#food waste

[reasonsforhope]

"In Saskatchewan, Canada’s first free grocery store is set to open as a flourishing food bank continues to look for ways to support the community.

Located at 1881 Broad St. in Regina, the Food Hub will be stocked like any old grocery store, and unlike similar projects that operate out of churches or community centers, it will feature a produce section, floor-to-ceiling display fridges, and be open all week.

The Regina Food Bank believes that allowing people who rely on the food bank for food security to fill out a cart just like a normal grocery store gives back agency, and may actually help feed more people by reducing waste.

“None of us fit in a box, but that’s what we give our clients today,” Regina Food Bank vice-president David Froh told CBC News. “When you give choices, you give not just dignity, but actually, we figure we can feed about 25% more people.”

One client explained that getting handed a crate of canned/boxed goods put together in a hurry based on what was in stock rarely provides a selection that accounts for things like dietary restrictions, allergies, proper nutrition, or even just synergistic flavors between the foods.

“Normally I barter with my neighbors and we swap back and forth, so it kind of works out that way. But a lot of people don’t do that,” said food bank client Jon White. “So there’s a lot of stuff that just goes to waste.”

The Regina Food Bank doesn’t just support the unhoused or others in dire need of aid; 18% of its clients work full-time, and 2,000 students receive school snacks and meals through their work. Part of their overall objectives with the Food Hub is to reduce societal stigma against using a food bank.

Food banks do not receive government subsidies, so Froh and his colleagues had to look for private donations to raise the CAD$3.7 million they needed to get the Food Hub off the ground. Some of this came from piggy bank-sized gifts, but they also received a CAD$1 million donation from The Mosaic Company.

Much of the stock is produced, grown, or processed in Saskatchewan—part of Regina Food Bank’s goal to improve the sustainability and nutritional quality of the food their clients rely on."

-via Good News Network, June 4, 2024

[dandelionsresilience]

Dandelion News - November 8-14

Like these weekly compilations? Tip me at $kaybarr1735 or check out my Dandelion Doodles!

1. Agrivoltaics for sustainable food, energy and water management in East Africa

“[… C]ertain crops […] thrived under the partial shade provided by solar panels. The shade also helped to reduce water loss through evaporation, leading to more efficient water usage. Additionally, rainwater harvested from the panels could be used to supplement irrigation needs.”

2. The world’s largest wildlife crossing is now standing in California

“The structure crosses a 10-lane freeway and has been built to help protect all sorts of wildlife[….] And it’s not just for fauna: some 5,000 plants grown from seed collected within a five-mile radius have been nurtured in two specially created nurseries. The bridge will be topped with wildflowers, shrubs and native grasses that will also benefit insect populations.”

3. Judge rules the military must cover gender-affirming surgery for members' dependents

“[Judge] Torresen found that [gender-affirming] surgery is indeed medically necessary and that the Defense Department had not shown that any important governmental interest was advanced by denying the coverage.”

4. Social Media Can Boost Caracal Conservation

“The team found that searches on the species doubled after the project [using “social media to educate about the caracal”] launched. […] ”The research demonstrates how a public interest in urban ecology and the global phenomenon of ‘cats on the internet’… can be harnessed to leverage conservation action.””

5. US Labor Board Bans Captive Audience Meetings to Ensure 'Truly Free' Worker Choice

“[T]he National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday ruled that employers cannot force workers to attend anti-union speeches. [… W]orkers will no longer have to take part in so-called "captive audience meetings," which employers often use as a union-busting tool and a form of coercion.”

6. Study links grazing with plant phenology and abundance

“In general, plants where caribou or muskoxen were present experienced earlier green-up and greater abundance later in the growing season. “We're used to thinking of the timing of plant availability as impacting the productivity of grazing animals, but not the reverse," Post said.”

7. Frog populations once decimated by disease mount a major comeback

“"These results provide a rare example of how reintroduction of resistant individuals can allow the landscape-scale recovery of disease-impacted species, and have broad implications for amphibians and many other taxa that are threatened with extinction by novel pathogens."”

8. California Announces Special Session To Protect Trans People

“Newsom’s directive is clear: safeguard reproductive healthcare, support immigrants, and shield LGBTQ+ people from what is viewed as existential threats to civil rights and democratic norms. […] California has a unique opportunity to set the blueprint for other states in resisting a Trump administration[….]”

