PAUSING THE INFINITE LOOP OF FOOD LOSS AND WASTE
PREVENTING FOOD LOSS AND WASTE #2: THE ROAD TOWARDS CIRCULAR SYSTEMS
Food loss and Waste (FLW) is analyzed within the framework of circularity, by spotlighting detrimental effects and best practices to achieve circular systems.
Applying a linear mindset to a world that is anything but linear triggers a dangerous illusion: that of solving problems.
If we think about it carefully, the disastrous effects of linear food systems and silo thinking are there for all to see. Our compulsively ‘take — make — dispose’ creates unsustainable, highly extractive attitudes that, in turn, reverberate in all dimensions of life, including human wellbeing.
Each dollar spent on food corresponds to two dollars in health, environmental, and economic costs, reveals the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
To heal this current paradox, it is crucial to embrace a mindset shift that starts from the assumption that we can thrive only as far as we respect the whole ecosystem. Taking inspiration from natural cycles, we realize that circles, concentric and interconnected circles must be the rules, not lines.
This article aims to analyze food loss and waste within the framework of circularity, by spotlighting both the detrimental domino-effect activated by waste and some of the best practices to achieve circular systems.
Food loss and waste: much more than GHGs
I have already stressed, in my previous article, one of the most evident drawbacks triggered by food loss and waste into the ecosystem: the massive amount of greenhouse gases released into the environment. From a circular perspective, it is clear how this data alone connects with the dangerous rise in global temperatures, the tropicalization and desertification of entire States, the unprecedented unreliability of the weather when producing food, the increase in disease due to air pollution, and the rise of climate migrants and internally displaced people.
However, carbon dioxide (the main component of greenhouse gases) is only the tip of the iceberg, as there are also other elements, compounds, and resources behind the food supply chain that are affected by food loss and waste.
- Phosphorus, Nitrogen, and Potassium
Phosphorus, nitrogen, and potassium are the basic elements used in most commercial fertilizers.
Especially from the last century onward, conventional agriculture massively relies on their usage: in Europe alone, fertilizers characterize 60% of the arable crops in the western area and 87% of the central and eastern parts of the continent.
With these numbers in mind, it is clear to understand that, together with an estimated 1.3 billion tons of food globally wasted each year, the world also extracts, uses, and discards extra quantities of these nutrients.
The annual nitrogen footprint of food waste by EU consumers is roughly equal to the mineral fertilizer used in the UK and Germany combined.
From a circular point of view, this phenomenon brings with it a series of knock-on effects.
Nitrogen-based fertilizers, which represent the majority of the fertilizers globally produced, are in fact energy-demanding: about 93% of the energy needed for fertilizer production is dedicated to nitrogen-based fertilizers and accounts for 1.4% of global carbon dioxide emissions. This means that nitrogen used to produce lost or wasted food implicates a useless waste of energy, which in turn slows the path towards SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) and contributes to fluctuation and speculation of the energy price, as their use primarily depends (in terms of costs) on energy price.
Despite being less widely used compared to nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus’ extraction also generates useless environmental costs.
Phosphorus for example is generally mined from phosphate rocks that are not only unevenly distributed around the globe (around 85% can be found in only five countries) but rely on heavy metals (such as cadmium) for their extraction. By contaminating water and soils, heavy metals pass from the environment directly to humans, explaining why dysfunctions of the endocrine system are increasing on a global scale.
Embracing more circular approaches and increasing recycling is therefore pivotal also in terms of mineral saving, given that 20–30% of the EU’s demand for phosphate fertilizers can be covered.
- Water
Being at the heart of food production, it goes without saying that water plays a central role in the reasoning on the food loss and waste side effects.
Besides the fact that water footprint varies when considering both food products and the geographical area of production, the overall impact of food loss and waste on water quantity is mind-blowing.
“More than three times as much surface water and groundwater is wasted each year due to FLW [food loss and waste] than the average annual flow of the Nile River.” reveals a recent study.
But also in terms of water degradation, data are not encouraging.
With fertilizers having increased ten times since 1960, excessive amounts of nutrients (such as phosphorus and nitrogen) transit from farms into the aquatic ecosystem through rain or irrigation practices, accelerating eutrophication, a phenomenon occurring when the levels of oxygen in the water are minimal. The rapid growth of algae and the development of dead zones in water bodies is the most visible side effect of rising temperatures, water acidification, and marine biodiversity suffocation.
