Did you know: reducing food waste can help the planet?.

Did you know: reducing food waste can help the planet? Did you know that approximately one third of all food produced in the world for human consumption is wasted? This has significant impacts on both the environment and food security.

 Climate change is exacerbating this problem — particularly for highly perishable products such as fruits and vegetables. Higher temperatures and new and worsening pests combine to make it very difficult for farmers to reduce their post-harvest losses. COVID-19 makes food waste an even more critical problem to solve.

TechnoServe is advising farmers on better practices to reduce food waste in Kenya, Nigeria, and Tanzania.

AGRIBUSINESS: Transforming our food system to ensure a sustainable future.

AGRIBUSINESS: Transforming our food system to ensure a sustainable future. By 2050, the world will have almost 10 billion people. It will be impossible to feed everyone without exacerbating poverty, accelerting deforestation and increasing GHG(Green House Gas) emissions unless we start making substantial changes to our food system now. 

 This issue is covered in a new report, Creating a Sustainable Food Future , published on December 5 in the World Resources Report series. The report was produced by World Resources Institute(WRI)in partnership with the World Bank, UN Environment, UN Development Programme, CIRAD and INRA. In the report, WRI suggests ways of feeding almost 10 billion people by 2050.

 Food demand is set to rise by over 50%, with demand for animal-based food products (meat, dairy and eggs) likely to grow by almost 70%. Hundreds of millions of people already go hungry, Farming uses around half the world's green areas and generates a quarter of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Unsurprisingly, the report says that there is no silver bullet. However, it does offer a menu of 22 options that suggests it is possible to feed everyone sustainably.

 "This resembles the "Healthy" scenario established by the CIRAD-INRA Agrimonde-Terra foresight exercise in many important ways. However, the two differ in terms of their initial objectives. WRI set out to increase food production while reducing GHG emissions and limiting the spread of agriculture. WRI estimates that feeding the world sustainably while reducing agricultural land use and GHG emissions by 2050 will mean the whole world: 

 (1) reducing demand by cutting food loss and waste, eating less beef and lamb, using crops for food and feed rather than biofuels, and reducing population growth by achieving replacement fertility levels; (2) increasing crop and livestock productivity to higher than historical levels but on the same land area; (3) stopping deforestation, restoring peat lands and degraded land, and linking yield gains to protection of natural landscapes; (4) improving aquaculture and managing wild fisheries more effectively; (5) using innovative technologies and farming methods that lower agricultural GHG emissions.

 Limiting global warming will mean acting on the food sector. Food lies behind most environmental and development issues: deforestation, malnutrition, biodiversity loss, water scarcity, climate change, water pollution and more. By improving how the world's food is produced and consumed, we can treat the cause and not just the symptoms.

AGRIBUSINESS : Zero food waste as food expiration dates undergo a revolution.

AGRIBUSINESS : Zero food waste as food expiration dates undergo a revolution. New automated grocery-pricing system from Israel promises to slash food waste, cut prices for consumers, and increase profits for supermarkets. 

About half of all the food produced in the world is wasted every year. That’s about two billion tons of food, worth billions of dollars. It’s a shocking statistic, and at the end of the day, it’s not just the supermarkets or food producers that pay the price – it’s all of us. 

 A hungry planet with limited resources, a high carbon footprint, and rapidly changing climate cannot afford to throw food in the bin.

A new Israeli startup, Wasteless, hopes to help cut some of this waste with a new AI system that will transform how supermarkets approach food expiration dates. 

 Zero food waste as food expiration dates undergo a revolution. 

 “Food expiration dates are the main cause of retail waste and the cost is tremendous, both to business and to the environment,” says Oded Omer, co-founder of Wasteless. 

“Food is the single largest product in landfills, where it emits extremely harmful gases, including methane.’’ 

  Wasteless, which was founded in 2017, has developed an artificial intelligence (AI) technology that can offer customers a variable pricing system based on a product’s expiration date.

 A carton of milk that is set to expire in a few days will cost less than one due to expire in 10 days.It sounds simple, but the technology behind is not. 

The Wasteless pricing engine employs a branch of machine learning called reinforcement learning, which automatically maps inventory stock and time of day into a series of optimal prices.

Turning Food Wastes to Cheaper Alternatives For Animal Feed.

Food losses and waste converted to animal feed to ensure food security and reduce cost of production. Food waste that are longer suitable for human consumption,off the shelf food can be converted to animal feed however, feed safety should be maintained at all costs. 

 Globally, food waste is rising to 50 percent as developing nations struggle with spoilage while developed nations simply toss edible food away. The crux of the matter actually is that by 2050 there will be about 9 billion people to feed,thus pushing for more food production. 

