Waste Not, Want Not

The Food Waste Opportunity (10th) Edition of the Negative Foods Newsletter

Jun 25, 2021

When I’m told a startup will succeed by feeding the 10 billion people on the future earth, I’m not impressed.

Why? Partly because a business model based on a future state is not yet a business model. But mostly because of food waste.

In the United States, more than $400 billion of food goes uneaten annually. That’s 35% of the total. Wasted food is responsible for 18% of farmland, 14% of fresh water and 4% of total carbon emissions. That’s a lot of wasted food! And those figures understate the true opportunity of reducing the wastefulness of our food system.

From the Cambridge Dictionary, “Waste Not, Want Not” is “said to advise someone not to waste anything, because they might need it in the future.” I am not as concerned with wasting food as I am with wasting resources growing unnecessary food. If we stop “wasting” food, in that sense, we would free up sufficient resources to feed billions more future people and - importantly - reduce the carbon footprint of today’s food system.

Redefining Waste. I used to think food waste meant the leftover food on your plate. But consumer food waste is just one of a handful of wasteful practices:

Food we make and don’t use, such as (1) Consumer Food Waste; and (2) Supply Chain Waste; and
Food we make and don’t need, such as (3) Fueling our Cars with Corn, (4) Industrial Beef; and (5) Ultra Processed Food.

1. Consumer Food Waste. That’s the stuff we don’t eat in homes and restaurants. This is well understood. If we can reduce consumer food waste, and we can, we can reduce the resources consumed and the carbon emitted.

2. Supply Chain Waste. Another big problem is the produced food that never reaches the consumer. As the founder of BrightFarms, I am experienced with the example of the highly centralized outdoor salad supply chain in the U.S.

Long & Complex. Most leafy greens, which are highly perishable, are grown and harvested in centralized hot fields that lack uniformity, then trucked to processing facilities for washing, drying and packing, then hauled thousands of miles, sometimes via multiple distributors, to retailer distribution centers, then trucked to stores, and then brought home for (hopefully) consumption. Each of those steps results in waste. Some estimates suggest that nearly 70% (!) of what is grown in the field on the west coast never gets to a consumer on the east coast.
Short & Simple. BrightFarms succeeds in part because it replaces that long and complex supply chain with one that is short and simple. Seeds arrive at the same facility where BrightFarms grows, harvest, packs and ships. There is never long-haul trucking because the product is sold locally. There is no washing and drying because the indoor facilities are food safe and controlled. Because the processes are precise and computer controlled, the plants are uniform, leading to more efficient harvesting. This short and simple supply chain lacks most of the steps as compared to the long and complex supply chain described above, and therefore lacks most of the food waste. With less waste, there are fewer resources consumed.

This model is a good idea! 🤪 Like with salads, across food categories we should reduce supply chain inefficiencies to reduce resources consumed and carbon emitted.

3. Fueling our Cars with Corn. I agree with Bill Gates that advanced biofuels may be a part of our future zero carbon transportation system. In the meantime, get out your face palm emojis for the U.S. policies on ethanol (which is an ingredient in U.S. gasoline).

Mario Loyola in the Atlantic: “In the United States, the cultivation of corn for ethanol now requires a staggering 38 million acres of land—an area larger than the state of Illinois. By comparison, the total area of cropland used to produce grains and vegetables that humans eat is only about twice that acreage. In other words, the U.S. devotes enough land to corn-ethanol production to feed 150 million people.”

About 40% of the corn produced in the United States is converted to ethanol. There is a debate about whether ethanol is energy positive or negative, but there is no debate that is it made from corn produced with fossil fuels (the Haber-Bosch process).

So . . . if we are going to drive around with no emissions in the future, it isn’t going to be with corn-based fuel. Converting our economy to vehicles powered by renewable electricity (or advanced biofuels that don’t emit carbon), which is inevitable and already underway, will save the resources currently consumed by growing corn for ethanol, and eliminate the associated carbon emissions.

4. Industrial Beef. In the first edition of this newsletter, I shone the spotlight on Belcampo, which is part of the growing movement of farms that regeneratively produce beef that helps reverse climate change.

Industrial beef, of course, is a different story. As Frances Moore Lappé wrote in her ground-breaking 1991 book, Diet for a Small Planet, for every 16 lbs of grain we feed to cows, we only get 1 lb of beef back. Since there are about a billion cows on earth, we are growing a lot of food that magically becomes a lot less food when we pass it through animals. You thought 40% for ethanol was a surprisingly high percentage? Well, much more of the corn we grow is for livestock feed.