9. When ‘OK, Boomer’ Means ‘Let’s Go Protest’

“Youth activists across the country recognize the efforts of their eco-minded predecessors and welcome them as mentors, role models, and collaborators in their battle against the climate crisis. […] “The idea that Boomers don’t care, he said, is “just misinformation.””

10. How Aussie Waste Warriors are Redirecting Excess Food to Those in Need

“A growing movement is working to reduce perfectly good food going to waste by redirecting it to homes and charities. [… C]haritable organisations [… are] transforming fresh produce that would otherwise have gone to waste into millions of cooked, nutritious meals for people in need each year.”

November 1-7 news here | (all credit for images and written material can be found at the source linked; I don’t claim credit for anything but curating.)

[probablyasocialecologist]

Each year, a staggering 18 billion chickens, turkeys, pigs, sheep, goats, and cows either die or are killed without making it onto someone's plate. Environmental scientists Juliane Klaura, Laura Scherer, and Gerard Breeman were the first to calculate this number on a global scale. "Reducing these numbers would not only prevent unnecessary animal suffering but also contribute to the fight against climate change." A lot of our food ends up in a bin instead of on a plate. About a third of the food produced globally is lost or wasted. But never before has it been calculated how many animals die each year before ending up as food waste. The researchers examined the worldwide production and consumption of six of the most common domesticated animals and calculated that 18 billion animals go to waste every year. That equals 52.4 million tons of bone-free, edible meat. That's roughly one-sixth of all the meat produced globally.

[thoughtportal]

things you can freeze

[batboyblog]

Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week #22

June 7-14 2024

Vice-President Harris announced that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is moving to remove medical debt for people's credit score. This move will improve the credit rating of 15 million Americans. Millions of Americans struggling with debt from medical expenses can't get approved for a loan for a car, to start a small business or buy a home. The new rule will improve credit scores by an average of 20 points and lead to 22,000 additional mortgages being approved every year. This comes on top of efforts by the Biden Administration to buy up and forgive medical debt. Through money in the American Rescue Plan $7 billion dollars of medical debt will be forgiven by the end of 2026. To date state and local governments have used ARP funds to buy up and forgive the debt of 3 million Americans and counting.

The EPA, Department of Agriculture, and FDA announced a joint "National Strategy for Reducing Food Loss and Waste and Recycling Organics". The Strategy aimed to cut food waste by 50% by 2030. Currently 24% of municipal solid waste in landfills is food waste, and food waste accounts for 58% of methane emissions from landfills roughly the green house gas emissions of 60 coal-fired power plants every year. This connects to $200 million the EPA already has invested in recycling, the largest investment in recycling by the federal government in 30 years. The average American family loses $1,500 ever year in spoiled food, and the strategy through better labeling, packaging, and education hopes to save people money and reduce hunger as well as the environmental impact.

President Biden signed with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy a ten-year US-Ukraine Security Agreement. The Agreement is aimed at helping Ukraine win the war against Russia, as well as help Ukraine meet the standards it will have to be ready for EU and NATO memberships. President Biden also spearheaded efforts at the G7 meeting to secure $50 billion for Ukraine from the 7 top economic nations.

HHS announced $500 million for the development of new non-injection vaccines against Covid. The money is part of Project NextGen a $5 billion program to accelerate and streamline new Covid vaccines and treatments. The investment announced this week will support a clinical trial of 10,000 people testing a vaccine in pill form. It's also supporting two vaccines administered as nasal sprays that are in earlier stages of development. The government hopes that break throughs in non-needle based vaccines for Covid might be applied to other vaccinations thus making vaccines more widely available and more easily administered.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced $404 million in additional humanitarian assistance for Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and the region. This brings the total invested by the Biden administration in the Palestinians to $1.8 billion since taking office, over $600 million since the war started in October 2023. The money will focus on safe drinking water, health care, protection, education, shelter, and psychosocial support.

The Department of the Interior announced $142 million for drought resilience and boosting water supplies. The funding will provide about 40,000 acre-feet of annual recycled water, enough to support more than 160,000 people a year. It's funding water recycling programs in California, Hawaii, Kansas, Nevada and Texas. It's also supporting 4 water desalination projects in Southern California. Desalination is proving to be an important tool used by countries with limited freshwater.