These waste can be converted to animal feed with the aim to reduce cost of production and boost food security. Foodstuffs become unsuitable for human consumption for different reasons such as production errors leading to broken or intermediate foodstuffs or surpluses caused by logistical challenges of daily delivery, surpluses caused by discontinuation of a food product line, expired products or damaged products in transit.

 Foodstuffs like biscuits, chocolates, pastry, cakes and bread are valuable ingredients for animal diets ,these are sourced from manufacturers and processed as animal feed. The important point to note is that waste from animal products and catering centers are not included in this type of production to ensure food safety. The main ingredients are carbohydrates,sugars with certain vitamins,thus forming a major portion of the feed which translates to low cost of production. 

 The processed feed are easily digestible, making the needed nutrients available easily to the animals which results in weight gain. There is efficient feed conversion ratio making animals reach market size fast. The type of waste will depend on the animal you intend to feed ,but basically pigs,cattle,goats benefit. 

The high cost of feed has also pushed farmers to the extreme,thus implementing new feeding methods. A farmer recently shifted to candy,chocolate and cookies for his dairy cattle and has recorded increase in weight, milk production and healthy animals. read

SWILL FEEDING AND PIG PRODUCTION CHAIN.

( food waste). Swill refers to cooked food given to pigs.Pigs consume almost anything,and are great feed converters turning feed into muscle fast.Feed costs and efficiency has pushed the stakes high on alternative feed sources that will provide necessary nutrition requirements but also ensure optimum growth.Swill benefits not only farmer’s wallets, but also the environment, as farmers replace grain- and soybean-based feeds with swill, they reduce demand for these land- and greenhouse gas-intensive feeds. Pigs are usually fed a formulated ration in most pig farms,while others provide a combination of various feed components to achieve the same aim of growth at stipulated pace.Pigs are sometimes fed kitchen waste ,which is the common practice in small scale production,but the practice has gained more acceptance now even on large scale production because of the potential to reduce production costs. Swill is currently illegal in the EU,many developing countries still practice this with good feedback.The only caution in the practice is to cook the food properly so as to kill pathogens.The risks of feeding uncooked food waste were demonstrated in 2001 when a UK farmer illegally fed some to pigs, precipitating the 2001 FMD outbreak, which cost the UK economy £8 billion (€ 10.4 billion). In response, swill-feeding was banned in the UK in 2001, with the ban extended across the EU the following year. While the EU saw swill only as a disease risk, other nations saw it as a potential resource. Heat treatment deactivates viruses such as FMD and Classical Swine Fever (hog cholera) and renders food waste safe for animal feed. In the same year that the UK banned the use of swill, the Japanese government launched an initiative to promote the regulated use of food waste in animal feed. Japan and South Korea recycle around 40% of their food waste as feed which is a waste-resource innovation, as swill is seen as a strategic resource. It is a cheap, domestic alternative to the more expensive, volatile grain- and soybean-based feeds. Pigs reared on food waste produce pork of high quality , although swill-fed pigs tend to grow more slowly than when fed conventional, grain-based feed. The swill has a more variable nutritional content thus the costs of slower growth are more than offset by the savings in feed costs.

WASTE MANAGEMENT.

Waste management is simply the method of handling waste such that it becomes a resource and not a pollutant. There are various channels of waste generation such as farm waste, animal waste,human waste and municipal solid waste(MSW). The waste generated are processed in various ways ,and the products are used in different ways.The major way of processing waste is composting,although this is carried out using various methods. Composting can be done in tanks with 3 holes, a revolving drum , in bags, plastic bags or laid out in designated points. The benefits of composting are enormous and these include : 1) reduces the cost of waste collection and disposal. 2)reduces pathogenic organisms,harmful insects and weed seeds that are released to the atmosphere. 3)eliminates the need for commercial fertilizers. 4)it enriches the soil. 5) it can be used to produce bio-fuel. The making of compost is now easy,inexpensive and reduced labor cost with the use of AG-BAGS CALLED ECO PODS. The bags are made of recycled plastic and are sold with all necessary parts to make an EcoPOD® compost. The controlled compaction is used for all types of materials, densities, moistures , and particle sizes. EcoPOD® is adjusted with its own valving and aeration controls to individualize the composting process, yet use a minimal amount of labor and supervision. Our system is reliable and efficient with capacities to match any requirement.Ag-Bag Environmental offers a patented technology with a high degree of process control. Composting is a choice in this age as it reduces material volume and produces products that enhance soil structure and benefits new growth. The Ag bags have the following added advantages; odor control, vector control,leachate control, reduced cycle time of composting,and reduced site area. The AG BAGS ARE ENVIRONMENTAL FRIENDLY EASY AND SAFE TO USE. The bags can also be used for feed storage, salt storage and as a silage bag.