaurants, grocery stores, and homes. I was appalled that some farms leave more than half their crop on the field! Understandably, farms will inevitably lose some crop to weather, pests, diseases, and to my surprise, a lack of available workers to harvest produce that must be hand-picked. However, waste based solely on appearance or so-called standards of “quality” should be reduced. America’s fresh produce industry has become so competitive that farmers and distributers cannot risk selling less than perfect apples (or cucumbers for that matter). Bloom notes incredulously, “Just as retailers won’t take curved cucumbers, they reject straight bananas. Hence, round eggplants are shunned, as are oblong tomatoes.” Who in the right mind would refuse to eat a cucumber simply because it is too curvy?!

Thankfully, Bloom points out some limited measures being taken to prevent tons of produce —fresh from the farm— from ending up in landfills. My personal favorite, gleaning, is done by independent organizations that redistribute leftover produce to the needy.  Companies are also developing robots to harvest fruits in an effort to increase harvest efficiency and solve the problematic shortage of workers.

Next, there is waste at restaurants. To avoid losing money, chefs try to waste as little food as possible in the kitchen, and small restaurants have the flexibility to repurpose leftovers. Hence, much of the discarded food results after the meal is served. We can reduce our waste by always taking home leftovers, but restaurants must also help by reducing their ridiculously large serving sizes (I’m talking to you, Cheesecake Factory). Fast food places are another story because they are often international franchises, so they cannot risk damaging their image by serving say lukewarm french-fries instead of piping hot ones.

Supermarkets are appalling, really. They “cull” items from the shelves sometimes a week before the “best by” or “sell by” date. As if on 03/03/14 that milk will immediately become rancid or that can of soup will explode! Fortunately, 95% of grocery stores reported donating some of their unwanted items to food banks or shelters.

So, what can you do? Go to your kitchen, take a good long look into your trash can and breath in the stench of— you guessed it— wasted food. Though it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to drastically change practices on farms, in restaurants, or in grocery stores, you can definitely reduce your food waste at home. Bloom suggests writing shopping lists, planning meals, saving (and actually EATING) leftovers, and avoiding luring sales at grocery stores that might cause you to buy 3 more pounds of potatoes than you need. If your parents do all the shopping and cooking, then tell them about everything I’ve told you. Tell them that “25% of what we bring into our homes we throw away.” If they’re still not convinced, tell them that “Using USDA figures, that would mean that a family of four squanders $43.75 per week and $2,275 annually.”