President Biden took the lead at the G7 on the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment. The PGI is a global program to connect the developing world to investment in its infrastructure from the G7 nations. So far the US has invested $40 billion into the program with a goal of $200 billion by 2027. The G7 overall plans on $600 billion by 2027. There has been heavy investment in the Lobito Corridor, an economic zone that runs from Angola, through the Democratic Republic of Congo, to Zambia, the PGI has helped connect the 3 nations by rail allowing land locked Zambia and largely landlocked DRC access Angolan ports. The PGI also is investing in a $900 million solar farm in Angola. The PGI got a $5 billion dollar investment from Microsoft aimed at expanding digital access in Kenya, Indonesia, and Malaysia. The PGI's bold vision is to connect Africa and the Indian Ocean region economically through rail and transportation link as well as boost greener economic growth in the developing world and bring developing nations on-line.

[solarpunkbusiness]

James Hickey, a transition-year student at Dungarvan CBS in Waterford, Ireland, is developing a groundbreaking approach to food safety through his project, 'Spoiler Alert: pH-Responsive Packaging for Food Preservation'. His initiative, leverages the chemistry of natural substances to create a biodegradable food packaging film. This film incorporates red cabbage extract as a pH indicator to visually signal food spoilage.

The project draws inspiration from James' affinity for chemistry and his family's background in pharmaceuticals and farming. By integrating red cabbage extract and chitosan—a sugar derived from shellfish—James aims to produce a pH-sensitive film that changes color in response to spoilage, potentially offering a more accurate alternative to traditional expiry dates for assessing food safety.

[samwisethewitch]

How I Get the Most Out of Meat When Cooking

As someone who 1.) was 100% vegetarian for ethical/religious reasons until very recently, and 2.) recently had to reintroduce meat for vitamin deficiency reasons, limiting waste as much as possible when I cook with meat is really important to me. For one thing, I feel like I owe it to the animal that died to get as much use as possible out of its body as a way of honoring its death. For another, meat is expensive (ethically raised meat even more so) and I want to get my money's worth.

I recently bought a bunch of lamb for my family's holiday dinner, so I wanted to share my attempt to practice the Honorable Harvest in my meat consumption. This is new to me, but I wanted to document the attempt because it's been a fun learning process for me! If you want to actually learn about honorable consumption I encourage you to read the works of Robin Wall Kimmerer and other indigenous ecologists, since the Honorable Harvest is based on indigenous North American practices. (Though there are other cultural practices all over the world.)

Step One: Sourcing the Meat

I am very fortunate to have enough disposable income to buy ethically raised meat, which tends to be more expensive. This is a privilege. Other people are not able to spend this extra money on their meat, and that doesn't make me better than them. Feeding yourself is morally neutral, and a tight budget is not a moral failing. Most meat alternative products (Beyond Beef, Impossible, etc.) are also pretty expensive. If the factory-farmed meat at the supermarket is the only thing in your budget, use that.

If you DO have some extra funds, local farms are a great place to source meat. The reason we had lamb for the holidays is because a local farm recently culled their herd and had lamb on sale. In the past we've gotten beef from a relative who raises cattle. I encourage you to learn about farms in your area and what they have to offer. CSAs and farmers' markets are great places to start. You can also ask around at local restaurants about where they source their ingredients.

When I say "ethically raised meat," what I'm really talking about is pasture-raised animals. Cage-free animals may not live in cages, but they can still be kept in cramped, dirty, inhumane conditions and be sold as "cage free." Pasture-raised animals are able to graze and forage and generally wander around within a paddock. For some animals like chickens you can also look for "free range," which means the animals are unfenced and are able to wander freely. Since I don't cook meat often, I try to get free range or pasture-raised meat when I do buy it.

In some areas, you may also be able to find certified ethically slaughtered meat, which means the slaughtering process has been designed to cause as little suffering to the animal as possible. That kind of certification isn't really available where I live, but it might be for you!

And of course, hunting or fishing yourself is also an option. If you kill the animal yourself, you know exactly how it died and can take steps to limit suffering as much as possible. Hunting isn't a skillset I have, but if you do more power to you!

Step Two: Cooking the Meat

This is the easy part. Depending on the cut of meat you got and the dish you are cooking, you may need to remove bones or trim fat, but aside from that it's just following a recipe.

For our holiday lamb stew, I used this recipe. I have Celiac disease, so I subbed gluten-free flour and replaced the beer with red wine. I also added rosemary and garlic for a more Mediterranean flavor to compliment the wine.

