Food Waste Follow-Up, and a Recipe

Before going on to explore some of the modern environmental impacts of global food production, here's an update on my October post about food waste in the news.

What's been going on since then? A report was released by WRAP in November which builds upon their previous research. The results for 2012 were quite interesting: the amount of food waste decreased by 21% between 2007 and 2012, but 4.2 million tonnes of food were still wasted during the year (approximately equal to £12.5 billion). In terms of environmental impacts, avoidable food waste from the UK was associated with approximately 17 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent. In addition, estimates of the amount of land required to produce the food that is wasted were created for the first time. The total land area was found to be approximately 91% of the size of Wales.

Globally, food waste accounts for more greenhouse gas emissions than any country, with the exception of the US and China. In a recent report, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) created figures on the carbon footprint associated with food waste which were estimated at 3.3 billion tonnes of CO2 per year. These results are quite distressing and underline the urgent need for a global strategy for a sustainable food system. In their recent study, Godfray et al. (2010) discuss possible solutions for sustainable agricultural intensification, but identify that there is no clear-cut solution. With growing global populations, the issue of food waste is one that will not quickly disappear.

In other food waste related news, The Ecologist recently wrote a piece about the Pig Idea in their article titled Let them eat waste! In November, a knees-up was hosted in Trafalgar Square by the organisation where eight pigs fed entirely on food waste were devoured. The Pig Idea endeavours to get the feeding of food waste to livestock back on the table to avoid unnecessarily growing animal feed. According to studies by Myer et al. (1999) and Westendorf et al. (1998), food waste has nutritional value and could be used in swine diets without compromising the quality and flavour of the meat. What are your thoughts on feeding food waste to livestock? 

Does all this make you eager to take action on food waste in your daily life? Check if your council provides food waste recycling services - Camden, for instance, provides an excellent food recycling service. Here's an informative little video on two different ways food waste can be recycled, namely in-vessel composting and anaerobic digestion. For more information on the effectiveness of these two methods of composting, see Kim et al. (2008) and Righi et al. (2013) respectively.

Aside from composting, there are other things you can do to improve your waste footprint. Not sure what to do with the vegetables in the bottom of your fridge that are almost at the end of their lives? An excellent way to use up old vegetables is to make a pot of soup - aside from reducing food waste, soups are very healthy, cheap and easy to make, and last a long time. To conclude this post, I'd like to share with you one of my favourite lentil soup recipes from a local restaurant called The Green Door in my hometown of Ottawa.

Thanks for reading!

Green Lentil Soup 

Recipe from the Green Door Vegetarian Cookbook

Ingredients:

1c green lentils
4c water
2 tbsp olive oil
1 diced onion
2 stalks diced celery
1 diced carrot
8c water or stock
1 clove garlic
3 bay leaves
1 tsp salt
1/2c chopped parsley

1. Wash and drain lentils, and place in pot. Add 4 cups water and bring to a boil. Lower heat and cook for 5 minutes, then drain.

2. In a soup pot, heat oil, saute onion, carrot, and celery until soft. 

3. Add water or stock and bring to a boil. 

4. Add lentils, garlic, bay leaves and salt (if using). 

5. Cook for 20 minutes or until lentils are well cooked. Adjust seasoning if necessary.

6. Serve topped with parsley, and enjoy!