Chef Regina Tchelly with her food creations on her veranda, with Copacabana Beach in the background. Favela Organica
By Agostino Pestroni
Take a dozen banana peels, wash them gently with a brush under running water, then chop them into small pieces. Next, blend the peels with five spoons of cacao and a cup of ice water. Once the lumps have been removed, place the mixture in a hot, buttered pan and stir it for five minutes. Let it cool down to thicken, and then roll the resulting dough into small spheres. Lastly, dip the balls into sesame or peanut powder, and you'll have a brigadeiro, an iconic Brazilian dessert.
But this is not the standard version of the sweet: It's a unique variant created by Regina Tchelly, a 39-year-old Brazilian chef and resident of Rio de Janeiro's Babilônia slum.
<p>"I always wanted to be a chef, but not a normal one," Tchelly says.</p><p>In 2001, Tchelly moved from a small town in northeastern Brazil to the favelas, or slums, of Rio looking for a better future for her and her daughter. She initially worked as a housemaid, a common profession for women coming into the city from poorer areas. But the longer she shopped at the local markets, the more she grew disappointed by the amount of food being thrown out each day.</p><p>Back in her hometown, she had learned to use all parts of the fruits and vegetables she prepared, and she couldn't make peace with the wastefulness of the city. She knew that the thrown-away peels, seeds, and rinds held precious nutritional value. Tchelly has since worked to give a second life to food that would otherwise go to waste. She shows that repurposing food waste is not only a solution to the problem of access to healthy food, but also one remedy to help address a broken social system.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDUxMTY1Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NDk1NDEyOX0.qveLhDsh6gjy_SJ7fnx5BLkZfc30Z7exMWqoIo-Cjk0/img.jpg?width=980" id="c4769" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5a97044d6e71ca284e01ed75cc5cd2c6" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Regina Tchelly giving a talk about the impact of food on health in a Rio de Janeiro hospital. Favela Organica
<h2>Democratizing Real Food</h2><p>The difficulty of making ends meet in rural areas of Brazil is <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Brazil/Ongoing-domestic-migration" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">one of the reasons for migration within the country</a>. Small farmers leave their homes to crowd into the favelas of the megalopolis, where they can no longer afford the quality of food they used to produce on their land.</p><p>About <a href="https://catcomm.org/favela-facts/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">1.5 million</a> people live in the slums of Rio de Janeiro, known as the Cidade maravilhosa, or city of wonder. Electricity, running water, and sanitation systems are often lacking in those informal settlements long neglected by the government, and life is tough for those who live in them. <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-biosocial-science/article/family-food-insecurity-and-nutritional-risk-in-adolescents-from-a-lowincome-area-of-rio-de-janeiro-brazil/2557E62F6E770DC4144FF5D00B0E0E58" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Food insecurity</a> is one of the most significant divides between the favelas and wealthy areas of Rio: In the slums, many rely on government-subsidized schools, food banks, or junk food to feed their children.</p><p>It's a matter of affordability rather than supply, though. Food abounds in Brazil. A 2014 <a href="http://www.fao.org/in-action/fapda/publications/country-fact-sheets/en" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">study</a> by the Food and Agriculture Organization listed Brazil as the world's third-largest exporter of agricultural products. Yet <a href="https://www.scielosp.org/article/csc/2020.v25n9/3421-3430/en/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">5 million people</a> still suffer from <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/public-health-nutrition/article/malnutrition-in-all-its-forms-and-social-inequalities-in-brazil/89E445C46FF53653A6604163C1EB86E4" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">malnutrition</a>.</p><p>"My idea was to democratize real food, so to allow everybody to be able to access it," Tchelly says.</p><p>In 2011, Tchelly gave her first course on how to cook with food scraps to six other housekeepers in her slum, which led her to create a social enterprise called <a href="https://favelaorganica.com.br/pt/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Favela Organica</a>. Her goal was to teach others how to repurpose food waste produced by Rio's markets, and to learn how to grow produce on their balconies and in their yards. Tchelly's project relies on the idea of an integrated food cycle: growing food, utilizing it all, and creating compost with what's left to fertilize a garden.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDUxMTY2NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NDkwNDc2OH0.nqQKFWhgBdPxnsCUgXAIOWygueR6ZW5f9t29VcKfpEs/img.jpg?width=980" id="ae904" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ed69af837c7eff99599eedc2fe1062d0" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
A class on how to use juicing residue for skin care. Favela Organica
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDUxMTY2Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2NDAxMjUxMX0.hDqR9kLfVZbYJhYjBBSpoRghlrza7KOu5pooCxhUu30/img.jpg?width=980" id="9ea30" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="db8f96e70aaa7a76d283017d95ede675" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Favela Organica's work focuses on the cycle of life and uses yoga and meditation as part of its classes. Favela Organica
<p>While Tchelly initially aimed at tackling food waste, her project soon turned into something more powerful. With the pandemic and the resulting food insecurity <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/08/10/covid-brazil-deaths-inequality/?arc404=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">spreading widely within the crowded favelas</a>, what Regina Tchelly ultimately provides is a way for people to gain dignity by making their own nutritious food. She's part of the <a href="https://www.terramadre.info/en/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Terra Madre</a> network, a global movement of food producers, chefs, and academics who believe that through a holistic approach to food, communities affected by systemic social disparities can regain power over what they eat, which is the first step towards self-determination.</p>
<h2>Innovating for Food Justice</h2><p>The balcony of Favela Organica overlooks the famous Copacabana Beach. A small vegetable garden adds to the produce coming from local farmers who donate to Tchelly what they cannot sell. Tchelly's workplace is a forest of hanging pans and pots, with a cooking station for two people and a larger space where she gave free classes to 60 people at a time — until the pandemic hit. Now she offers her courses online.</p><p>Tchelly supports the free lessons for residents of the favela. She covers her costs with the income earned from her high-end catering services and the money she receives from giving talks around the world, or winning prizes such as the Prêmio Aliança Empreendedora from the Brazilian Entrepreneurial Alliance. Over the years, Tchelly has built up enough recognition for her work that, in 2016, she was invited to San Paolo to give a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXqc29uVIbo" target="_blank">TEDx Talk</a>. Since she began offering courses, Tchelly has taught some <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=208&v=yPDD8O14tsg&feature=emb_logo" target="_blank">30,000 people</a>, mostly women, around Brazil how to regain power over the food they eat.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDUxMTY2OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1ODI4MzIwMX0.FGXkyUNNxqoMBTA8CcWomxhqx3aLYSIbHTDKeEh2q7E/img.jpg?width=980" id="4e685" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="896170dbff69522b1caa12ad72427d8d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
'Tabuli de broccoli,' a salad created by Tchelly made with broccoli stems. Favela Organica
<p>The only requirement to attend Tchelly's classes is that attendees must develop a new recipe to bring to market from the widely available food scraps of Rio de Janeiro. Last year, Ivonides Silva, 54, joined one of the classes.</p><p>"When you go to the market, you spend 10 reais ($2) and use seeds, fruit, and everything else," Silva says. By cooking this way, nothing goes to waste, and Silva has been saving money on groceries.</p><p>As her final project, Silva transformed pumpkin rinds and seeds — parts of the fruit that are usually thrown away — into flour, which she then used to bake a cake. Her classmates liked it, so she began selling more cakes to neighbors and at the salon where she works as a hairdresser. She now sells about five cakes each month, which adds 240 reais ($42) to her income. If it wasn't for the pandemic, Silva says, she could sell many more.</p><p>"Tchelly gives us the tools to have the autonomy to create a small business to make some money," Silva says. In the slums of Rio de Janeiro, where people make on average <a href="https://www.rioonwatch.org/?p=57787" target="_blank">734 reais ($130) a month</a>, the supplementary income from the sale of cakes is a welcome help.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDUxMTY3Mi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNDM2NTczM30.0b-tLtGZxXrqhidrPRCWZD4rvClRUIn-gDqvey2SUxY/img.jpg?width=980" id="b13db" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="029612a5727369b5f6780e3826b79108" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Tchelly at a food bank in Curitiba, Brazil, teaching how to make pumpkin risotto. Favela Organica
<p>Maria Beatriz Martins Costa, CEO of <a href="http://www.greenrio.com.br/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Green Rio</a>, a network that advocates for fairer and better food, is fond of Tchelly's work, but told me that to have a greater impact, projects like Tchelly's need more public support. According to a <a href="https://www.iisd.org/publications/food-security-brazilian-case" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">report</a> by the International Institute of Sustainable Development, limited access to food is not the result of lack of food availability, but of its unaffordability for many Brazilians. The Brazilian government has worked toward reducing social inequality in the past two decades with programs like the <a href="http://www.fao.org/3/i3023e/i3023e00.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Zero Hunger Program</a>, which aims to give all Brazilians enough good and nutritious food through a series of multi-sectoral public policies. Thanks to this program, the country was removed from the FAO's world hunger map in 2014.</p><p>But malnutrition problems remain, and the pandemic is accentuating them.</p><p>Growing one's own food can help, which is why Tchelly and many other activists around the world also teach students how to grow urban gardens.</p><p>"This kind of agriculture is important because it gives you support," says Costa, who sees urban gardens as another expression of family farming. She believes family farmers play an essential role in future food scenarios and are critical in diminishing food and social disparities. About 77% of Brazil's farmers are family farmers (as opposed to agribusinesses), but they receive only <a href="http://www.fao.org/family-farming/detail/en/c/283339/" target="_blank">36% of the total industry revenues</a>. According to Costa, the difference in income between small and large farms is partly because of a lack of logistics to distribute products and infrastructures to scale up.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDUxMTY3My9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNjI2NDEzOH0.mtp-uqWB0Vj9uqFNWawcQj464YUDcWPWEtc5KwqN250/img.jpg?width=980" id="8c9cd" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="69745d31653ac880802003baaf1a895f" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Tchelly teaching a class at a food bank in Curitiba, Brazil, on how to use all parts of the produce. Favela Organica
<p>"Public policies are fundamental," Costa says. Over the past 20 years, Brazil has constructed a robust food security policy that includes Safra, a credit program for family farmers, and a program that pushed schools to buy food from local small farms. But in 2019, the current government, led by President Jair Bolsonaro, eliminated the Consea, Conselho Nacional de Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional — a body that allowed Brazilian civil society to have a say in the formulation of food policies — a <a href="https://www.slowfood.com/lets-defend-brazils-food-security/" target="_blank">move that many fear</a> is the first step toward deconstructing the country's food security policy.</p><p>Still, Costa believes that Brazil, with all its flaws, is working toward issuing policies that promote family farmers. For example, the country's current secretary for Family Agriculture and Cooperation, Fernando Schwanke, has created the first bioeconomy plan for biodiversity and family farming. Such policies, combined with entrepreneurial efforts like Tchelly's, could brighten Brazil's food future.</p><p>"Regina Tchelly was a pioneer and game-changer and deserves all credit as being a forerunner fighting for a change in the food system," Costa says. Tchelly, with her daily fieldwork, represents a larger, and often unseen, global movement that focuses on the roots of nutrition inequalities. Together, they are working to provide access to fairer, cleaner, and better food for all.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org/social-justice/2020/10/09/food-waste-brazil-communities/" target="_blank">YES! Magazine</a>.</em><br/></p>From Your Site Articles
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The European Commission launched a new Farm to Fork strategy in an effort to reduce the social and environmental impact of the European food system. European Environmental Agency / Flickr / CC by 2.0
By Katell Ané
The European Commission launched a new Farm to Fork strategy in an effort to reduce the social and environmental impact of the European food system. It is the newest strategy under the European Green Deal, setting sustainability targets for farmers, consumers, and policymakers.