Step Three: Organs and Bones

This is where the breakdown is for a lot of Americans. We don't cook with bones or organs very often, and we tend to throw away whatever parts of the animal we don't want. That is not honorable consumption. Part of the Honorable Harvest is using every part of the being that died to feed you.

Most organs make great stew meat. My favorite Nicaraguan beef stew is made with tongue, and my indigenous Hawaiian relatives make stew with pig feet. And while I don't like them, lots of my Southern family members love chitlins (pickled pig intestines). Lots of cultures eat organs, and you'll find plenty of delicious recipes if you look!

Bones are typically used to make stock, which can be used as a base for future soups and stews. There are lots of recipes for DIY stocks and broths, but I usually fry some onions and/or garlic, deglaze with wine, and then add the meat/bones and the water, plus salt, pepper, and herbs for flavor. Most animal bones can produce two batches of stock before they lose flavor. (For really flavorful stock, leave some meat on the bones.)

Once the stock is done, you'll still have bones to deal with. Contrary to popular belief, cooked bones are not safe for dogs to chew on. (But raw bones usually are!) Instead, I strip any remaining meat and gristle from the stock bones, give those scraps to my pups as a treat, and then use the stripped bones for something else. With a little extra processing, the bones can be used as a fertilizer in a garden, a calcium supplement for chickens, or a safe treat for dogs and/or cats.

This was my first time processing bones, but after boiling them for, like, 12 hours in water with salt and vinegar, they were soft enough to break apart with my hands. I'm going to grind them to make bone meal.

[aniseandspearmint]

https://norcalpublicmedia.org/2024100296403/news-feed/is-the-food-in-the-fridge-still-good-california-wants-to-end-the-guessing-game

Can't get the link to come out right but GOOD ARTICLE.

California is implementing a new law to take effect by 2026 where disingenuous 'best by' and 'sell by' dates must be replaced by actually accurate information.

As things stand now, there's no actual regulation on the dates you see on food, so they're not always accurate, leading to a great deal of food waste (estimated at around 20% of food waste).

[allthecanadianpolitics]

The disposal of truckloads of apparently edible oranges at a Metro Vancouver transfer station is highlighting concerns about food waste.

Sonia Rivest, who works as a gardener, began to see the massive piles of oranges show up at the North Vancouver transfer station in early November.

“I just assumed it was fruit that either had gone bad or had some kind of biological issue,” she told Global News.

“It was shocking. Maybe even the next week I saw it again, and I was like, ‘OK, maybe there is a really big amount that went poor and could not be sold or used safely,’ again assuming there was a good reason this was happening.”

As far as Rivest has been able to discern, that wasn’t the case.

Full article

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[strangebiology]

I'm working on the livestock chapter of Carcass now, specifically the subsection on waste. Here is a study about how about one-quarter of the animals raised and killed for meat in the sample year of 2019 were never even eaten.

[reasonsforhope]

"Of South Korea’s countless kilograms of annual food scraps, very few will ever end up in a landfill. This is because of two reasons—the first is that it’s been illegal since 2005, and the second is because they have perhaps the world’s most sophisticated food waste disposal infrastructure.

While representing a significant burden on the economy, the food waste disposal nevertheless produces ample supplies of animal feed, fertilizer, and biogas that heats thousands of homes.

As the New York Times’ John Yoo and Chang Lee reported from Seoul, South Korean cuisine tends to lend itself to creating food scraps, since many staple dishes come with anywhere from a few to a few dozen sides.

With the culture erring on the side of abundance rather than restraint, many of these small dishes of tofu, kimchi, bean sprouts, and other bites would be tossed in the landfill if it wasn’t illegal to do so.

The government put the ban hammer on it because the mountainous terrain isn’t ideal for landfill construction.

Instead, restauranteurs and street hawkers pay the municipality for a sticker that goes on the outside of special bins. Once filled with food scraps, they are left on the road for collectors in the morning who take 90% of all such waste in the country to specialized collection facilities.

At apartments and among residential housing areas, hi-tech food waste disposal machines are operated by a keycard owned by residents under contract with the disposal companies.

Once taken to the recycling facilities, the food is sorted for any non-food waste that’s mixed in, drained of its moisture, and then dried and baked into a black dirt-like material that has a dirt-like smell but which is actually a protein and fiber-rich feed for monogastric animals like chickens or ducks.

This is just one of the ways in which the food scraps are processed. Another method uses giant anaerobic digestors, in which bacteria break down all the food while producing a mixture of CO2 and methane used to heat homes—3,000 in a Seoul suburb called Goyang, for example. All the water needed for this chemical process comes from the moisture separated from the food earlier.