Preventing food loss and waste has a huge potential in terms of water safety and security.
- Land and Biodiversity
We all know now that the current agrifood system is by far the most responsible for biodiversity loss, defined by researchers as the most dramatic rate in the last 10 million years. The infinite loop triggered by the linear mindset is in front of our eyes: extensive and intensive agriculture pursues food quantity rather than quality; quantity favors monocultures; monocultures rely on deforestation and massive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides; chemicals accelerate the destruction of natural habitats; habitat destruction leads to loss of diversity (mammals, birds, amphibians, native plants species, insects, and microorganisms); loss of diversity brings landscape homogenization; natural homogenization undermines food nutritional value and ecosystem resilience; ecosystemic weakness increases the chance of pest invasion; higher demand for pest control requires higher quantities of pesticides and fertilizers, etc.
Within this loop, let’s consider that 1.4 billion hectares of land — 28% of the world’s agricultural area — is used each year to produce food that is lost or wasted, reveals FAO.
Rethinking waste
It is never too late to fully embrace a circular mindset. After all, Nature reminds us daily that the concept of waste originates from a mistaken mental model: that of accepting that food can become, sooner or later, a form of waste to be disposed of.
Rethinking waste can be possible at different stages and levels: by converting food surplus in the fields into new products, by increasing efficiency in the distribution and processing phase, by encouraging a sharing or gift economy.
- Upcycling rather than recycling
There is a major difference between recycling and upcycling.
Recycling acknowledges a product has become waste and then, from there, transforms it into a new product (of the same kind).
Upcycling refuses the idea of waste: a product is totally rethought and reused to create new, different products of higher quality. In food, upcycling covers farm surplus, ugly produce, byproducts resulting from the manufacturing process such as grains from brewing beer, nutritious seeds of avocado, coffee cherries from coffee production to close the loop and reintroduce the “byproducts” into the market.
Examples in this direction range from rethinking food waste into packaging and production of materials, into pharmaceutical goods, or even part of the fashion goods (such as fibers, leather products or for dying clothes).
- Sharing economy
Representing an important part of the circular mindset, the sharing economy primarily centers on transforming traditional market behaviors into collaborative consumption models, to ensure more efficient and sustainable use of resources.
With more and more legislation gradually regulating and allowing food donations to canteens, restaurants, charities if still of good quality, the sharing economy has been slowly gaining traction, just as a gradual valorization of the local food supply chain.
In this sense, the Italian landscape has been characterized by the rise of community cooperatives, as an interesting model of sustainable development, particularly in small rural areas. This approach starts from the grassroots society, the valorization of the individual, the protection of the environment, and the promotion of vulnerable economies and passes through the enhancement of abandoned lands and equitable redistribution of food among often isolated villages.
Increasing efficiency in food distribution is a key aspect of circular ecosystems.
When networks merge regeneration: building a circular mindset
If networks are crucial to ensure a better distribution of food to prevent food loss and waste from being generated, so too is the promotion of agricultural practices that minimize their impact on the environment, on communities, and on human health.
Rareche is a promising example in this direction. Being the first network of farms and farmers who practice regenerative agriculture in Cilento (Italy), Rareche is part of a productive-economic-social project that aims to valorize and merge together organic, biodynamic agriculture, local institutions, and quality catering: the Cilento Model, that not surprisingly is one of the seven emblematic communities of the Mediterranean Diet. It is for this reason and given their emblematic representation of what a circular system should embrace, that the Future Food Mediterraneo decided to celebrate with them the first anniversary of Rareche, happening exactly on the occasion of the International Day of Awareness on Food Loss and Waste.
“I am aware that the transition and our effort towards a more circular system is not a short-term process. This explains why we have started with people and children’s education. The circularity comes in hand with values and knowledge, with people consciously choosing their products and with farmers who are using proper agriculture management: this is a process that starts from the initial planning and continues by tailoring every step to the context of the farm along with fertilizer management.” — Mario di Bartolomeo, farmer of Azienda Agricola Le Starze and member of Rareche network.
Building the road towards a circular mindset should be the priority of each of us.