<p>"Farmers are under extreme pressure," Stefan de Keersmaeker, European Commission Spokesperson for Public Health and Food Safety, tells Food Tank. "But our environment and health are under pressure." </p><p>The strategy aims to reduce the use of chemical pesticides by 50 percent, increase the proportion of land used for organic farming to 25 percent, and reduce nutrient loss by 50 percent before 2030. It is also working to tackle food waste, loss of biodiversity, and unfair wages in the food chain. </p><p>Olivier de Schutter, Co-Chair of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems, explains on <a href="https://foodtank.com/news/2020/06/new-on-the-podcast-olivier-de-schutter-on-democratic-food-policy-reform/" target="_blank">Food Tank Live</a> that the strategy comes after calls for a single, integrated food policy framework. After three years of advocacy, a <a href="https://www.arc2020.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/EU-FPC_Open-Letter-F2F-2.pdf" target="_blank">coalition</a> of more than 250 European organizations persuaded the newly elected European Commission to consolidate existing agricultural, health, trade, and environmental policies.</p>
<p>To achieve its goals, the European Commission plans to <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/food-farming-fisheries/sustainability_and_natural_resources/documents/analysis-of-links-between-cap-and-green-deal_en.pdf" target="_blank">reformulate</a> the Common Agricultural Policy (<a href="https://ec.europa.eu/info/food-farming-fisheries/key-policies/common-agricultural-policy/cap-glance_en" target="_blank">CAP</a>), which provides funding for farmers and rural development. The revised CAP will create <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/resource.html?uri=cellar:ea0f9f73-9ab2-11ea-9d2d-01aa75ed71a1.0001.02/DOC_1&format=PDF" target="_blank">eco-schemes</a> to support farmers engaging in sustainable agricultural practices. This new system will reward precision agriculture, agroecology, carbon farming, and agroforestry, amongst other practices.</p><p>"We really believe that if we take this step…if we can set the standard, this will be a win-win situation for all involved," de Keersmaecker tells FoodTank. "What's important is that we ensure that the ensuing value is fairly distributed along the food chain so that those that really invest in this transition are actually rewarded."</p><p>But while de Keersmaekcker says the strategy marks a turning point in food systems legislation, some activists argue that it must go further. </p>
<p>Madeleine Coste, Policy Officer at <a href="https://www.slowfood.com/sloweurope/en/" target="_blank">Slow Food Europe</a>, warns that the 50 percent pesticide reduction target is still too low. </p><p>"[We] are worried that these targets do not go far enough to trigger a much-needed radical shift to agroecological practices," Coste tells Food Tank. If member states do not help farmers transition to more sustainable practices, she explains, "bee and pollinator [species will] continue to be wiped out due to the perpetuation of a farming system based on monoculture and…chemical inputs." </p><p>Coste also fears the European Commission's focus on food waste is too narrow by accounting only for consumer and retail waste. Alongside the <a href="https://eeb.org/" target="_blank">European Environmental Bureau</a> and the <a href="https://www.wwf.eu/" target="_blank">World Wildlife Fund</a>, Slow Food Europe advocates targeting<a href="https://foodpolicycoalition.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/NGO-Joint-letter_EC-Commitment-on-Tackling-Food-Waste-in-the-F2F-Strategy.pdf" target="_blank"> pre-retail waste</a>, which makes up 30-59 percent of Europe's total food waste, according to the <a href="http://www.fao.org/3/mb060e/mb060e.pdf" target="_blank">U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization</a>. </p>
<p>Others worry about the Farm to Fork's stance on industrial animal agriculture. The <a href="https://www.eurovia.org/" target="_blank">European Coordination of Via Campesina</a> (ECVC), joined by more than a dozen civil society organizations, <a href="https://actionaid.org/sites/default/files/publications/Less%20and%20better%20animal%20products%20in%20the%20Farm%20to%20Fork%20strategy.pdf" target="_blank">counseled</a> the European Commission to tackle the overconsumption of meat, dairy, and eggs.</p><p>These organizations argue that a reduction in the consumption of animal products would have a positive effect on the environment. But Pierre Maison, Coordination Committee Member of ECVC tells Food Tank, "we believe the capacity of the Farm to Fork strategy to facilitate this transition is very weak." Maison fears that the current policy environment may thwart the Farm to Fork's chances of moving Europe away from large industrial animal agriculture, and reaching its soil health and organic farming targets.</p><p>In order to meet the Farm to Fork's targets, the CAP must enhance <a href="https://www.eurovia.org/report-and-video-of-the-webinar-food-sovereignty-and-the-farm-to-fork-strategy-building-a-fairer-and-more-just-agricultural-model-in-the-eu/" target="_blank">food sovereignty</a> by centering small farmers, according to Maison. "Without market and product regulation, farmers will not receive decent and stable revenue, which will hinder their transition towards sustainable production systems," Maison tells Food Tank.</p>
<p>But by re-localizing supply chains and improving the resilience of farms, he believes the Farm to Fork strategy has the potential to empower small farmers. And Maison says that while organizers have a long way to go, the strategy is an important first step.</p><p>"The transition towards sustainable food systems cannot be successfully achieved if we do it on our own," de Keersmacker tells Food Tank, "it's a fight we're in together."</p>
<p class=""><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://foodtank.com/news/2020/08/social-and-environmental-justice-activists-react-to-eu-farm-to-fork-strategy/" target="_blank">Food Tank.</a></em></p>
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By Danielle Nierenberg
Since the first episode of Food Talk Live aired on March 19, our twice-daily live conversation series has featured nearly 150 food system experts, advocates, scientists, chefs and more.
<p>This means that, over the past four months, I've probably asked more than 1,000 questions to these folks about the future of the food system. There has been a lot of news to unpack this week alone, between <a href="https://foodtank.com/news/2020/07/with-us3-million-in-grants-refeds-covid-19-fund-is-saving-food-waste-and-feeding-people/" target="_blank">funding food waste reduction</a>, <a href="https://foodtank.com/news/2020/07/little-free-pantries-providing-covid-19-food-relief-in-seattle/" target="_blank">addressing community food insecurity</a>, and <a href="https://foodtank.com/news/2020/07/corporate-accountability-report-details-big-business-influence-on-nutrition-policy/" target="_blank">understanding the influence of the food industry on nutrition policy</a>. And during my live conversations, every question I ask raises even more.</p>
<p>This week, Food Tank is highlighting 15 quotes that address thorny, world-changing questions about building a more sustainable and equitable food system.</p>
How do we rectify racial inequities in land ownership?
<p>"As a result of colonial genocide, land grabbing, USDA discrimination, state-level nativism, lynching, and expulsion, over 98% of the farmland in this county is owned by white Americans today. Ralph Paige of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives put it simply, "Land is the only real wealth in this country and if we don't own any we'll be out of the picture." We need a nationwide commitment to share the land back, so that all communities can have the means of production for food security."</p><p>— Leah Penniman, founder and director of Soul Fire Farm. <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10460-020-10055-3" target="_blank">Read more here</a>.</p>How impactful can collective agricultural labor unions be to protect farm workers?
<p>"In 2019, through our collective bargaining procedures, we resolved cases on wage issues amounting to over US$800,000 dollars. If they were non-union, that money would have been lost to the worker's pocket. If this is what we recoup for workers in the union setting, imagine what must be happening in non-union settings."</p><p>— Baldemar Velásquez, founder and president of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee. <a href="https://foodtank.com/news/2020/06/new-on-the-podcast-baldemar-velasquez-on-amplifying-the-voices-of-migrant-farmworkers/" target="_blank">Listen to more here</a>.</p>What does it mean to support local, regional, and sustainable food by engaging in good food purchasing?
<p>"This is a time I think of as a great reckoning. Seeing the public interest in food and how important food is as a public service is how procurement works — it aligns the purchasing power of government institutions with what the values of the public are. I think an important next step would be to have city or municipal leaders set aggregate purchasing targets and invite, encourage, persuade all large food service institutions to participate in setting these aggregate targets. And then you can really start making accelerated change in the local food economy, which is something we know we need to build back right now. The idea of good food purchasing is to support equity and to support creating economic opportunity for those who have not had that economic opportunity."</p><p>— Paula Daniels, co-founder, chair of the board, and chief of what's next at the Center for Good Food Purchasing. <a href="https://foodtank.com/news/2020/07/new-on-the-podcast-didier-toubia-on-cultivated-meat-and-paula-daniels-on-good-food-purchasing-policies/" target="_blank">Listen to more here</a>.</p>What is the importance of “middle-man” food processors in supporting local farm-based food systems?
<p>"Can we imagine how to circle out of this in a way that is better than what we had before? I want to shine an uncomfortable light on the farm-to-table movement. It turns out to have a very weak link. I don't know that the answer is to return to that moment, because what this shows is that it wasn't as strong in conception of feeding people and a food system moving forward as we would've imagined."</p><p>— Dan Barber, executive chef and co-founder of Blue Hill at Stone Barns. <a href="https://foodtank.com/news/2020/04/dan-barber-and-luke-saunders-on-keeping-the-farm-to-community-connection-during-covid-19/" target="_blank">Listen to more here</a>.</p>What can we do to make regenerative farming not only the norm, but affordable?
