For many centuries, animals and crops were produced and consumed within the same farm unit. Livestock manure, used as fertilizer and fuel, contributed to the self-sufficiency of most farms. However, in the 20th century, many farms began focusing on either livestock or crops as opposed to both. Also during this time, advances in manure-handling, treatment and disposal techniques were developed with the intention of storing and diluting the highly-concentrated nutrients before releasing it into the environment. Many current manure management techniques such as lagoon storage are only temporary relief for a long range problem. Livestock manure remains a major cause of water pollution and the difficulties of animal manure management represent significant challenges to farmers, planners, scientists and regulatory agencies of the 21st century. However, animal manure has high energy yield and profit potential if used as fertilizer, fuel, and feed. A combination of two or more of these topics may economize farm management and contribute to environmental quality. These topics are: [Read more…]
The 3F’s of Manure Management
Waste at Each Stage of the Food Supply Chain
How could there be so much waste within the food industry and what can we do about it? The report “Wasted: How America Is Losing Up to 40 Percent of Its Food from Farm to Fork to Landfill goes into great detail analyzing each segment of the food supply chain. I’ll hit the highlights but I encourage you to read the full study which is very well-written and easily digested by any reader.
I summarized the major facts in Waste Not, Want Not but wanted to share more on the types of loss and possible solutions at each step in the food supply chain.
Losses in farming fall under two categories: food never harvested and food that is lost between harvest and sale. Factors which affect whether food is harvested include pest damage, weather, market price, food scares such as salmonella, labor shortages, and consumer demand. “Feeding America estimates that more than 6 billion pounds of food goes unharvested or unsold every year.” [Read more…]
Conversations with a Founder – Reducing Waste from Farm to Table
The report behind the post Waste Not, Want Not is both upsetting and exciting. On the one hand you have a very real, very depressing situation in America where we lose 40% of the food we grow and people are legitimately going hungry. On the other hand, knowing this problem exists and knowing there are solutions to reduce such waste is exciting because there are great possibilities for innovation within the food industry. The problems are known and the solutions are attainable. As well such innovation is favorable to nonprofits, governments, and businesses alike. Reducing waste saves money so improvements are likely to be widely accepted. I’d heard Dr. Giles mention how his plans for the proposed Rural System could improve efficiency so I decided to revisit the topic with him.
Me: Dr. Giles, I recently shared with you the report on food waste in America which you felt was disappointing though not surprising since you were already aware of the need for reducing waste. Can you tell me again how Rural System proposes to improve on this problem?
Dr. Giles: Absolutely, the concept of waste reduction is a central theme in Rural System. You see I’ve been saying for years that reducing waste (or “loss costs”) is the key to widening the profit margin in the future. Production, especially agriculturally speaking, has been pushed to threshold meaning there’s little room to improve further upon what we can produce. [Read more…]
Waste Not, Want Not
This American idiom literally means that if you do not waste anything, you will have enough. In the US 49 million Americans (that’s 1 in 6) struggle with food security, and millions more suffer from the lack of quality, healthy food. The problem is not in our food production. We grow enough food to feed our citizens but according to a recent report, America is losing up to 40% of its food from farm to fork to landfill. We are wasting and we are left wanting. If you are skeptic about this number, please check out the statements from the USDA supporting these findings and their associated initiative, the US Food Waste Challenge.
Some of the hard-hitting facts in the report:
- 40% of food in the US goes uneaten, equivalent to 20lbs of food per person, per month.
- Getting food to our tables eats up 10% of the total US energy budget, uses 50% of US land, and swallows 80% of freshwater consumed in the US.
- Food saved by reducing losses by just 15 percent could feed more than 25 million Americans every year.
- The average American today wastes up to 50% more than Americans in the 1970’s. [Read more…]