That’s the opportunity. Since U.S. meat consumption has increased 40% since 1961, which exceeds U.S. dietary guidelines, we could produce less beef and still have more than we need. So let’s call the industrial beef system what it is: A colossal waste of food (and resources). Reducing our industrial beef consumption would prudently save resources and the associated emissions.

5. Ultra Processed Food. Nearly none of the corn we grow is eaten as corn. In addition to livestock feed, ethanol and exports, the only remaining material use of corn is to create ultra processed food such as sugary beverages. The leading causes of death in the United States are from chronic diseases related to our diet. Do I need to point out the folly of using our resources to produce foods that waste money treating avoidable diseases, and that make us sick and dead? Reducing our consumption of ultra processed food would free up the capacity currently used for that purpose, and avoid the associated emissions. And save lives.

This is Good News! Did you forget that this is a relentlessly positive newsletter? This IS an optimistic story. We have a huge opportunity to reduce the growing of food for ethanol, industrial beef and ultra processed food. And we won’t be worse off! These changes will make society healthier, happier and wealthier, and will materially reduce the consumption of resources, and will dramatically reduce our carbon emissions.

So let’s forget the future population crisis (which I think is overblown anyway).

Let’s instead imagine the future where we waste less food, and we free up farmland currently used for ethanol, industrial beef and processed foods, and instead use that land to reverse climate change by sequestering carbon with (a) “Rewilding”, (b) Agroforestry; and (c) Farming regeneratively.

This is not a naive fantasy version of the future. I’m a realist. Today, IRL, some of America’s largest corporations, and the federal government, and even Big Food, are developing and executing plans to pay farmers to convert farmland, and change practices, to store carbon instead of releasing it.

And the biggest factors in this conversion will prove to be (a) changing consumer demand and (b) the startup entrepreneurs that see this as the greatest market opportunity of their lifetimes.

And that’s why I’m excited, and why we’ll have fun changing the world for the better.

Who should we watch?

ReFed, the nonprofit dedicated to ending food loss and waste across the U.S. food system by advancing data-driven solutions.
WWF, which is bringing people together from the hospitality industry, retail, and food services sectors, as well as schools and farms, to explore how to measure and reduce waste from field to table.
Sheridan Budin, the CEO of Do Good Chicken, a startup turning grocery store food waste into chicken feed, thus producing carbon negative chickens.
Steve Platt, the awesome CEO of BrightFarms, the best company in the world.
Nori and Indigo, the commercial carbon marketplaces.
Kroger Zero Waste Foundation, working to prevent, recover and recycle food waste.
The many investors fighting the fight against food waste.
Jonathan Foley of Project Drawdown.

Product Review: Peregrine Gin

We hosted a dinner party on Saturday. Without asking permission, I served several Carbon Negative Foods, such as Bread Alone whole wheat sourdough, Belcampo hamburgers and . . . Peregine Gin from Appalachian Gap Distillery in Middlebury VT.

AppGap takes its carbon footprint seriously, producing more electricity with solar power than they consume and reducing energy consumption in several other ways. In addition, they took “the next step [to] commit to going fully climate neutral,” becoming “the first distillery in the nation to achieve climate neutrality by offsetting its entire carbon footprint.”

The gin is delicious. Dry and with subtle herbal hints. Support AppGap and enjoy!

Your Feedback. The Oyster Edition elicited a ton of spirited feedback.

The Billion Oyster Project. Multiple readers within minutes pointed out my sin of omission in not including the Billion Oyster Project, which was created by Murray Fisher. They're restoring oyster reefs in NY Harbor and deserve to be recognized! Apologies.
Greg Oberholtzer, my friend (and early BrightFarms investor), suggested I follow Julie Qiu of Australis (the fish company, not the country Australia!). Julie writes the best oyster blog and I’m happy to now be following her!
Amy Kalafa, who loved the Oyster edition, suggests that Bren Smith is to oysters what Joel Salatin is to beef, raising them as part of a truly regenerative vertical ocean farming process. She recommends Bren’s entertaining and inspiring book Eat Like A Fish.
Richard Chisholm, my best friend from childhood, expressed disappointment that I didn’t tell the story of when, on a beach in Cartagena, we ate warm-as-pee oysters, shucked with a rusty screwdriver by a craggily bruja vieja, from an old plastic shopping bag. I admit it. The story is told.