Seoul automatically weighs the amount of food thrown into the trash. In London, grocery stores have stopped putting date labels on fruits and vegetables to reduce confusion about what is still edible. California now requires supermarkets to hand out unsold but edible food instead of throwing it away.
Various initiatives have been launched around the world to tackle the two most pressing global problems of hunger and climate change.
Food waste produces methane gas as it rots in landfills, rapidly heating the planet. But it’s a surprisingly difficult problem to solve.
This is where Vue Vang, the over-the-top Wrangler, comes into play. On a recent bright Monday morning, she pulled up behind a supermarket in Fresno, Calif., hopped out of her truck, and set out to rescue as much food as she could under state regulations. New Laws — Empowering store managers to comply with rules that many are still unaware of.
She had a shopping cart full of expired hamburger buns and cookies. She knew there must be more. Within minutes, she convinces her staff to give her several boxes of milk marked “Best Before”, along with a box of buttermilk and Brussels sprouts, kale, coriander, cut melons and corn the next day. I persuaded him to She tapped them gently: Are there eggs?
“So much.
In the United States, the largest amount of material sent to landfills and incinerators is food waste.Around the world, food waste is the cause 8-10% of global greenhouse gas emissionsat least twice the emissions from aviationThat’s enough food, according to estimates from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. over 1 billion.
With the growing urgency to slow global warming, governments and entrepreneurs are coming up with different ways to reduce food waste.In the United States, one startup has made it easier for people to buy ill-shaped produce that grocery stores don’t want, and another has developed an invisible plant-based coating that makes fruit last longer. built by entrepreneurs A solar-powered refrigerator that helps farmers store their produce longer.
Across Asia, Europe and America, several new mobile apps offer discounts on food from restaurants that are about to be thrown away. Last year, China’s supreme leader, Xi Jinping, launched a “clean plate” campaign, calling for an end to the “shocking and disastrous” food waste, and videos of him eating excessive amounts of food on camera. It even cracked down on bloggers.
All of these different efforts show a disconnect in the modern world food system. A lot of food is produced, but people are hungry and not eating.
California law is the most ambitious law in the United States.the grocery store need donation Groups like Mr. Van’s “Maximum amount of edible food that would otherwise be disposed of” face fines or immediately. We need to reduce our organic waste by 75% and compost it instead.
california details
- Shinkansen going nowhere: Building the California high-speed rail system, America’s most ambitious infrastructure project, has become a multi-billion dollar nightmare.
- a Pieces of black history destroyed: Lincoln Heights — a historically black community in a predominantly white rural county in Northern California — has endured for decades. Then there was a mill fire.
- warehouse moratorium: Residents in both rural and urban communities are resisting the surge in warehouse construction across the country. In California’s Inland Empire, anger turned into far-reaching action.
Vann works in Fresno County, home to dairy farms and almond fields, which has one of the highest hunger rates in California.23% of children in the county are always have enough food.
That day, just as Mr. Van was about to leave the store, the manager was filling a garbage bag with a gallon of milk. “All this going in the trash?” she asked. they were. they just expired.
Disposing of crops that have been planted, watered, harvested, packed and shipped is a relatively new problem in human history. For centuries, people have taken advantage of whatever they could. Banana tree stalks, vegetable skins, carrots twisted underground.
Today, 31% of food is grownshipping or sold It is a waste.
The problem of food waste is not just one problem, it is many. In some cases, refrigeration issues (a power outage spoils milk), strict supermarket standards (no dangerous carrots), poor human planning (a forgotten vegetable salad becomes slimy in the fridge), or in restaurants This may be due to the high amount of According to ReFED, a non-profit organization focused on reducing food waste, 70% of restaurant food wasted in the US comes from food paid for but not eaten.
Overall, one-third of the US food supply remains uneaten. Environmental Protection Agency.
resupply Estimate Food waste emissions from farm to table to landfill equal the emissions of 72 coal-fired power plants.
Some US states, like California, are trying to tackle one of the problems with mandatory composting measures. California’s success could reduce emissions by an amount equivalent to taking 3 million cars off the road, says CalRecycle, the state’s waste disposal agency. Compost is very useful for soil amendment and there is a market for compost in drought tottering conditions.