<p>"We need to realize that economic justice and the growth of organic and regenerative food and farming and land use go together. We can't have one without the other. That's what's so beautiful about this Green New Deal."</p><p>— Ronnie Cummins, executive director of the Organic Consumers Association. <a href="https://foodtank.com/news/2020/04/cummins-talks-green-new-deal-regenerative-agriculture-covid-19/" target="_blank">Listen to more here</a>.</p>How can traditional resource-management techniques lay the foundation for food sovereignty?
<p><em>"Tagal</em> is a traditional fisheries management practice in [the Malaysian state of] Sabah, in which communities swear oaths to nurture wild fisheries until they teem with river carp, and then open them, by agreement, for communal consumption at special times. During COVID-19 the power of tagal has therefore also become a key topic: how communities who have reinvigorated their culture of river stewardship have been able to access their own protein resources in their places."</p><p>— Cynthia Ong & Kenneth Wilson of Forever Sabah in Sabah, Malaysia. <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10460-020-10082-0" target="_blank">Read more here</a>.</p>What role can mutual aid and distributive food systems play in feeding our communities?
<p>"Resilience and regeneration are not a given, they need to be purposefully nurtured. We therefore need to invest and facilitate the creation of distributive food systems based on local needs and capacities that assure a fair redistribution of value, knowledge and power across actors and territories to deliver sustainable food for all."</p><p>— Ana Moragues-Faus, professor of economics and business, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10460-020-10087-9" target="_blank">Read more here</a>.</p>How can greater public funding drive food innovation in Latin America and the Global South?
<p>"One of the forgotten links in all these food systems, connections between agriculture, nutrition, and health, is that you need knowledge. You need to do some research, and then you need to innovate. … If we can put trillions and trillions of dollars into good research on safeguarding the economy, we should also be putting in quite a bit of funding for health and food systems."</p><p>— Ruben Echeverria, senior research fellow at International Food Policy Research Institute and research associate at the Latin American Center for Rural Development. <a href="https://foodtank.com/news/2020/05/new-on-the-podcast-john-piotti-discusses-a-farmers-relief-fund-and-ruben-echeverria-talks-global-food-policy/" target="_blank">Listen to more here</a>.</p>What role can entrepreneurs play in building a better food system?
<p>"We have this really beautiful rich, diverse country where we can produce and we can create so much wealth for all of us, and it's now about zooming in and resourcing these gaps that we know exist."</p><p>— Caesaré Assad, CEO of accelerator Food System 6. <a href="https://foodtank.com/news/2020/03/caesare-assad-on-the-food-system-covid-19/" target="_blank">Listen to more here</a>.</p>How do we build a new European community-based sustainable food system that doesn’t replicate the past?
<p>"My vision is for a new food economy with more and more of us growing a percentage of our own food, and preferentially purchasing in season and local food from local and sustainable farmers. This future food system will not be identical to those that I remember from my childhood in the '50s and '60s, since the world has changed since then. The internet and other related digital innovations including on-line marketing, and the emergence of farmers markets and community supported agriculture, are all expressions of the boundless innovation of humanity. So, let us hope that the farming community will prosper and come to play a more central role in our future food systems. Let the new food revolution flourish and thrive!"</p><p>— Patrick Holden, British farmer and founder of Sustainable Food Trust. <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10460-020-10049-1" target="_blank">Read more here</a>.</p>How can we understand and prepare for the connections between COVID-19 and diet health?
<p>"Because [the pandemic of diet-related disease] has happened over 30 to 40 years, we've ignored that equivalent or even larger pandemic. And now they're coming together, and we're seeing that we set up an environment of people with poor metabolic health who are predisposed to COVID. … We have not invested in the science that we should have invested in up until this point, to have answers to these questions. People are talking about stocking personal protective equipment and stocking ventilators and stocking vaccines — but what about stocking science on food and health and nutrition? That would've been incredibly important."</p><p>—Dariush Mozaffarian, cardiologist and dean of the Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. <a href="https://foodtank.com/news/2020/05/new-on-the-podcast-dr-dariush-mozaffarian-on-creating-healthier-american-diets-and-nutrition-programs/" target="_blank">Listen to more here</a>.</p>How is localized, diverse seed security vital to our food security and national security?
<p>"As the world slowly rebuilds and recovers, we all have a fresh opportunity to regenerate and share a greater diversity of seeds—and to honor and return benefits to traditional seed keepers from many cultures. We would be remiss not to sow true, place-based seed sovereignty in every region and among every culture on this planet, well before a future crisis could uproot us again."</p><p>— Gary Paul Nabhan, ethnobotanist and co-founder of Native Seeds/SEARCH. <a href="https://foodtank.com/news/2020/07/a-call-for-community-based-seed-diversity-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/" target="_blank">Read more here</a>.</p>How has the COVID-19 crisis played into forces of industrialization threatening Iranian smallholder farmers?
<p>"There is an irony in expecting governments to kick into action in an emergency to support people and production systems that they actively undermine in the best of times. This shows that COVID-19 is not impacting food systems in a vacuum, but is in fact a shock to an ongoing struggle for power and survival. Like many smallholder producers worldwide who make a massive contribution to food security, pastoralists struggle against forces that seek to upend their way of life in favor of industrial food systems."</p><p>— Maryam Rahmanian & Nahid Naghizadeh of the Centre for Sustainable Development in Tehran, Iran. <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10460-020-10093-x" target="_blank">Read more here</a>.</p>How do we encourage young Africans to stay on farms and improve agriculture on the continent?
<p>"I would argue that what is missing in the [agricultural] sector is those young people who have access to productive resources and have the knowledge and the skillset that can help improve productivity. … If we want young people to stay in agriculture, then we have to make agriculture profitable for those young people. And for agriculture to be profitable, it has to be productive. Giving them access to those productive resources that will allow them to increase the productivity of agriculture will be critical."</p><p>— Felix Kwame Yeboah, social science researcher and professor of international development at Michigan State University. <a href="https://foodtank.com/news/2020/06/new-on-the-podcast-dr-felix-kwame-yeboah-on-youth-powered-agricultural-development/" target="_blank">Listen to more here</a>.</p>Finally, what will it take to help us use suffering as a springboard into liberation?
<p>"We're all suffering. But at the end of the day, folks, what makes us strong is our belief in one another, that we will come together to help one another get back on our feet. … This is our time, this is our moment to not go back to politics and Wall Street, but to move forward. It's more about people than profits. This is our time to move forward and change the system."</p><p>— Karen Washington, farmer and founder of Rise and Root Farm. <a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=227538081894588&ref=watch_permalink" target="_blank">Watch more here</a></p>From Your Site Articles
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A new tool called The Food Systems Dashboard aims to save decision makers time and energy by painting a complete picture of a country's food system. Photo courtesy of Dr. Jessica Fanzo and Dr. Rebecca McLaren
By Katie Howell
A new tool called The Food Systems Dashboard aims to save decision makers time and energy by painting a complete picture of a country's food system. Created by the Johns Hopkins' Alliance for a Healthier World, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Dashboard compiles food systems data from over 35 sources and offers it as a public good.
<p>"Trying to fix a food system without data is like trying to fix a car engine without any light in the garage," says Lawrence Haddad, Executive Director of GAIN and one of the contributing partners behind the Dashboard.</p><p>The new Food Systems Dashboard enables government officials, policy makers, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and others to see what is working in their food systems and what isn't.</p><p>The Dashboard has three main objectives — describe, diagnose, and decide. It presents data to describe a country's food system, help decision makers diagnose the problem areas in their systems, and suggest policies, programs, and interventions to address identified issues.</p>
<p>Pulling data on over 180 indicators, the Dashboard presents more than 230 countries' food systems. These indicators, which range from agriculture production factors to diet-related disease rates, are broken down into five broad categories: food supply chains, food environments, individual factors, consumer behavior, and outcomes. Of these indicators, the team also selected 41 measures they deem critical to describe a food system.</p><p>"We hope that the Dashboard not only draws attention to the importance of food systems in shaping development priorities, but that it also can be used as a data-driven problem solving tool for more difficult food system challenges that countries may face," Dr. Jessica Fanzo of Johns Hopkins University and Dr. Rebecca McLaren, global coordinator for the Dashboard, tell Food Tank.</p><p>The layout for each country's page presents information in simple, visual ways so that users are able to quickly understand and take away key messages. Users can then compare their food systems with those of other countries, either by region, income classification, or a food system typology.</p>
<p>The tool also highlights issues like consumer behavior, that require more research to generate usable data. Fanzo and partners hope the Dashboard will simultaneously serve as a tool for data advocacy and lead to more comprehensive global data collection.</p><p>In the future, the Dashboard will continue to develop as the team works to further identify specific challenges countries face, Fanzo and McLaren tell Food Tank. It will also increase focus on recommended policies, programs, investments, and other interventions targeted to those specific challenges, Fanzo and McLaren tell Food Tank.</p><p>"The Dashboard is open to all and will foster much needed cooperation in transforming our food systems," says FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu, "With the threats and opportunities presented by COVID-19, we need more collaboration between stakeholders who care about hunger, nutrition, livelihoods, climate, biodiversity, and sustainable natural resource use."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from<a href="https://foodtank.com/news/2020/07/new-tool-enables-decision-makers-to-see-what-works-in-their-food-systems/" target="_blank"> Food Tank</a>.</em></p>
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Mountains of produce, including eggs, milk and onions, are going to waste as the COVID-19 pandemic shutters restaurants, restricts transport, limits what workers are able to do and disrupts supply chains. United States government work
By Emma Charlton
Gluts of food left to rot as a consequence of coronavirus aren't just wasteful – they're also likely to damage the environment.
