~The more I read about food waste.....

The more I read about food waste the angrier I get really. Ideas like the ‘Pig Idea’ (feeding food waste to pigs) and using food waste to generate energy, I feel we are all missing the point a bit! Are we not looking at the wrong end of the pipe line? Surely we need to really look at why so much food is being wasted in the first place and cut that down before we start thinking it is ‘sustainable’ to do creative things with wasted food. Huge investment will be needed in waste food treatment infrastructure and collection. And then to read about the Freegans, (people that liberate food thrown away by supermarkets) threatened with prosecution in the public interest! 
Of course, the food waste hierarchy should be: prevent food waste first, divert surplus food to be eaten by people, compost food waste at home where possible, unavoidable food waste to be used as animal feed after appropriate treatment, then send remaining food waste to anaerobic digestion/composting to recover energy and nutrients, ensuring no food waste goes to landfill. During farming processes not only is there a lot of wastage due to weather and crops damaged by pests and diseases but also because of the power of supermarkets to reject crops, which they do, in huge quantities. This could be because the crops are not, in their eyes, cosmetically up to scratch, or the supermarkets could just be using that as an excuse because they suddenly have an oversupply in that area. Crops are then graded, with top notch quality fruit and veg commanding higher prices, with ‘grade outs,’ often sold on street markets at a lower price.  Add into this mix the fact that food (and fibre) crops now compete on a world market controlled by transnational corporations at every stage of the supply chain, with the pursuit of profit the bottom line. We also have become used to spending a lower percentage of our income on food, food has become cheaper and so we waste more, but we are learning that there is no such thing as a free (or cheap) lunch and actually there are many hidden costs in food production that we are paying the price for, such as cleaning agri chemicals from our water, health costs from spray drift and much more. Professor Jules Pretty at East Anglia University has extensively researched and written on this subject (e.g. ‘The Living Land' 1998 published by Earthscan). We also, through our water flushing sewage systems, waste valuable nutrients such as phosphorus, which is a finite mined resource from Morocco and China, but now phosphorus is being recovered from sewage – see article on  pages 14-15. On the other hand we have a huge rise in food poverty. So, whilst we are ploughing in cosmetically unacceptable crops, and grading out at the harvesting and packing stage, then throwing away perfectly edible food from the back of supermarkets. We are simultaneously asking for food donations to give to those who are living below the poverty line through Food Banks and Fareshare.  Of course, the waste doesn’t end at the back of the supermarket. Of three bags of shopping, one is effectively thrown straight in the bin at home. We are confused by ‘sell by’, ‘best by’ and ‘consume by’ dates and throw away an astonishing amount of perfectly good food. We are bad at using up leftovers and cooking generally and the UK is the largest consumer of ready meals in Europe. A new initiative Growing Devon Schools Partnership (see www. growingdevonschools.org) is helping schools engage in the whole food  cycle in schools to help redress  this situation.

~Nicky Scott