from waste to art

While reading up about food wastage, I came across this project "One Third" by fine art photographer Klaus Pichler. I thought it was kind of interesting? The pictures were really beautiful.. albeit odd and strange-looking, but it leaves us thinking about what happens to all the food that we waste - dumped and rotting in the bins, yet we are oblivious to it. I think the fact that Pichler took the effort to use the bathroom of his studio apartment (just to improve his credibility!) for this project was really commendable. I mean, imagine looking at rotting food for 9 months, and worse still, the smells!?!!

Some details about this project: it was titled "One Third" because one third of the world's food goes to waste. It portrays the relationship between individual wastage of food and globalized food production. In addition, he inserts his own gathered data of the food's history such as it's carbon and water footprint as the photo caption.

Sort: Strawberries 'Elsanta' * Place of production: San Giovanni Lupatoto, Verona, Italy

Cultivation method: Foil green house * Time of harvest: June - October

Transporting distance: 741 km * Means of transportation: Truck

Carbon footprint (total) per kg: 0,35 kg * Water requirement (total) per kg: 348 l

Price: 7,96 € / kg

Sort: Chicken * Place of production: Behamberg, Austria

Production method: Farm * Time of production: All- season

Transporting distance: 183 km * Means of transportation: Truck

Carbon footprint (total) per kg: 3,54 kg * Water requirement (total) per kg: 1551 l

Price: 3,69 € / kg 

Sort: Whole meal bread * Place of production: Vienna, Austria

Production method: Factory production * Time of production: All- season

Transporting distance: around 120 km (cereals) * Means of transportation: Truck

Carbon footprint (total) per kg: 0,79 kg * Water requirement (total) per kg: 1608 l

Price: 3,55 € / kg

Sort: ALMO - Beef Place of production: Fladnitz an der Teichalm, Austria

Production method: Animal Farm * Time of production: All- season

Transporting distance: 124 km * Means of transportation: Truck

Carbon footprint (total) per kg: 13,33 kg * Water requirement (total) per kg: 5640 l

Price: 15,99 € / kg

You can view the rest of his work here. GO GO GO. It's quite fascinating!

References:
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC. (2014) Visualizing waste: Klaus Pichler's gorgeous rotting food. [Online] July 2014. Available from: http://proof.nationalgeographic.com/2014/07/16/visualizing-waste-klaus-pichlers-gorgeous-rotting-food/ [Accessed: 27/8/2015]

water foodprint

Hi guys! 

It's the second post and today I'm going to touch on how food wastage also means water wastage. Water scarcity is an equally important environmental concern. Worldwide, 1.1 billion people have no access to water and 2.7 billion of people find water scarce for at least one month of the year. It is crucial to therefore minimise food wastage as much as possible, so as not to contribute to unnecessary water wastage.

So according to a UN report, the amount of water wasted when the food produced are not eaten is equivalent to the entire annual flow of the Volga river! 

As we all know, water is not a finite resource and is actually more important than food. The lack of water kills you faster than the lack of food! People often take food for granted, and hence are unaware of the amount of water that goes into food production and transportation. (read: importance of water - if you're interested). 

In California,

One gallon of water (=3.78541178 liters) is needed to grow a single almond nut!!!!! 

Shocking, isn't it? That's equivalent to using 10% of California's water supply just for these tiny nuts. When you eat a handful of almonds. about 23 almonds, that would mean that 87 liters of water is required for its production. 

However when you take a step back and look at the bigger picture, this amount of water is insignificant when food production is concerned. Up to 200-1000 gallons of water is utilized to grow only nine daily servings of fruits and vegetables recommended by the USDA (for the 2000 calorie per day American diet). Meat or any dairy products, which can easily double that number, have yet to be included into the staggering amount of water needed.

(from the book Food Industry Wastes: Assessment and Recuperation of Commodities)

Linking back to the main point, the water footprint of food wastage is so much more than just 23 gallons of water for producing a handful of almonds. Bottom line is, stop wasting food~ 

In an article, The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) mentioned a few key points. They are an organisation which provides consumers with current, useful information about health and well-being.

