https://archive.ph/DbwBH
"In Seoul, garbage cans automatically weigh how much food gets tossed in the
trash. In London, grocers have stopped putting date labels on fruits and
vegetables to reduce confusion about what is still edible. California now
requires supermarkets to give away — not throw away — food that is unsold but
fine to eat.
Around the world, a broad array of efforts are being launched to tackle two
pressing global problems: hunger and climate change.
Food waste, when it rots in a landfill, produces methane gas, which quickly
heats up the planet. But it’s a surprisingly tough problem to solve.
Which is where Vue Vang, wrangler of excess, comes in. On a bright Monday
morning recently, she pulled up behind a supermarket in Fresno, Calif., hopped
off her truck and set out to rescue as much food as she could under the state’s
new law — helping store managers comply with rules that many were still unaware
of.
Laid out for her was a shopping cart of about-to-expire hamburger buns and
cookies. She knew there must be more. Within minutes, she had persuaded the
staff members to give her several crates of milk marked “best by” the next day,
as well as buttermilk and boxes of brussels sprouts, kale, cilantro, cut melons
and corn. She nudged them: Are there eggs?
“So much. So much goes to waste,” whispered Ms. Vang, who works with a local
charity, Fresno Metro Ministry, to give food to people in need.
In the United States, the single largest volume of material sent to landfills
and incinerators comes from food waste. Worldwide, food waste accounts for 8 to
10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, at least double that of
emissions from aviation. According to estimates from the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations, that is enough food to feed more than a
billion people.
Amid the growing urgency to slow global warming, governments and entrepreneurs
are coming up with different ways to waste less food. In the United States, one
start-up makes it easier for people to buy misshapen produce that grocery
stores don’t want, and another has developed an invisible, plant-based coating
to make fruits last longer. A Kenyan entrepreneur has built solar-powered
refrigerators to help farmers store produce longer."
Via
Future Crunch Oct 28, 2022:
<
https://futurecrunch.com/good-news-clean-water-rewilding-spain-tipping-points-clean-energy/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