CalRecycle director Rachel Machi Wagoner said in an interview: “We are trying to turn waste into resources.”
But that only solves part of the problem. You can also compost tangerine peels and egg shells. But that doesn’t solve the problem of quarter sandwiches being left on the plate, or the supermarket shelves being tossed with too many leftover tomatoes. As ReFED Executive Director Dana Gunders pointed out, this is a waste of water, land, fertilizer, diesel fuel, refrigerants and hard labor.
“If you know you can’t eat it, don’t produce it,” she said. “That would require redesigning the system. It’s not as easy as throwing something in the compost bin.”
Yes, put it in a doggy bag.no current label
A British supermarket chain has begun removing date labels on produce after research showed it leads people to throw away perfectly good food. Elsewhere in Europe, France now needs supermarkets Large caterers also donate food that is still safe to eat. In Spain, a proposed law will require restaurants to serve something relatively rare. doggy bag Leftovers.
Then there is South Korea, which was born nearly two decades ago out of necessity to campaign against food waste. The country’s narrow mountainous terrain lacked landfill space. The government has declared that there will be no more food waste in landfills.
Today, almost all organic waste is turned into animal feed, compost and, more recently, biogas. Even waste has a price. Koreans pay for what they throw.
In the latest experiment, the government has deployed trash cans with radio frequency identification sensors that measure exactly how much food waste each household throws in each month. Those who don’t have a sensor-equipped trash can will need to purchase biodegradable garbage bags separately, which will end up costing more.
One Sunday afternoon, a sensor tripped in a trash can in a middle-class neighborhood in Seoul. One man swiped a card to open a trash can, empty a bucket, and go home. One woman said her high-tech bin saved her the trouble of buying special garbage bags.
Suyeol Hong, who lives in the complex and is one of the country’s most prominent food waste activists, said the new bins made them cleaner and less smelly. But while South Korea’s policy of diverting food waste from landfills has reduced methane emissions, it hasn’t really changed habits, he said. Especially in restaurants, banchan (an assortment of side dishes served at no extra charge) is often left on the table at the end of a meal.
“I don’t think it’s easy to reduce food waste in South Korea,” Hong said. Even if his family clears out the fridge, it’s inevitable that leftover rice cakes from the old holidays will still be in his compost bin, he added.
However, South Korea improved. Food waste decreased from about 3,400 tons per day in 2010 to about 2,800 tons in 2019, according to Kim Ko Un of Seoul Research Institute, a research group of the city government.
Diversion from dump
In addition to composting, California’s food waste law encourages retailers to donate edible but unsold food, a rarity in the United States.Washington has similar laws (It will take effect in 2025.) Food waste campaigners are lobbying Congress to include funds in next year’s U.S. Farm Bill to help state and local governments enact similar food relief measures.
The challenge is already rolling out across California.
Many cities do not yet offer compost bins for home use. Many people with compost bins don’t know what’s in it and what’s not. Chicken bones are fine. Dog poop bags are not—even if the poop is in a so-called compostable bag, it’s not always compostable.
CalRecycle’s Wagoner said:
More composting facilities need to be built, which is difficult in urban areas. Composting can also have counter-intuitive effects. 1 behavioral science research It turns out that knowing that food waste will be composted makes people more likely to waste it.
A lead driver for the Fresno Metro Department’s Food Shares program, Van is just 5-foot-2. But in the backroom of the supermarket, she’s a big presence.
Nearly five years ago, when a farmer called the USDA and said she had tomatoes she couldn’t sell, she began saving food. Soon after a garbage truck showed up with perfectly clean bananas, the landfill manager called.
It was only when Ms. Van saw those mountains of food that she began to realize how much wasted. She said it hit her hard because many of her neighbors couldn’t afford what had been dumped. “We’re a big farming town, but a lot of people lack a healthy diet,” she said.
Demand is growing rapidly. First, because of the coronavirus. Then inflation. Sometimes people stop her when they see her food rescue truck drive by. she is a college student. She is a farm worker. Ordinary people who can use their hands.
she gets it. She is the mother of 4 children. “I know,” Mr. Van said. “Grocery shopping is hard.”
John Yoon contributed from Seoul and Vivian Wang from Beijing.