This is a proposal for my fellow human species who are willing to take action to build a circular economy. That is, we don’t need to give up economic development for the wellbeing of humanity, but we need to transition to a circular economy to replace the current “take-make-waste” linear model. A circular economy aims to gradually decouple growth from the consumption of finite resources.
You may ask, which are the finite resources? Water, land, minerals, fossil fuels, metal ores, nuclear energy and more. If we rely on technological advances to guide us to a sustainable future, we need to worry about the depletion of critical minerals which are the bones and blood of new technologies. If we need an undisrupted food supply to survive, it’s paramount to rethink how to protect our food sources, including their supply chains that are vulnerable to any pandemic-like crisis caused by climate change. I’m a foodie. So I have to think ahead to better prepare myself for rising food prices due to shortage of supply for certain food items.
Aside from water resources, food sources are the most vulnerable area of concern for human existence. Does it ring a bell to you when your local supermarket ran out of milk and meat at the outset of COVID-19 in 2020? It wasn’t because we ran out of the particular food item from the farm but it was the sudden halt of the supply chain due to the pandemic that delayed the schedule of transportation. In fact, many dairy farms suffered great losses because their dairy products went bad before they could be transported to local markets. This was food waste of the pandemic. Food waste is not limited to any food discarded in the supplier end. It also applies to the consumer end.
Indeed, when you learn about the data, you might be as astonished as I am. In the U.S., food waste is estimated at between 30-40% of the food supply. This estimates 31% food loss at the retail and consumer levels, corresponding to approximately 133 billion pounds and US$161 billion worth of food in 2010. On the other side of the world, wiping out hunger in Africa could cost US$5billion. Domestically, the healthcare costs of hunger and food insecurity for the year of 2014 in the U.S. are estimated at $160.7 billion. Simply put, your tax dollars haven’t been put into the most effective federal program to achieve zero hunger, which is the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 2.
Globally, you might think political will is our enemy to fight climate change. No, it’s time. We are heading for an irreversible future in which extinct species are forgotten quickly and global warming is unstoppable. We don’t know when the next natural disaster will hit us or when the latest hottest day will overwrite the previous record in a shorter period of time.
When we are questioning what the country can do for us in response to climate change, let us ask what we can do for the country to protect the shared homeland for humans and non-humans in the face of climate crisis.
Scientists have shown us that a third of food is lost or wasted. Eight million people, equivalent to the population of New York City, don’t have enough to eat. And it is estimated that 8-10% of global greenhouse gas emissions are associated with food that is not consumed. These numbers may not matter to you immediately but like any relationship, it takes time to feel the domino effect from one end to the other. Few global citizens knew a Chinese city called Wuhan in November 2019. But the city has earned its unfortunate global fame whenever we mention COVID-19. The world is interconnected. A change in one part of the world results in a change in different parts of the world. A region suffers from war, plague and natural disaster, Wall Street futures fluctuate. What if we are investing in a circular economy?
A circular economy enables us to imagine and implement a zero waste food system. As the Earth’s temperature is rising, more extreme heat throughout the year and irregular seasonal changes will impact farming activities. New pests, pathogens and weed problems also raise fear for crops and food security. A mechnism of reward and punishment needs to be in place to monitor food waste from farm to fork and motivate consumer behavioral change toward food management in each household.
China has passed an anti-food waste law to intervene consumer food waste. Serious restaurant violators that are found guilty of inducing behaviors that lead to diners wasting food will be fined up to ten thousand yuan (approx. US$1,546). The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released a food recovery hierarchy in four different languages (English, Chinese, Korean and Spanish) to encourage citizens to prevent food waste. Speaking of behavioral changes, shifting diets away from so much beef and toward more plants is a win for the climate. Producing beef requires 20 times more land and emits 20 more times more greenhouse gas emissions than producing common plant-based proteins.
We need to consume nutrient-dense food including vegetables and fruits. The U.S. federal government spends more on diabetes treatment each year—$160 billion—than the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s annual budget. Poor diet is a major driver of chronic disease. In a circular economy, organic resources such as those from food by-products can safely be returned to the soil in the form of organic fertilizer. We can turn food waste into compost, a soil-like product consisting of organic materials such as leaves, grass clippings and certain kitchen scraps. We can apply compost to our vegetable gardens and farms. This is a natural way of returning needed nutrients to the soil. If you have a farm or a vegetable garden, regenerative farming practices are effective to protect our food sources with nutrients.
There is no better time than now for global citizen of all ages to educate and re-educate ourselves in climate solutions. When we say that all climate solutions are needed to draw down greenhouse gases, we must also mean education solutions. The more we know from credible sources and ruminate on the nexus of food and our existence, the more we will appreciate the beauty of our planet and change our consumer behaviors for a sustainable future.
If you’re a forward-thinking foodie like me, I invite you to ask yourselves more questions before you buy, eat, and throw away food. We’re familiar with these very questions of existence:
Who am I? Why am I here? Where did I come from? Where will I go to?
What if we raise the same questions for the food that we cannot live without?
Ask, where does the corn come from? Why do I need to eat it? Where will the corn go to if I dump it in the same trash can that contains non-biodegradable waste?
Check out below video of the third grade science that adults need to relearn.
If a circular economy inspires you as much as it does me, I have two success stories to share with you. The African country of Uganda is one of the world’s largest consumers of bananas. A local startup transforms banana stems into rugs, fabrics and hair extensions.
During the pandemic, we’ve produced a large amount of used disposable masks which contain plastics. The accumulation of plastic waste has suffocated sea life and polluted the marine environment. Before becoming a delicacy on our plate, our fishery and seafood products are likely to eat plastics, too. Do we need to adapt to a plastic diet, too? A South Korean furniture design student melted the face masks to make stools that he called “Stack and Stack.”
The effects of global warming and human population growth have revealed the profound insecurity and inequalities in our global ag-food system. This linear ag-food lifecycle must be shifted into a diverse and sustainable farming system in order to increase its resilience to the adverse effects of climate change. If businesses are seeking long-term profit, they should lead consumers to their eco-friendly products and recycling and education programs. To save money and eat healthy is how I shop for food and eat with mindfulness. Don’t waste food is step one and also a feasible step for everyone to transitioning to a circular economy.
“A sustainable agriculture is one which depletes neither the people nor the land.”
— Wendell Berry