• demand for water (for irrigation, drinking purposes etc) can outstrip supply, resulting in water shortages 
• farms growing feed grains, cotton, raising livestock are using up groundwater and surface water permanently
• producing meat requires huge amounts of water. to produce 1 pound of animal protein, an average 1,000 gallons of water needed
• irrigating feed crops and raising livestock consume over half of all freshwater. in contrast, domestic uses of water only use less than one-tenth as much water as agriculture
• overall rate at which water is removed exceeds the rate of replenishment by as much as 21 billion gallons daily 

Based on these points, it truly reflects the fact that water is limited and will run out one day. Of course, what I'm trying to bring across is not to stop people from eating what they want, but to be more aware of how much they are eating (or in this case - wasting). Yes, you can go ahead and order that beef if you like, but the important thing is to enjoy and finish it, and not let it go to waste!

I'm going to end off with a few more pictures to show you how much "hidden water" is actually used in the production of food. Hopefully the next time you're eating, you'll be more conscious of finishing what you have on the plate :-)

References:

ALISSA WALKER. (2015) Seriously, stop demonizing almonds. [Online] Available from: http://gizmodo.com/seriously-stop-demonizing-almonds-1696065939 [Accessed: 22/8/2015]

CENTER FOR SCIENCE IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST. (n.d) More and cleaner water. [Online] Available from: http://www.cspinet.org/EatingGreen/pdf/arguments4.pdf [Accessed: 22/8/2015]

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC. (2015) How reducing food waste could ease climate change. [Online] Available from: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/01/150122-food-waste-climate-change-hunger/ [Accessed: 22/8/2015]

WATER SUPPLIES DEPARTMENT. (n.d) What is virtual water? [Online] Available from: http://www.waterconservation.hk/en/virtual.html [Accessed: 22/8/2015]

WORLD WILDLIFE FUND. (n.d) Water scarcity. [Online] Available from: http://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/water-scarcity [Accessed: 22/8/2015]

introduction

Deng deng deng deng!!!

Hi guys. I've decided to touch on the topic on food wastage as an environmental issue after much thought. You know, usually when environmental issues are discussed, problems such as global warming, climate change, deforestation etc comes to mind first. However, being a glutton (heh), I somehow think about food first and.....

I decided to research and learn more about food wastage and its consequences pertaining to the environment. Other than going into our stomachs, a huge amount of it actually heads to dustbins, incinerators and finally landfills. Food can thus be one of the key components in contributing to the several environmental problems that the world is facing today.

So, here's a mini introduction on food wastage (in the US):

(https://youtu.be/EwVuz0UJl2A)

In case the lazy you just decided to skip watching the video, here are a few key points mentioned:

• We produce 27% more food per person today as compared to 15 years ago.
• Half of the food produced in the US is wasted between the farm and the fork due to inefficiency.
• How is food wasted in the US:

Clearly, food wastage is a problem that cannot be ignored, especially in more affluent countries where people have greater spending power on food. This is probably due to the abundance of food available for them, and that majority of them are able to afford what they want to consume. Hence, the impacts of food wastage (especially the environmental aspect) do not concern them as they do not feel the consequences directly.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO),

• Every year, consumers in rich countries waste almost as much food (222 million tonnes) as the entire net food production of sub-Saharan Africa (230 million tonnes) 

(https://twitter.com/foodsecurityuk/status/601741119316176896)

!!!!!

That's like crashing 493,333 Boeing 747s full of food. Poof. :(

Both the production and supply, and the consumption of food can inevitably lead to food wastage. Reasons can include excess production and consumption (where supply exceeds demand), the food passing its expiry date, and the failing of quality and aesthetics standards. Not only is the food itself being wasted, the resources/hidden costs used to produce the food are also wasted - time, land, money, water.

In this post, I have briefly explained about food wastage, and the extent of it in the world. Food wastage occurs almost everywhere, and hence solving this problem would definitely not be easy. In the upcoming posts, I will expound more on how food wastage can directly harm our environment. After all, this is an environmental blog :D

Till then! (and in the meantime, try not to waste anymore food yeah)

References:
FOOD  AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS. (n.d.) Food wastage: key facts and figures. [Online] Available from: http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/196402/icode/ [Accessed: 20/08/2015]

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS. (2011) Global food losses and food waste. [Online] Available from: http://www.fao.org/docrep/014/mb060e/mb060e.pdf [Accessed: 20/08/2015]

UNITED NATIONS ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME. (n.d.) Food waste facts. [Online] Available from: http://www.unep.org/wed/2013/quickfacts/ [Accessed: 20/08/2015]