<p>Mountains of produce, including eggs, milk and onions, are going to waste as the COVID-19 pandemic shutters restaurants, restricts transport, limits what workers are able to do and disrupts supply chains. And as that food decays, it releases methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.</p><p>Fresh milk and eggs have been dumped, and some ripe crops reploughed back into fields, according to reports in the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/closed-due-to-coronavirus-restaurants-clear-out-their-pantries-11586005203?mod=article_inline" target="_blank">Wall Street Journal</a> and the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/11/business/coronavirus-destroying-food.html" target="_blank">New York Times</a>. While consumer demand for some supermarket items has risen as a result of lockdowns, it's unlikely to offset steep declines elsewhere, such in restaurants and school and workplace canteens.</p>
Methane on the Rise
<p>Not only is this a tragic waste of food at a time when many are going hungry, it is also an <a href="https://donatedontdump.net/2014/07/07/the-effects-of-food-waste-on-the-environment-by-junemy-pantig/" target="_blank">environmental hazard</a> and could contribute to global warming. Landfill gas – <a href="https://www.epa.gov/lmop/basic-information-about-landfill-gas" target="_blank">roughly half methane and half carbon dioxide (CO2)</a> – is a natural byproduct of the decomposition of organic material.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQyOTEyMi9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwODYyODk1N30.AyyC8WbvDKRQeTPpTksAIkGT_Sy5qJqK3ok1_GiaNWc/img.png?width=980" id="49c22" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="48f85bf45b5f3ba2648a87bedab555bc" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Food decay leads to production of greenhouse gases, methane and carbon dioxide. EPA
<p>Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, 28 to <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/SYR_AR5_FINAL_full.pdf" target="_blank">36 times more effective than CO2 at trapping heat</a> in the atmosphere over a 100-year period, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.</p><p>"Many export-oriented producers produce volumes far too large for output to be absorbed in local markets, and thus <a href="https://unctad.org/en/pages/newsdetails.aspx?OriginalVersionID=2333" target="_blank">organic waste levels have mounted substantially</a>," says Robert Hamwey, Economic Affairs Officer at UN agency UNCTAD. "Because this waste is left to decay, levels of methane emissions, a greenhouse gas, from decaying produce are expected to rise sharply in the crisis and immediate post-crisis months."</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQyOTE3Ny9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwNzYyMzEzNH0.ckRClc0SX50kOEZYHgLLx_OoFHMIxtPVF4BBc4eDoBo/img.png?width=980" id="3a11c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6fe3b382949cce9971508db403d0973d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Food supply chains are easily disrupted. UN FAO
<p>Dumping food was already a problem before the crisis. In America alone, <a href="https://www.refed.com/?sort=economic-value-per-ton" target="_blank">$218 billion is spent growing, processing, transporting</a> and disposing of food that is never eaten, estimates ReFED, a collection of business, non-profit and government leaders committed to reducing food waste. That's equivalent to around 1.3% of GDP.</p><p>Since the pandemic took hold, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-52267943" target="_blank">farmers are dumping 14 million liters</a> of milk each day because of disrupted supply routes, estimates Dairy Farmers of America. A chicken processor was forced to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/11/business/coronavirus-destroying-food.html" target="_blank">destroy 750,000 unhatched eggs a week</a>, according to the New York Times, which also cited an onion farmer letting most of his harvest decompose because he couldn't distribute or store them.</p>Food Prices Collapsing
<p>The excess has also seen prices collapse. The <a href="http://www.fao.org/worldfoodsituation/foodpricesindex/en/" target="_blank">FAO Food Price Index</a> (FFPI) averaged 162.5 points in May 2020, down 3.1 points from April and reaching the lowest monthly average since December 2018. The gauge has dropped for four consecutive months, and the latest decline reflects falling values of all the food commodities – dairy, meat, cereal, vegetable – except sugar, which rose for the first time in three months.</p><p>All this while the pandemic is exacerbating other global food trends.</p><p>"This year, some 49 million extra people may fall into extreme poverty due to the COVID-19 crisis," said António Guterres, Secretary-General of the UN. "The number of people who are acutely food or nutrition insecure will rapidly expand. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGhLKAbNDiY&feature=youtu.be" target="_blank">Even in countries with abundant food, we see risks of disruptions in the food supply chain</a>."</p><div id="c20f1" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9bd104b5fbd7a34965124f57f3c1357a"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1271747397002067968" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Our food systems are failing us. And #COVID19 is making things worse.
We must invest in the future & transform our… https://t.co/uV8Kkn78Q1</div> — FAO (@FAO)<a href="https://twitter.com/FAO/statuses/1271747397002067968">1592043182.0</a></blockquote></div><p>The World Economic Forum has launched its <a href="https://www.weforum.org/great-reset/about" target="_blank">Great Reset initiative</a>, which urgently calls for global stakeholders to cooperate in managing the consequences of the COVID-19 crisis. It calls on policymakers to put the environment at the heart of plans to rebuild as we emerge from the pandemic.</p>
<p class=""><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/06/covid-19-food-waste-mountains-environment/" target="_blank">World Economic Forum</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
- Food Waste Set to Increase by 33 Percent Within 10 Years - EcoWatch ›
- Reducing Food Waste Is Good for Economy and Climate, Report Says ›
- 23 Organizations Eliminating Food Waste During COVID-19 ... ›
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Vanguard Renewables has sponsored five milk donation events, donating more than 17,000 gallons of milk to Massachusetts and Rhode Island families in need. Vanguard Renewables
By Meg Wilcox
As U.S. food assistance programs grapple with overwhelming demand during the coronavirus pandemic, some in New England are finding support from unusual partners—renewable energy companies.
<p><br/></p>
<p>Scratch the surface of these partnerships, however, and the connections begin to make sense. The renewable energy companies are already engaged with the food system, and they're joining with food relief efforts to connect more deeply with the communities where they do business at a time of crisis.</p><p>Take <a href="https://vanguardrenewables.com/" target="_blank">Vanguard Renewables</a>, which has sponsored <a href="https://neal.house.gov/press-releases/neal-assists-donation-milk-south-congregational-church-community-food-pantry" target="_blank">five milk donations events</a>, donating more than 17,000 gallons of milk to <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/05/06/metro/local-farms-donate-thousands-gallons-milk-those-need-market-dissolves/" target="_blank">Massachusetts</a> and <a href="https://vanguardrenewables.com/4300-gallons-of-milk-to-be-donated-to-providence-and-pawtucket-families-in-need-on-may-27/" target="_blank">Rhode Island</a> families in need, in partnership with <a href="https://www.dfamilk.com/" target="_blank">Dairy Farmers of America</a> (DFA), <a href="https://hood.com/" target="_blank">HP Hood</a>, <a href="https://www.supercow.com/" target="_blank">Guida's Dairy</a> and various political leaders.</p><p>Vanguard Renewables develops <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2020/06/16/climate-solutions-manure/?arc404=true" target="_blank">novel on-farm systems</a> that recycle organic food waste and manure into renewable energy that it converts to electricity or sells as gas. The company takes food waste from food manufacturers and grocery stores, and uses it to fuel its six anaerobic digester facilities in New England, which also produce organic fertilizer and bedding for animals.</p><p>When dairy's main markets shuttered in April, Vanguard Renewables Chairman and CEO John Hanselman noted a sudden large influx of raw milk coming into his company's facilities straight from farms. Hanselman, who'd never before seen that, reached out to DFA to ask, "Hey what can we do?"</p>
<p>DFA was already focusing on <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/11/business/coronavirus-destroying-food.html" target="_blank">milk dumping</a>, and through its charitable arm, <a href="https://www.dfamilk.com/our-commitment/dfa-cares" target="_blank">DFA Cares</a>, it raised the money needed to purchase milk from farmers to make the donations. Vanguard Renewables contributed $15,000, as well as time and logistical support. Hood HP and Guida's Dairy processed the milk into gallon jugs, and got it out to the points of distribution. The National Guard helped hand out the milk jugs.</p><p>"It was a hell of an effort, but it really felt good in your soul as people were pulling up and we were putting gallons of milk in their trunks," said Hanselman. "You know that so many families are just a few paychecks away from not having their nutritional needs met, and that's devastating in a country that has such abundance."</p><p><a href="https://bluewavesolar.com/" target="_blank">BlueWave Solar</a>, a <a href="https://bcorporation.net/" target="_blank">certified B Corporation</a> and developer of community solar projects, is taking a different tack to help feed families in need. It's donating a portion of the subscriptions it receives to two new community solar projects—in Hudson Valley, New York and in Massachusetts—to area food banks.</p><p><a href="https://www.seia.org/initiatives/community-solar" target="_blank">Community solar</a> provides homeowners and renters an opportunity to tap into clean energy, at a reduced rate on their monthly electric bills, without installing solar panels on their homes. BlueWave Solar's projects are typically developed on low-value land, such as along a highway, but they're also developed on farms, which helps stabilize farmers' income. Recently, the company began developing innovative <a href="https://civileats.com/2019/01/22/agrivoltaics-solar-panels-on-farms-could-be-a-win-win/" target="_blank">dual use solar farms</a> which Marsch, calls the "holy grail," because the farmer is able to continue farming the land around the solar array.</p>
<p>For each new subscriber to the community solar projects, BlueWave Solar contributes $50 to area food banks. The company has also donated more than $10,000 to four food banks since the pandemic started, according to Mike Marsch, principal, community solar at BlueWave Solar</p><p>"When COVID hit, it was such a clear need. It's such a hard-hit region, food insecurity being what it is," said Marsch. "As a company, we've supported the food bank. A lot of us have volunteered there. We thought a natural extension was to combine that with community solar."</p><p>Donating to food banks to attract new subscribers is also a creative way for the company to gin up business while sales are low—but local food banks are grateful for the support.</p><p>Paul Stermer, director at <a href="https://foodbankofhudsonvalley.org/" target="_blank">Food Bank of the Hudson Valley</a>, said he's seen roughly 50 percent more people in the area who are food insecure and need help since the pandemic struck.</p>
<p>Stermer is concerned that once the coronavirus relief programs phase out—the increased unemployment benefits, rent forgiveness, expanded SNAP, <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/136/3245-0407-SBA-Form-3508-PPP-Forgiveness-Application.pdf" target="_blank">Paycheck Protection Program</a>—people will struggle even more.</p><p>"Even once we get past the pandemic, … the impact of what we're seeing today is going to be with us for a while," he said.</p><p>Indeed, a <a href="https://www.feedingamerica.org/sites/default/files/2020-05/Brief_Local%20Impact_5.19.2020.pdf" target="_blank">recent analysis</a> by Feeding America found that progress made in the past decade on food insecurity will likely be wiped out by the pandemic.</p><p>Vanguard Renewables is trying to keep its effort going, said Hanselman, noting "we've got 40 million unemployed Americans and it takes a long time to get those folks back to work."</p><p>But he says, it's gotten harder now to get interest, especially now that the dairy supply chain disruption is over.</p><p><span></span>Regardless of whether the companies can maintain food relief efforts, both will continue building on-farm clean energy systems that support farmers and help make their operations more regenerative.</p>