The remaining material is shipped as fertilizer to any farms that need it.

All the water content is sent to purification facilities where it will eventually be discharged into water supplies or streams.

While one such plant was shut down from locals complaining about the unbearable smell, many plants are odorless, thanks to a system of pipes built into the walls that eliminate it via chemical reaction.

It’s the way South Korea does it. Sure, it costs them around $600 million annually, but they have many admirers, including New York City which hopes to implement similar infrastructure in the coming years."

-via Good News Network, June 15, 2023

[balkanradfem]

Lately I've been pleased whenever I find a way to make use of something that would otherwise get thrown away; for instance, I learned that you can use scrunched-up aluminium foil to scrub pans and pots, instead of that ball of wire you can buy!

The walnuts that you can't completely clean out of shells, are a great bird snack, who can get their beaks in there. Fruit that is starting to go bad/already has gone bad, is a great food for butterflies. Any food that's starting to get rotten can be a great addition to a compost pile and a snack for any worm. Citrus peels can be used to infuse vinegar to make nice-smelling cleaning solution. Or they can be made into sugared candy! Lemon slices that make a great winter decoration, can be used as a halloween decoration later when they turn black. Any small carboard box you have can be used for organizing, and if you have a big one, you can put a wooden board on it and create a little shelf to put plants on! An old cracked aquarium can be used as a little greenhouse, or an extra shelf on top of a surface. Old newspapers and old clothing can be cut into strips or tubes, and weaved into baskets. Old paper egg cartons can be soaked, blended and then turned into paper. Any plastic container can get a hole at the bottom and grow a plant in it.

Please tell me more things that you know how to reuse that would otherwise just be thrown away! I want more of this knowledge.

[sustainabilitythoughts]

Food - use or toss?

All of us have looked at a food item wondering if it is too old to eat.  Most of the time, if we are not sure, we throw the item in the trash.  Adding to the confusion are the “best by”, “sell by” and “use by” dates on food packages in the US.  I found some information to help with those decisions, allowing us to safely reduce food waste in our homes. 

According to the US Department of Agriculture, “Food poisoning bacteria does not grow in the freezer, so no matter how long a food is frozen, it is safe to eat. Foods that have been in the freezer for months may be dry, or may not taste as good, but they will be safe to eat.”  In addition, “most shelf-stable foods are safe indefinitely. In fact, canned goods will last for years, as long as the can itself is in good condition (no rust, dents, or swelling). Packaged foods (cereal, pasta, cookies) will be safe past the ‘best by’ date, although they may eventually become stale or develop an off flavor. You’ll know when you open the package if the food has lost quality. Many dates on foods refer to quality, not safety. See FSIS’ Shelf-Stable Food Safety fact sheet for more information.”  The US Department of Agriculture is collaborating with the Food Marketing Institute and Cornell University to update the online Foodkeeper storage guide, which contains storage information on a wide variety of foods. 

The website https://www.eatortoss.com/ provides information on many unusual food safety questions, in addition to more general guidance.  For example, the website discusses what to do if one strawberry in a container is moldy or if your celery is floppy.  The website also includes “use it up” recipes to help clean out the refrigerator or pantry.   

[probablyasocialecologist]

About a fifth of food is wasted, sometimes through profligacy or poor planning, sometimes from a lack of access to refrigeration or storage, according to the UN Food Waste Index report, published on Wednesday, at a global cost of about $1tn a year. Households are responsible for most of the world’s food waste – about 60% of the 1bn tonnes of food thrown away annually. But commercial food systems are also a substantial contributor: food services accounted for 28% of waste, and retail for about 12% in 2022, the latest data available. These figures exclude an additional 13% of food that is lost in the food supply chain, between harvest and market, often from rejection or spoilage of edible food. Not only is this waste squandering natural resources, it is also a big contributor to the climate and biodiversity crises, accounting for close to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions and displacing wildlife from intensive farming, as more than a quarter of the world’s agricultural land is given over to the production of food that is subsequently wasted. Inger Andersen, the executive director of the UN Environment Programme, which wrote the report in conjunction with the UK’s Waste and Resources Action Programme (Wrap), described food waste as “a global tragedy”, and contrasted this with the fact that a third of people face food insecurity, unsure of where their future meals will come from.

[a-meh]