How business networks can tackle food waste and reduce environmental harm
The case-study of beer made from surplus bread in a Lisbon neighbourhood
Food waste is a boomer. The term only appeared in the mid-20th century and still lacks a consensual definition. However, according to FAO, food waste is used to refer to “all food products allocated for human consumption that are instead discarded, lost, degraded, or consumed by pests at any stage of the food chain” [1]. Bythis definition, a shocking 1/3 of all the food produced today is wasted [2].
To have this kind of structural waste in a sector that represents 10% of the global GDP, occupies 37% of the terrestrial surface, uses 70% of all the extracted water, emits 1⁄4 of the GHG and uses 30% of all the energy produced worldwide [3] is unacceptable. Within the EU, it is recognised that acting circularly in the agrifood sector can significantly reduce resource extraction and promote natural capital restoration [4].
However, to achieve circularity and fight food waste is a difficult task. Food waste is a complex, wicked problem. It is created by a diverse range of factors (cultural, personal, political, geographic, and economic) which influence human behaviour [5]. These factors may differ from person to person, year to year, or from society to society [6]. In the minority world (cf. majority world, terms advocated by Shahidul Alamto to replace judgemental and negative connotation terms such as ‘third world’ or ‘developing countries’), increases in volume, availability, accessibility [7], affordability and caloric density of food lead to increased overconsumption and waste [8]. There seems to also exist little understanding of what food is, where it comes from and what its production entails, rippling down to an overall lack of awareness about the associated challenges [9].
Bread is an example of this. Historically used to symbolise food scarcity and famine [10], nowadays 32% of the bread bought is wasted, representing 10% of all food waste [11]. Upcycling bread through beer offers a chance to tackle this challenge.
Brewing bread — a new ‘not so new’ method
The idea of brewing bread is not new; records from the Old Kingdom of Egypt, 2613–2181 b.c., mention brewing using cooked loaves of bread [12]. This practice appears to have been lost for a while (at least on a commercial scale) and only reemerged in a.d. 2015 thanks to the Brussels Beer Project (BBP). Their bread IPA, ‘Babylone’, was what led me to study this strategy.
I was lucky enough to get in touch with David Santos, creative brewer at BBP, who shared with me all the basics about their pioneer bread beer project. ‘Babylone’ replaces 20% of the malt with the surplus bread of a Belgium supermarket chain, Delhaize. Groot Eiland, an NGO which employs homeless and poor people in Brussels, collects, dries and crumbles the old bread which is then sold to BBP. In 5 years Babylone has saved 75 tonnes of bread, 20 tonnes of which in 2020 alone! The process, although less cost-effective, is still profitable.
The growth of ‘Babylone’ proved consumers’ readiness to embrace sustainable high-quality alternatives. This was further illustrated by the growing number of similar initiatives worldwide: Toast Ale, Knärzje, Woolworths Supermarket, Musa, Baladin amongst others. The growth of craft breweries in Portugal specifically, where I developed my work, also indicates the readiness of the national consumer to embrace such initiatives. Between 2013 and 2019 the number of craft breweries in Portugal rose from 12 to 115.
I decided to focus my Masters thesis on the circular approach of bread beer, calculating its associated environmental and social impact. To do so, I used systems thinking at a local scale to set up the bread beer system while also considering the principles of the ‘New Industrial Urbanism’. Considered the 4th Industrial Revolution, New Industrial Urbanism realigns cities and industries, emphasising the local economy as a strategy to positively impact the social sphere. This approach empowers small and medium-size enterprises and individual entrepreneurs to be part of an ecosystem of integration, collaboration, cross-learning and knowledge transfer. Industries are challenged to look up to ecology to eliminate waste by fostering exchange between different manufacturers.
It should be clear that the purpose of the bread beer system was not to create bread beer but rather to motivate local businesses to eliminate bread waste while creating a local-identity product: rooting a product in its local context celebrates “human experience, the senses and memory”. Furthermore, it stimulates radical collaboration among the community that is educated on food waste while being triggered to take circular approaches to problems overall.
In an ideal case scenario, there will no longer be bread beer, however, the multilayered communication and parallel replication of the method will remain [13].
To perform the analysis, the geographic boundaries needed to be defined according to time constraints and presence of key elements. The territory should include, in a relatively small area, producers (brewery and bakeries), distributors (restaurants, patisseries/coffees, and markets), and consumers.