<p class=""><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://foodtank.com/news/2020/06/feeding-families-in-need-renewable-energy-companies-enter-the-mix/" target="_blank">Food Tank</a>.</em></p>
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UN secretary Ibrahim Thiaw tells DW how consumers can combat desertification and drought. Rainer Jensen / picture alliance / Getty Images
By Sonya Diehn
More than 2 billion hectares of previously productive land is degraded. For Desertification and Drought Day on June 17, DW spoke with Ibrahim Thiaw, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
<p><em>DW: What do you want people to know about this year's desertification day?</em></p><p>Ibrahim Thiaw: Despite COVID-19, we still need to eat. We still need to have clothes. We still need to feed our animals. And we still need the planet. The planet does not need us.</p><p><em>More than a third of the world's land is vulnerable to exploitation that can lead to desertification. Where are some of the worst-affected areas?</em></p><p><em></em>If you consider the size of the land that is affected by desertification, Africa. But if you consider the number of people that are affected by land degradation, it is Asia. If you include the Americas, both north and south, 40% of land is affected by desertification or susceptible to be affected by land degradation. Europe is not spared either — we still lose a lot of soil here. And Europe has been more vulnerable to drought in recent years because of climate change. </p><p>We have one planet, so therefore there is no region in the world that is immune to land degradation or drought.</p>
<p><em>What do those areas have in common, are there some patterns there?</em></p><p>When you cause land degradation, you are affecting people's lives: their health, the economy, their security. Land degradation is also having an impact on migration — we will see more migration because people cannot produce anymore in their land. So therefore, it is not biophysical only. It is social. It is economic. It is health. It is our well-being.</p><p><em>What are some steps people can take?</em></p><p>Let us take the issue of fashion. Having our houses full of clothing that we don't need or we don't wear, or wear only once and throw away, that is what we call the wasteful economy. It is possible that you and I as shoppers are conscious about how we shop. How many liters are being used by the T-shirt I'm going to buy? How much land is being affected? How many people are being affected by that land degradation? It is important that the consciousness of the people, of the buyers, of the consumers, of the school, children, of the adults, are all at the same level. </p>
<p><em>People often think their changes are not going to make a difference. What do you say to that?</em></p><p>How can you make the change if you don't vote? How can you make the change in the planet if you don't buy the right jeans or the right T-shirt? Or if you decide to waste your food. We waste one-third of the food we produce, we just produce it to send to the dustbin. And yet we have 800 million people who are going to bed hungry. Do we live on one planet? Are we one humanity, or is there something wrong?</p><p><em>Is there something that needs to be changed in the way the land is managed?</em></p><p>Yes. The one-third of food we produce each year is equivalent to 1.4 billion hectares. So basically, each year we are wasting the equivalent of 1.4 billion hectares, meaning that we can feed the entire community, the entire world without further degrading on our land, without further clearing our forests, without further affecting our wetlands and our water ponds. We need to be more rational in the way we use these resources. We will have to manage. We should not be considering that these resources are limitless.</p>
<p><em>Can you give us a few examples of places that have successfully reversed desertification?</em></p><p>There are many good examples in different parts of the world, including in Germany. The old mine sites that have been rehabilitated, have been regenerated, and are now being used as tourist attractions.</p><p><span></span>You have examples in many parts of Africa where land that was degraded is now being reconstituted and managed for wildlife conservation. You have put tourists back in countries like Niger, one of the poorest nations on earth, they have decided to manage the land, and now you have giraffes. And when you have giraffes, you have tourists. When you have tourists, you have economic activity. So regeneration is something that can be positive to the economy, can be positive for communities. </p><p>More than 80 countries have pledged to regenerate 400 million hectares by 2030. It is not something that can be done only by experts, scientists or naturalists or biologists. It should be done by everybody.</p>
<p><em>You come from a region that has been dealing with desertification for decades. Is this somehow a personal issue for you?</em></p><p>It is, and I hope it is for you as well. It is a personal issue for me because my family has suffered, because my village has suffered, because my community, because my region, because my continent, because my world, my planet … when you see all the consequences that land degradation is having in the world, you should be concerned. And as a citizen of the world, you should be really conscious of the fact that there is something I can do about it. You are an actor, you are not a spectator.</p><p><em>Do you foresee that the pandemic will have an impact on desertification?</em></p><p>Why do we have that virus? Because we changed the land use. Because we, as human beings, have been in places where we should not have been, because we have taken species out of their ecosystems and because we are using them, we are over-consuming. So COVID-19 is one of the consequences of our new lifestyle. We hope that people will take some steps back and we learn lessons from it, and we hope that the post-COVID-19 world will be a world that is more sustainable. We hope that we will not have a repeat of the pandemic.</p>
<p class=""><em>Reposted with permission from </em><em><a href="https://www.dw.com/en/to-stop-land-degradation-reject-fast-fashion-and-cancel-food-waste/a-53824564?maca=en-VAM_volltext_ecowatch-28485-html-copypaste" target="_blank">Deutsche Welle</a>.</em><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/r/entryeditor/2646190732#/" target="_self"></a></p>
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A man wearing a protective mask searches for leftovers among rotten fruits and vegetables in a dumpster in Corabastos, the main food distribution center of the country on April 17, 2020 in Bogota, Colombia. The mandatory lockdown to prevent the spread of COVID-19 has resulted in many informal workers losing their income. John W. Vizcaino / VIEWpress / Corbis via Getty Images
The United Nations issued a dire warning on Tuesday that the world stands on the brink of the worst food crisis in the last 50 years, according to The Guardian.
<p>The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the world is facing an "impending global food emergency" that could impact hundreds of millions of people as the coronavirus pandemic threatens already strained supply chains, according to Hong Kong-based <a href="https://asiatimes.com/2020/06/un-warns-pandemic-could-spark-global-food-crisis/" target="_blank">Asia Times</a>. He warned that the recessions that follow the pandemic will put basic nutrition out of reach for millions.</p>
<p>"Our food systems are failing, and the Covid-19 pandemic is making things worse," the UN chief said in a <a href="https://www.un.org/en/coronavirus/we-need-act-now-avoid-worst-impacts-our-efforts-control-pandemic" target="_blank">statement</a> accompanying a <a href="http://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/sg_policy_brief_on_covid_impact_on_food_security.pdf" target="_blank">report</a> by the UN. "More than 820 million people are hungry. "Some 144 million children under the age of five are stunted – more than one in five children worldwide."</p><p>That's particularly troubling as malnutrition has lifelong consequences. If the number of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/childrens-health">children</a> who suffer from malnutrition grows, it is likely to cause increased stunting and provide a future strain on health care systems.</p>
<p>Guterres warned that "this year, some 49 million extra people may fall into extreme poverty due to the Covid-19 crisis," according to <a href="https://asiatimes.com/2020/06/un-warns-pandemic-could-spark-global-food-crisis/" target="_blank">Asia Times</a>.</p><p>"Unless immediate action is taken, it is increasingly clear that there is an impending global food emergency that could have long-term impacts on hundreds of millions of children and adults," as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jun/09/world-faces-worst-food-crisis-50-years-un-coronavirus" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported. "We need to act now to avoid the worst impacts of our efforts to control the pandemic."</p><p>The UN Secretary-General provided a three-point plan for attacking the hunger crisis: focus aid on the worst-stricken areas to avoid immediate disaster, to improve social safety nets so children, pregnant women and breast-feeding mothers along with other at-risk group receive adequate nutrition, and to invest in healthy and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sustainability">sustainable</a> food systems and supply chains for the future, according to Guterres' <a href="https://www.un.org/en/coronavirus/we-need-act-now-avoid-worst-impacts-our-efforts-control-pandemic" target="_blank">statement</a>.</p>
<p>The latest data in the report, <a href="http://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/sg_policy_brief_on_covid_impact_on_food_security.pdf" target="_blank"><em>The Impact of COVID-19 on Food Security and Nutrition</em></a>, found that the food security of 135 million people is at crisis level or worse. That number could nearly double before the end of the year due to the impacts of COVID-19.</p><p>Increasing unemployment and the loss of income associated with lockdowns are also putting food out of reach for many struggling people, the report found, according to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jun/09/world-faces-worst-food-crisis-50-years-un-coronavirus" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>. While global markets have remained steady, the cost for basic foods has begun to rise in some countries.</p><p>The report also expects harvests to slow down, since many seasonal laborers are unable to work or travel for work. Meanwhile, despite the impending crisis, <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/food-waste">food waste</a> is surging as farmers are <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/food-waste-coronavirus-government-assistance-2645913920.html" target="_self">finding themselves in the unenviable position of dumping perishable food</a> because of supply chain problems, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jun/09/world-faces-worst-food-crisis-50-years-un-coronavirus" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported.</p>
<p><br>"The Covid-19 crisis is attacking us at every angle," said Agnes Kalibata, the UN secretary general's special envoy for the 2021 food systems summit, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jun/09/world-faces-worst-food-crisis-50-years-un-coronavirus" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported. "It has exposed dangerous deficiencies in our food systems and actively threatens the lives and livelihoods of people around the world, especially the more than 1 billion people who have employment in the various industries in food systems."</p><p>However, she added that there is an opportunity to improve food systems so they are equipped to handle future shocks.</p><p>"Food has always brought people together and it can again if we build back better as it relates to our food systems," she said, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jun/09/world-faces-worst-food-crisis-50-years-un-coronavirus" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported.</p>
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A worker at a flower farm in Kiambu County, Kenya, piles up roses to be dumped on March 24, 2020. Patrick Meinhardt / AFP / Getty Images
By Peyton Fleming
Gerison Ndwiga, a small rural farmer in Kenya, felt the economic sting of COVID-19 just days after the government announced a curfew and travel restrictions in late March.
