It’s cruel irony that people go hungry in this country, yet we waste billions of dollars worth of usable food each year. That’s why the “food rescue” initiative by nine local Rotary clubs and the Victoria Foundation is such a welcome development. It endeavours to ease two problems — food waste and hunger — with one solution.
The Rotarians raised $100,000, which was matched by the foundation. The money will enable the Mustard Seed Food Bank to collect truckloads of fruits, vegetables and other perishable foods that would otherwise go to waste.
Details are still being worked out, but the effort could involve refrigerated trucks and a distribution hub with cold storage where foods approaching their best-before dates are examined and repacked for distribution to local nonprofit agencies and individuals in need. Produce past its usefulness to humans could be given to farmers as livestock feed.
In Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck’s novel about Dust Bowl migrants trying to find work in California’s food-growing areas, orchard owners and farmers destroyed produce they couldn’t sell while migrants in squalid camps starved to death.
In Canada, while the use of food banks increases, more than $30 billion worth of food goes to waste in homes, restaurants and grocery stores every year, according to a 2014 study. That’s two per cent of the Canadian GDP, and more than the total economic output of the world’s poorest 29 countries.
Unlike the situation in Steinbeck’s novel, which contains much historical accuracy, the problem today isn’t heartless food producers and retailers, but a matter of distribution. Grocery stores, bakeries, farmers and others already contribute generously to food banks and other agencies, but too much food still goes to waste because it spoils before it can be distributed. That’s why the means are needed to distribute fresh produce and other items to the needy while the food is still usable.
As the “food rescue” initiative moves ahead in conflating the issues of food waste and hunger in the Greater Victoria region, let’s consider some of the factors that lead to so much waste.
Nearly half of the food waste happens in the home. People buy food with intention of using it, but for various reasons, fail to do so. It ends up in landfills or as compost.
Processing and manufacturing account for as much as 20 per cent of the food wasted in Canada. About 10 per cent is wasted before it leaves the farm and retailers waste another 10 per cent. More waste occurs in grocery stores, restaurants and hotels and in the storage and transportation process.
The travel industry is a huge food-waster — one study estimated that the amount of food that gets wasted on European airlines could feed 200,000 people in poorer countries each year.
The waste affects us all, adding 10 per cent or more to the cost of our food. Producing, processing and transporting food consume valuable resources — especially water — and contribute to greenhouse-gas emissions. Reducing waste would ease environmental burdens.
The study on food waste didn’t factor in what’s being wasted at institutions such as prisons, jails, hospitals and schools because relevant reliable data wasn’t available.
If those numbers are included, along with the true cost of things such as energy, water, land, labour, capital investment, infrastructure, machinery and transport, the true cost of wasted food would likely be closer to $100 billion a year.
Imagine what that amount could do if spent on social programs.
Few of us want to waste food and would be happy to see it go to people who need it. Kudos to those who are making that happen.