The case study of Marvila, Lisbon
Early in the development of the thesis, Musa released Bread Combo: a witbier upcycling bread from a local artisanal bakery, Gleba. Musa was already my favourite craft brewery!
Unannounced, I visited their factory and after a 5 minute talk by the mash tank with Pedro Lima, the master brewer, I had my master thesis partner! By linking up with Musa, I had Gleba on board as well. The partnership was key to set the geographical boundaries of the system under investigation.
Musa is located in Marvila, an old industrial neighbourhood of Lisbon where the skeletons of the past are still present and are an important identity trademark of the area. After more than 30 years of decline, Marvila has recently been transformed. The area had quickly attracted artists and other creative businesses due to its huge and affordable spaces. Currently, Marvila is one of the most creative hotspots of the city, with a major Creative Hub under construction. The area aligns well with the principles of the ‘New Industrial Urbanism’.
Interestingly, besides 4 national or international supermarket chains, all the other businesses were locally run. Thus, implementing a system such as the beer bread had the potential to empower and strengthen the community, stimulating a healthy evolution of the territory. The emerging place-based resilience could protect the neighbourhood from the spreading tentacles of real estate speculation and gentrification [15].
Having defined the purpose and the local elements of the system, I started to work on the measurement of the environmental performance. My thesis partners, Musa and Gleba, provided the data I needed in order to calculate the fluxes, such as the estimated surplus bread of the mapped business (9 kg per day) and the substitution rates of malt with bread (5% for Bread Combo, but it can reach 30%). The environmental analysis was not absolute but rather a comparison of scenarios. As mentioned, systems thinking was applied at every stage. The works of Forrester and Meadows were particularly relevant when delving into the existing and proposed conditions of the system.
For Gleba, the surplus bread was not in fact wasted. Normally, the bakery channels the excess to feed pigs in a farm 25km away from Lisbon. Diverting the surplus bread to brewing, therefore, meant the need to replace the animal feedstock with an alternative source (most probably imported animal feed). I needed to ponder: How much extra animal feed needs to be produced per kg of bread diverted to brewing? And how much malt will stop to be produced per kg of bread used in brewing? According to the master brewer Pedro, the ratio between bread and malt is 1. In the case of the animal feed, I calculated that each kg of bread replaces around 0,9 kg of animal feed.
Afterwards, using Open LCA and a EU free Environmental footprint database, I calculated the Environmental performance between the scenarios. The new system turned out to be more harmful in 2 (Freshwater Ecotoxicity and Water use) out of 18 impact categories: for each kg of bread diverted an extra 0,55m3 of water is used. Nonetheless, in the case of C02eq emissions, 0,5kg were saved per kg of bread brewed.
Another meander: Musa’s beer spent grain (BSG), a major by-product (>80% W/W) of brewing, is used to feed cows which extends the circularity of the system. Doing a direct link, i.e., thinking of diverting it to pig feed, was not possible due to lack of literature supporting the nutrient conversion. However, by enlarging the scope, I calculated that each kg of BSG replaces 0,25 kg of conventional cow feedstock. For the previous end-use of BSG, I included two possibilities: landfill (worst case scenario); and energy production, which is a common use amongst industrial breweries. The second scenario considered natural gas as the substitute fuel. In both cases, the environmental harm of all impact categories was reduced. For the scenario that compares the end use of BSG for energy, the less dramatic one, 9 kg of C02eq are saved per kg of bread used.
Conclusions
The global trends happening under the 4th Industrial Revolution towards localism, greater environmental awareness and pressure to reduce food waste, and the increased appeal for craft beer in Portugal, could lead us to intuitively believe that a local beer upcycling surplus bread is a good solution to tackle food waste. Systems thinking, however, teaches us that a deeper understanding of the conditions and changing dynamics is needed before jumping to conclusions.
Nonetheless, the remarks made on the territory and the superior environmental performance draw a reasonably optimistic scene. From my calculations, considering the Bread Combo reality, the system could create a revenue of 2,628,000€ per year distributed among the several local elements involved. In other words, the bread beer system would be a great social and environmental sustainable initiative that could improve the wellbeing of the local population of Marvila and reduce pressures on the wellbeing of the planet.
“To move things in a positive direction, no matter how bad things may seem. One small project at a time with everyone supporting each other is all it takes to get things rolling.” Victor Steffensen, Fire Country, p.181.