<p>For Ndwiga, who grows vine ripe tomatoes and exotic French beans 75 miles north of the nation's capital, the pain was double: He couldn't transport his tomatoes to Nairobi and traders stopped exporting his beans to Europe.</p><p>Within days, he made a tough choice: he left more than 16,000 pounds of ripe beans in the ground unpicked – a loss he estimated at more than US$4,000. "I didn't pick anything because there were no flights in and out of Nairobi," Ndwiga said, noting that most Kenyans have no interest in buying his long skinny beans known as haricot verts.</p><p>COVID-19 is eating away at most sectors of the world's economy. But in Kenya, which has enjoyed a booming <a href="https://www.economist.com/special-report/2020/03/26/many-of-africas-economies-are-doing-well" target="_blank">trade relationship</a> with Europe in recent years, the global lockdown has hit small and large commercial farmers especially hard. Europeans are noticing this as favorite roses and passion fruits are hard to find in stores. Meanwhile, Kenyan producers are pivoting at jet speed to develop new markets closer to home, creating new revenue streams and new outlets for small farmers like Ndwiga trying to sell their crops.</p><p>"After decades of high dependency on exports, the opportunities for tapping local and regional markets are becoming clearer, especially as African economies and income levels grow," said Jane Ambuko, associate professor and Head of Horticulture at the University of Nairobi. "Exports aren't going away, but growing domestic markets opens new frontiers for trade while supporting our local populations, many of whom are small farmers."</p>
<p>Kenya's horticulture industry is a much-heralded success story. Fresh produce and flower exports that totaled $68 million in 1991 sprouted 20-fold to <a href="http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-03/19/c_138892693.htm" target="_blank">$1.37 billion</a> by 2019, much of it from roses, avocados and French beans. Every day, dozens of airplanes filled with cut flowers, fresh fruits and vegetables take off from Nairobi, most of them heading to Europe. Three million Kenyans were directly involved in growing and processing those crops.</p><p>When Europe closed its borders and economy in March, the flights – and exporters' lifeline – snapped shut.</p><p>"The last two months have been really tough," said Frank Obure, general manager packhouses at AAA Growers Ltd., Kenya's third largest exporter which provides premium roses, fruits and vegetables all across Europe. Obure has wrestled with worker layoffs, cancelled deliveries, rotting crops, safety protocols and devastating rains. "I've never been through an experience like this before."</p><p>How bad has it been? Before the pandemic, AAA Growers was exporting 1.4 million flowers every week. When Holland's vast flower markets were shuttered, shipments dropped to virtually zero. Millions of roses that should have been adorning homes across Europe on Easter Sunday were wilting instead at two flower farms near Mount Kenya.</p>
<p>"We're harvesting and throwing, harvesting and throwing. Upwards of 250,000 stems a day are going into the bin," Obure said, estimating overall flower losses at 70 to 80 percent.</p><p>Fruit and vegetable exports have also been hurt, although not as badly since some fresh produce can be redirected to local markets – at substantially marked down prices.</p><p>All told, with produce exports down by 70 to 75 percent, Kenya's horticulture industry is losing about EU $3 million a day, according to Industry trade group <a href="https://www.coleacp.org/?lang=en" target="_blank">COLEACP</a>. But that figure does not account for thousands of small growers like Ndwiga who have been largely cut off from export markets and Nairobi's informal urban markets due to travel bans. </p><p>Due to paperwork limitations, Ndwiga, who owns 10 acres, says he can only get into Nairobi once every two weeks to sell his tomatoes in informal markets. "I'm selling many of my tomatoes locally at village prices because they're getting overripe." he said, noting that prices are half what he'd fetch in Nairobi.</p><p>Ndwiga's predicament is common, say local industry experts<strong>.</strong> "For bigger companies whose trucks are registered, they don't have problems moving produce into Nairobi, but the small farmers who don't have the necessary paperwork, they're the ones who are suffering the most," said Emmanuel Oriedo, a food and farming system consultant who works with small farmers.</p>
Uncertainty and Hope
<p>To be sure, the situation has improved the past few weeks, particularly as flight restrictions to Europe are loosening a bit and more passenger planes are being converted to carry cargo. But major obstacles remain, including in-country transport bottlenecks and prohibitively high air freight costs. Shipping costs to Europe are averaging $2.80 to $4 per kilogram, more than double previous rates.</p><p>Companies are not sitting and waiting. AAA Growers is scrambling to sell more produce locally through popular Nairobi retailers like Carrefour, Quick Mart and KFC. The company's 'sell-local' efforts began last year, and it gained urgency when COVID-19 hit. Local sales now total 12 to 15 tons a week. </p><p>TwigaFoods, which sells all of its fresh produce within Kenya, responded to COVID-19 with a new e-commerce push. In late April, it launched a <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/28/goldman-backed-ventures-jumia-and-twiga-partner-on-produce-in-kenya/" target="_blank">partnership</a> with e-commerce company Jumia to deliver bundles of fruits and vegetables directly to people's homes. The effort is aimed at affluent Nairobi customers who want to avoid buying at more expensive supermarkets.</p><p>"We'd been thinking about the idea and we were starting to see more home deliveries (due to COVID-19)," said TwigaFoods CEO Peter Njongo. "For now, it's something we'll do in Kenya. We'll see how it works."</p>From Your Site Articles
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Sockeye salmon are seen swimming at a fish farm. Natalie Fobes / Getty Images
By Peter Beech
Using waste food to farm insects as fish food and high-tech real-time water quality monitoring: innovations that could help change global aquaculture, were showcased at the World Economic Forum's Virtual Ocean Dialogues 2020.
<p>Two young entrepreneurs addressed a breakout session of the event called <em>Harnessing the Power of Innovation to Achieve SDG14.</em> Syrine Chaalala, co-founder of the French-Tunisian company <a href="http://nextprotein.co/" target="_blank">nextProtein</a>, and Charlotte Dupont, co-founder of the French company <a href="https://www.bioceanor.com/products-and-services" target="_blank">BiOceanOr</a>, revealed the ideas that drove their rapidly accelerating startups.</p><p>Chalaala's nextProtein uses food waste to mass-produce insect protein to feed farmed fish in place of fishmeal – the production of which, often from corporate fisheries' by-catch, can lead to the depletion of ecosystems and the collapse of local fisheries. As our demand for farmed fish is growing 8% a year, her innovation could play a vital role in reducing the knock-on impact of aquaculture on the ocean.</p><p>She said that farming insects requires a fraction of the space as animal feed production – 100 square meters (1,076 square feet) of space can produce as much protein as 100 hectares (247 acres) of soy field.</p><p>"Because we wanted to have maximum impact, we wanted to provide solutions to other problems," said Chalaala, naming food waste and land scarcity as two key issues her business tackles. "Here, we can convert 20 kilos (44 pounds) of food waste into 1 kilo (2 pounds) of product."</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzM2NjM0OS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MTg3OTI4Mn0.oD9VhsI4EFz1M0V2nvk2kfcKp5quW1cl8I7kcQzoA24/img.png?width=980" id="ca2ec" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="94432f70b397eba50b44653468421d60" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Fly fishing. nextProtein
<p>The method uses vertical farming, little energy and almost no water – testament, said session host Christian Lim of <a href="https://www.blueoceanspartners.com/" target="_blank">Blue Oceans Partners</a>, to the efficiency of the insects at thriving on low input. The insect nextProtein uses is the Black Soldier Fly, selected due to its high-yield quality, and the ease of processing it into powder, oil and fertilizer. Her business is aiming to produce 100,000 tonnes of insect protein annually by 2025 – or around 10% of the insect meal market.</p><p>Meanwhile Charlotte Dupont and her colleagues at BiOceanOr have developed what they term "the first underwater weather station for real-time monitoring of water quality." One of its many applications is for fish farmers who aren't yet monitoring their water quality in real time.</p><p>She painted a picture of an industry that is only reluctantly changing, with water quality largely still monitored by hand. Since this process is time-consuming and arduous, it's generally done only once a day. But once the firm's underwater 'weather-stations' are installed, farmers can get a moment-by-moment grasp on conditions for their stock.</p><p>"Our first customer called us a few days later to tell us our tool wasn't working – the oxygen levels couldn't be so low," she said. But the equipment was fine: the unprecedented readings had thrown him. He was used to taking his readings only once a day, in the late morning, and had no idea how low oxygen levels could get overnight.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzM2NjM1My9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMTIyMTUyNn0.x-eiOr4B5_0GZvmVnYiD0YYGyDR32PO0YJ0H-3tFrzM/img.png?width=980" id="b4249" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8a25143f13bdf53b3e5fdfd0833eaf7c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
BiOceanOr's AquaREAL system. BiOceanOr
<p>"There are a lot of aquaculturists who don't realize right now the power of real-time monitoring," said Dupont. "It's a knowledge that they transmit from generation to generation, like agriculture a century ago: 'I know it because my father knows it.' They think there's nothing you can learn from tools, but just as in agriculture, there's a lot you can learn."</p><p>"I think data will be really central in the future," said Dupont, predicting a future where people subscribe to the water forecast just as today they subscribe to a weather forecast.</p><p>"With sensitive ecosystems like reefs and coastal systems, people will be able to subscribe to the data and see what is going on," she said. These water-quality forecasts will play a vital role in protecting ocean health.</p><p>Their session provided a short but telling insight into two crucial innovations in aquaculture as we set a course for a sustainable blue economy in the post-COVID-19 era. For more from the Virtual Ocean Dialogues 2020, you can access the whole event <a href="https://www.weforum.org/events/virtual-ocean-dialogues-2020/" target="_blank">here</a>.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/06/virtual-ocean-dialogues-water-forecasting-fish-farms-waste-innovation-blue-economy/" target="_blank">World Economic Forum</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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The Upcycled Food Association announced on May 19 that they define upcycled foods as ones that "use ingredients that otherwise would not have gone to human consumption, are procured and produced using verifiable supply chains, and have a positive impact on the environment." Minerva Studio / Getty Images
By Jared Kaufman
Upcycled food is now an officially defined term, which advocates say will encourage broader consumer and industry support for products that help reduce food waste. Upcycling—transforming ingredients that would have been wasted into edible food products—has been gaining ground in alternative food movements for several years but had never been officially defined.
<p><br/></p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.upcycledfood.org/" target="_blank">Upcycled Food Association</a> announced on May 19 that they define upcycled foods as ones that "use ingredients that otherwise would not have gone to human consumption, are procured and produced using verifiable supply chains, and have a positive impact on the environment."</p><p>The definition was drafted by a working group convened by the Upcycled Food Association, which included representatives from Harvard University, Drexel University, <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/" target="_blank">Natural Resources Defense Council</a>, <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/initiatives/food-waste" target="_blank">World Wildlife Fund</a>, and <a href="https://www.refed.com/" target="_blank">ReFED</a>, a nonprofit that analyzes solutions to food waste. The Upcycled Food Association is a member-based industry non-profit that aims to boost the profile of upcycled foods. The association's working group hopes that such a definition will make it easier for food companies to show how their products contribute to food waste reduction.</p><p>The definition is "putting some teeth into a trend that is doing the right thing for our food supply, our environment, consumers, and businesses," Jonathan Deutsch, a professor at Drexel University and the director of the Drexel Food Lab, says in a statement.</p>
<p>Standardizing the term is also a first step toward legislation that supports upcycling, according to Emily Broad Leib, a Harvard University law professor and the director of Harvard's Food Law and Policy Clinic. "Further research can be done to identify and leverage policy incentives to support upcycled foods as a model to reduce food waste and support a more sustainable food system," she says in a statement.</p><p>Upcycling has emerged in recent years as a way for food producers to add value to byproducts or surplus ingredients that might otherwise have been wasted. Already, food companies such as <a href="https://foodtank.com/news/2020/01/philabundances-abundantly-good-cheese-benefiting-dairy-farmers-hungry-families/" target="_blank">Philabundance</a> and <a href="https://foodtank.com/news/2018/10/treasure8s-inventions-aim-to-change-the-idea-of-food-waste/" target="_blank">Treasure8</a> are repurposing safely edible ingredients, like excess milk or "ugly" vegetables, into nutritious cheeses and chips.</p><p>"We can take these very large waste streams and we can upcycle them into safe, tasty, healthy products and ingredients that can work at large scale distribution," Treasure8 co-founder Timothy Childs told Food Tank in 2018.</p>
<p>Food waste is a significant plague on both the food system and the climate. The <a href="https://www.usda.gov/foodwaste/faqs" target="_blank">U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates</a> that between 30–40 percent of the food supply is lost or wasted—about 133 billion pounds a year. The impact is magnified by the water, energy, and land resources that went into producing food that was never consumed. Project Drawdown, an organization that advocates cutting greenhouse gas emissions, <a href="https://drawdown.org/drawdown-framework/drawdown-review-2020" target="_blank">has identified reducing food waste</a> as the No. 1 solution to keep warming below 2ºC.</p><p>And research shows that consumers not only understand the term "upcycled" as a distinct category, but also see added value in it. According to <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/cb.1689?systemMessage=Wiley+Online+Library+usage+report+download+page+will+be+unavailable+on+Friday+24th+November+2017+at+21%3A00+EST+%2F+02.00+GMT+%2F+10%3A00+SGT+%28Saturday+25th+Nov+for+SGT" target="_blank">a benchmark study conducted by Deutsch's team at Drexel University</a> in 2017, customers surveyed viewed "value-added surplus foods" as being significantly different from conventional products and preferred the term "upcycled" over eight alternatives. The results suggest that many customers might find the benefit of upcycled food to be on par with organic certification, meaning they assign value to—and may be willing to pay more for—truly sustainable upcycled products.</p>
<p>The Upcycled Food Association hopes to use the new definition as a way to signal to consumers that food waste reduction claims on products are consistent and verifiable. To follow up on the definition, Upcycled Food Association COO Ben Gray says the association is planning to launch a product certification program for upcycled foods later this year.</p><p>"We want to give people the ability to participate in the solution every time they visit a grocery store," Gray says in a statement. "We envision a future in which many products in every aisle and around the perimeter proudly display the upcycled certification, giving consumers the opportunity to vote to reduce food waste with their dollars."</p>
<p class=""><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://foodtank.com/news/2020/05/upcycled-food-is-officially-defined-with-a-goal-of-paving-the-way-for-industry-food-waste-reduction/" target="_blank">Food Tank</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Soldiers with the Maryland Army National Guard distribute food to those in need on May 2, 2020 in Windsor Mill, Maryland, during the coronavirus pandemic. ALEX EDELMAN / AFP via Getty Images
Something is fundamentally wrong in the food supply chain. More and more people are going hungry and applying for food assistance. Meanwhile, farmers are dumping milk and eggs and plowing under their fields. Major food buyers like schools, hotels and restaurants have shut down, leaving nowhere for the food to go. This is the largest amount of food destroyed since the Great Depression.
<p>In fact, last month, farmers were dumping 3.7 million gallons of milk each day, draining it into manure pits, where it mixed with fertilizer used in the fields, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/02/business/coronavirus-food-waste-destroyed.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> reported.</p><p>"These are not insolvable problems," said Marion Nestle, a food studies professor at New York University, who spoke to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/02/business/coronavirus-food-waste-destroyed.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>. "These are problems that require a lot of people, sums of money and some thought. If the government were really interested in making sure that hungry people got fed and farmers were supported, they would figure out a way to do it."</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.ams.usda.gov/selling-food-to-usda/farmers-to-families-food-box" target="_blank" title="">U.S. Department of Agriculture</a> (USDA) will soon spend $300 million a month to purchase surplus vegetables, fruit, milk and meat from distributors and ship them to food banks. The department will also subsidize the boxing up of food for shipment to food banks, which is something that farmers had complained they could not afford to do, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/02/business/coronavirus-food-waste-destroyed.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>.</p><p>However, as <a href="https://therevelator.org/food-waste-spilt-milk/" target="_blank">The Revelator</a> noted, the USDA already buys unwanted cheese to the tune of more than $20 million in a year, which is also produced with taxpayer-funded subsidies. The U.S. government currently has a federal stockpile of 1.4 billion pounds of cheese.</p><p>In a widely shared tweet last month, Wisconsin journalist Shaun Gallagher shared a video of tens of thousands of gallons of milk running down a drain.</p>
<div id="6464c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7dff0fe35ae4fbbe98c54031e10647d3"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1245829203385143296" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">What a waste! #COVID19Pandemic is forcing Dairy farmers to dump their milk down the drain so the milk market doesn’… https://t.co/mnvIwyRr5R</div> — Shaun Gallagher (@Shaun Gallagher)<a href="https://twitter.com/ShaunGalNews/statuses/1245829203385143296">1585863803.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>"#COVID19Pandemic is forcing dairy farmers to dump their milk down the drain so the milk market doesn't implode. Why not give it away to those who need it?" Gallagher wrote on <a href="https://twitter.com/ShaunGalNews/status/1245829203385143296" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.</p><p>The same issue has plagued New York state. "This is just a total waste to me," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said last week, as <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-farm-bureau-cuomo-milk-dairy-farmers-dumping-20200427-vv4ywhu3bbfhjam3jevtagur3u-story.html" target="_blank">The New York Daily News</a> reported. "We have people downstate who need food and farmers upstate who can't sell their product. We need to make that marriage between product upstate and need downstate."</p><p>Cuomo announced an initiative he calls Nourish New York, in which the state will coordinate with farmers to purchase products and send them to food banks while upstate-based companies like Chobani and Cabot Cheese will distribute their excess products to food banks and those in need, as <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-farm-bureau-cuomo-milk-dairy-farmers-dumping-20200427-vv4ywhu3bbfhjam3jevtagur3u-story.html" target="_blank">The New York Daily News</a> reported.</p><p>The plan earmarks $25 million for food banks to buy from the state's farms. In addition to dairy, the food banks can use the money to buy apples, potatoes and other excess produce that farmers have stored away.</p>
<p>Across the country, the Dairy Farmers of America, the country's largest dairy co-op, sent nearly 250,000 gallons of milk to food banks across the country, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/02/business/coronavirus-food-waste-destroyed.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> reported.</p><p>"It's just a drop in the bucket," said Jackie Klippenstein, a senior vice president at the co-op. "But we had to do something."</p><p>In California, farmers are worried what they will do with the strawberries that will peak later this month.</p><p>"Time is not on our side," said Mary Coppola, a vice president at the United Fresh Produce Association, a trade group of fruit and vegetable growers and processors, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/02/business/coronavirus-food-waste-destroyed.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> reported. "In my own personal opinion, we are not coming up with the supply-chain logistical solutions as quickly as produce is growing."</p><p>In addition to the government, many <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/stop-food-waste-day-organizations-2645871951.html" target="_self">grassroots organizations</a> are trying to connect farmers with food banks and are helping purchase excess food from farms.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzE5OTczNC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0MjE3OTY1NH0.-TUuHthYSe0WT9myF6cl4fZgRHl4kFw08LhMRh_N1HA/img.jpg?width=980" id="10773" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1a0a4beb9ba7fcdc53bcfa86b2c89c4e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
A strawberry field in Ventura, California on Jan. 18, 2020. Tracie Hall / Flickr
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Woman building a diy insect hotel outdoor. Guido Mieth / DigitalVision / Getty Images
By Courtney Lindwall
If you're one of those people cooped up safely at home, with creative energy and free time to spare—count yourself lucky. Here, we've rounded up a list of two dozen environmental projects that can make your time indoors, or right outside, a little brighter. Whether you're ready to start rescuing more of your kitchen scraps, sewing your own cloth napkins, or documenting those backyard butterflies, we hope these simple green ideas will provide a calming means of coping during these unprecedented times. Have fun and stay safe.
Experiment in the Kitchen
<p><strong>Spice up mealtime with recipes from </strong><a href="https://savethefood.com/recipes/" target="_blank">Save the Food</a> that will also help prevent your food from going to waste. Make a fromage fort to spread on your crackers, or "scraps falafel" to use up wrinkly onions and wilted herbs. And for dessert, how about some <a href="https://savethefood.com/recipes/leftover-mashed-potato-apple-cider-donuts" target="_blank">leftover mashed potato apple cider donuts</a>? </p><p><strong>Rescue wilting herbs.</strong> Make <a href="https://savethefood.com/storage" target="_blank">herb oil ice cubes</a><a href="https://savethefood.com/storage" target="_blank"> by </a>packing diced herbs into an ice cube tray, covering with olive oil, and freezing. Thaw for ready-made flavor in your next dish. You can also transform less-than-fresh herbs into sauces, like chimichurri or pesto, or roast them and mix with salt to create longer-lasting seasonings. </p><p><strong>Start a windowsill herb garden. </strong>You'll need some seeds or a small plant, an upcycled container like a coffee canister that leaves room for growth and drainage, and a sunny ledge. (The Herb Society of America can help you determine <a href="https://www.herbsociety.org/hsa-learn/intro-to-herbs/hsa-gardening-for-kids/light-indoor-gardens.html" target="_blank">the right dose of light and water for each species</a>.) In a few weeks' time, you'll be ready to add a sprig of fresh basil to your bowl of pasta or diced cilantro to your batch of guac.</p><p><strong>Arrange a plant-based recipe swap</strong> with friends and family, which will reduce your diet's climate impacts while creating some virtual community. (Remember: If <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/experts/sujatha-bergen/saving-planet-starts-our-plates" target="_blank">every American cut just one hamburger</a> or about a quarter pound of beef out of their diet each week, we could reduce emissions by as much as taking about 10 million cars off the road each year.)</p><p><strong><br>Simmer your veggie scraps into a </strong><a href="https://savethefood.com/recipes/basic-vegetable-stock" target="_blank"><strong>flavorful stock</strong></a>, the foundation of your next meal. To get started, keep a clean, half-gallon carton in the freezer, and add trimmings as you prep meals. When you have enough, put the veggies in a pot, cover with water, and crank up the heat.</p><p><strong>Plan a dough swap</strong> by freezing half of the dough from your latest baked good and suggesting friends, family, and coworkers do the same. When you're reunited, you can organize a trade and enjoy someone else's baking for a change.</p><p><strong>Start an indoor compost bin.</strong> It shouldn't smell when you follow this <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/stories/composting-way-easier-you-think" target="_blank">list of what is and isn't compost-friendly</a>. To build your worm bin, find two plastic tubs and <a href="https://nrdc.tumblr.com/post/118984184239/how-to-build-a-worm-bin" target="_blank">drill holes in one of them</a> to provide proper aeration. Layer in moist bedding—made of things like shredded newspaper, leaves, or coconut husk—and then add some red wigglers, which you can order online. Kept well fed with scraps, your worms will soon be producing "black gold" compost to use in your garden and helping you curb greenhouse gases.</p>
Enjoy a Dose of Nature
<p><strong></strong><strong>Make your own basic bird feeder</strong> using pine cones, twine, nut butter, and birdseed. <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B-rxsVfAvaa/" target="_blank">This video from the Feminist Bird Club shows you one way to do it.</a> Hang it on a nearby tree you can spot through your window, then grab a pair of binoculars and do some armchair birding!</p><p><a href="https://www.nrdc.org/stories/how-and-why-be-seed-savior" target="_blank"><strong>Create an herbarium</strong></a>—a scrapbook of pressed, dried flowers or other plants. To prepare your samples, press the plant matter in a large book or between sheets of newspaper and place a weight on top. When the leaves are dry, mount them on acid-free paper to preserve them, and label each specimen on the page. You can also include illustrations, photographs, seed packets, and notes.</p><p><strong>Sharpen your naturalist ID skills.</strong> Try to identify every species of plant in your backyard or on a neighborhood walk. You can do the same for wildlife—and share your findings through <a href="https://www.projectnoah.org/" target="_blank">Project Noah</a>, a citizen science platform to discover, share, and identify wildlife.</p><p><strong>Grow new indoor plants</strong> with the use of stems and leaves, rather than seeds. Though it <a href="https://www.bbg.org/gardening/article/how_to_propagate_houseplants" target="_blank">depends on your individual plant</a> species, propagating houseplants is often as easy as cutting off a stem or leaf from an existing plant and sticking it in soil or fresh water. If it takes, a new root system should form within a few weeks—leaving you with a hearty second plant within a few more months. (Pro tip: This works for green onions too! Nearly submerge their sliced-off roots, end down, into a glass of water that you change every few days. Voilà: a nearly endless supply of scallions.)</p><p><strong>Observe monarch butterflies</strong> in your backyard and share your findings with Monarch Watch, an organization devoted to their <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/stories/monarch-butterflies-get-head-start-schoolyard" target="_blank">conservation</a>. Each year, monarchs make a remarkable 3,000-mile trek from as far north as the southern parts of Canada to the mountains of Mexico and back—but these pollinators are <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/experts/sylvia-fallon/monarch-butterfly-numbers-fall-again" target="_blank">in danger</a>. Register as one of Monarch Watch's citizen scientists to <a href="https://monarchwatch.org/calendar/?fbclid=IwAR1bawlAoraeMokwdiZa_GVONQqtDnqQxc_EM_UwzbO0zhq733PT6CQIgLc" target="_blank">help track the population's health</a>.</p><p><strong><a href="https://www.nrdc.org/stories/how-turn-your-patch-earth-barren-bountiful" target="_blank">Boost your backyard biodiversity</a>. </strong>Plant some milkweed—the main food source for monarch caterpillars and egg-laying habitat for the butterflies. Hang a bee nesting box somewhere it can get sunlight and warmth. Add a barn owl box or attach a simple roosting perch to a pole. For reptile enthusiasts, set up a small wood pile, using brush or old logs as shelter for lizards and snakes (plus fungi).</p>Do Some Handiwork and Art Projects
<p><strong>Make face masks </strong>for your friends, family, and workers on the frontlines. This <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/downloads/DIY-cloth-face-covering-instructions.pdf" target="_blank">Center for Disease Control guide</a> breaks down different techniques. If you're comfortable sewing, you'll just need two 10-by-6-inch rectangles of fabric, two pieces of elastic, and a needle and thread for each mask. The no-sew option only requires a T-shirt and scissors. Remember: Cloth masks should be cleaned regularly (the CDC says a washing machine is sufficient) in order to remain effective.<strong></strong></p><p><strong>Get your crayons out </strong>and do some therapeutic coloring. In honor of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day and as part of a collaboration with NRDC, Studio Number One and its creative director, artist Shepard Fairey, have converted some of its archival activist artwork into <a href="http://www.studionumberone.com/free-downloads" target="_blank">black-and-white printouts for at-home coloring.</a></p><p><strong>Tackle your plastic bag stash</strong>, especially if your city or town is among those that recently banned the bag. Since current conditions may eliminate collection and recycling programs for plastic bags in your area, consider upcycling them instead. There are plenty of online tutorials for how to make outdoor pillow cushions stuffed with plastic bags, weave bags into <a href="https://www.instructables.com/id/Make-a-basket-out-of-plastic-bags/" target="_blank">sturdy baskets</a>, or wind them into jump ropes.</p><p><a href="https://www.nrdc.org/stories/purging-your-closets-dont-stuff-all-your-old-duds-trash-bag" target="_blank"><strong>Cut down on textile waste</strong></a>, which exacts a <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/stories/are-my-denim-jeans-bad-environment" target="_blank">heavy toll on the environment and public health</a>, by giving old clothes a second life. Alter out-of-style garments by embroidering, reshaping, or using nontoxic dye to give them a new look. Take inspiration from fashion designers like <a href="http://zerowastedaniel.com/about" target="_blank">Daniel Silverstein</a>, who makes colorful, collaged clothing out of fabric scraps, or turn old fabric into a work of art, like weaver <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/weaving-beauty-borderlands" target="_blank">Consuelo Jimenez Underwoo</a>d.</p><p><strong>Turn old beach towels or T-shirts into </strong><a href="https://www.papernstitchblog.com/how-to-make-reusable-paper-towels/" target="_blank"><strong>a set of cloth napkins</strong></a>, a perfect beginner-level sewing project. By ditching single-use paper towels and napkins, you'll be helping to protect our forests, like the boreal of Canada that is the source of the virgin wood pulp used for much of the tissue paper products sold in the United States. Instead, switch to more sustainable, washable rags or cloths for cleaning up around the house and at the dining table.</p><p><strong>Get crafty with your recycling efforts</strong> to encourage kids <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/stories/how-raise-environmentalist" target="_blank">to be more aware of our disposable culture</a>. For example, you could transform empty jars into vases, penholders, and votive candle holders. Or make a fresh notebook from scrap paper with the help of a hole punch and scissors, some ribbon, and an old cereal box (for making sturdy covers).</p>
Build Your Community
<p><strong></strong><strong>Start an environmental movie club.</strong> Various apps let you host movie nights with friends online, so you can chat while you watch. You can find our recs for standout environmental films on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B-QNBxqJAUR/" target="_blank">Instagram</a>—including <em>Poisoning Paradise</em>, <em>Virunga</em>, and <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/stories/how-turn-your-patch-earth-barren-bountiful" target="_blank"><em>The Biggest Little Farm</em></a>—with short summaries and tips on where you can find them online.</p><p>Document the environmental changes in your community<strong>, as they relate to climate change, through the </strong><a href="https://earthchallenge2020.earthday.org/" target="_blank"><strong>Earth Challenge </strong>2020's online portal</a>. The project will collect billions of observations in air quality, plastic pollution, and insect populations, and your insights will help promote policy change to address our warming world.</p><p><strong>Tune in to a new podcast</strong>. We recommend <a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/range/hot-take-4#/" target="_blank"><em>Hot Take</em></a>, featuring NRDC's own Mary Heglar and her cohost Amy Westervelt, which takes a critical but constructive, intersectional look at how climates issues are being covered in the media. And despite the weighty content of the podcast, laughter is one of its defining sounds.</p><p><strong>Connect with climate justice activists</strong> by following along with <a href="http://thisiszerohour.org/our-actions/#actions" target="_blank">Zero Hour's Getting to the Roots digital series</a>. Each week, it focuses on a different theme that is a root cause of the climate crisis as well as ways to solve it—through digital leadership training, webinars, virtual open mics on Instagram and Twitter, art competitions, and podcast releases.</p><p><strong>Write a </strong><a href="https://www.nrdc.org/stories/how-write-successful-letter-editor" target="_blank"><strong>letter to the editor</strong></a> that tackles one of the environmental issues facing your community that's close to your heart. The letter can be written in response to a piece that's already been published by a given media outlet, or it can be a proactive statement of support for or opposition against a particular issue that affects fellow readers. It's the perfect way to reach thousands of individuals and still remain publicly engaged without having to leave the comfort of your home.</p>Related Articles Around the Web
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