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Food pollution is a secret. Because that apple sitting on your kitchen counter isn’t really causing any harm.
But chances are good you didn’t pluck it from a tree in your backyard. It requires land and water to grow, machines for harvesting and processing, packaging to ship, trucks to transport, and often refrigerators for storage. Much of that process releases planet-warming greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
That’s why, according to the EDGAR Food Pollution Database, the global food system produces nearly a third of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.
Meanwhile, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, about a third of the U.S. food supply is lost or goes to waste without being eaten. It may never be harvested, it may get spoiled during transportation or the grocery store may reject it because of the wrong size or color. That’s a big reason some consumers are looking for less-waste alternatives, from farmers markets to delivery services for produce that doesn’t meet supermarket size or appearance standards.
“There is a wide range of opportunities to purchase food,” said Julia Van Solen Kim, the university’s food systems advisor. California Cooperative Extension.
And during the week of Thanksgiving, this decision is especially high-risk because so many grocery shoppers are shopping for additional guests, and more food could mean a bigger impact on the climate.
Here are tips for reducing the impact by shopping beyond the grocery store.
community supported agriculture box
Jane Kolodinsky, Emerita Professor University of Vermont and Director of Research at Arrowleaf Consulting, has purchased his produce directly from a local farmer for 30 years.
This is called community supported agriculture or CSA. At the beginning of each harvest season, Kolodinsky pays a fee to that farm. Then, once per week, she picks up a box of produce from the farm. Some CSA programs choose products, while others let you customize. Let’s deliver something. An online database shows which farms participate in CSA programs.
Since the food is grown nearby, there is less processing and packaging. “The carbon footprint for shopping locally is smaller than for global or national food distribution channels,” Van Solen Kim said. “When they’re local, they travel shorter distances, so less gas, less fuel.”
Local farmers are also likely to grow whatever is best suited to the climate and season of the area. “When things are in season, they require less time for storage, so there’s less electricity for cold storage,” Van Solen Kim said, adding that it can also mean lower food bills.
It is not pollution-free, as crops still require land and water, and food travels some distance. But CSAs avoid many of the steps in the modern food supply chain.
This model is challenging for consumers who want to maintain the same shopping list throughout the year. Purchasing in season requires more flexibility. “I would encourage consumers to think, ‘Okay, all year long we want some handheld fruit that’s solid,'” she said. “So maybe it’s apples, and then it’s pears, and then it’ll move into kiwis, and then it’ll move into plums.”
And in colder areas, he said there is still local produce. It is more likely to be dried, frozen, or canned.
farmers market
Kolodinsky said the oldest alternative food system is the farmers’ market, where vendors gather and sell directly to consumers. Producers also sell at farm stands that are not tied to any centralized, set schedule.
Farmers markets allow consumers more flexibility in choosing produce than typical CSAs. They also offer seasonal produce and less packaging and processing than the grocery store. Many also accept payments from government food assistance programs.
Additionally, these models cut down on waste because customers are more tolerant of products that are not a uniform shape and size, Timothy Woods said. University of Kentucky Agricultural Business Professor.
“I don’t care if one cucumber is two inches longer than another,” he said. “Less wastage means more efficient use of all the resources farmers are putting into producing that crop in the first place.”
Other delivery services
Farmers who sell goods to grocery stores generally have to meet higher standards, Woods said. For example, there may be onions that never grew or carrots that grew two roots – vegetables that are equally safe to eat and delicious. There is also extra crop there.
“They won’t intentionally pick some of the melons that are undersized in the field. And so you’ll have programs that have people who will say, ‘Those are perfectly good melons that are out there. We’ll send a team out there to pick them,'” Woods said.
He said services that deliver food that do not meet the size or appearance requirements of supermarkets, such as Misfit Markets or Imperfect Produce, have become more popular in recent years.
Van Solen Kim said there isn’t much data yet on whether these services have a significant impact on climate. They reduce food wastage, but food may come from far away.
Misfits Market refreshes its online selection weekly. Customers then end up with a box full of discounted groceries, often with labels that are misprinted or out of size or with stains. They are delivered through company trucks or third party couriers such as FedEx,Company founder and ceoAbhi Ramesh said it reduces emissions by having scheduled delivery days rather than offering on-demand delivery.
“By doing this, we batch all of our deliveries together. So it’s one van to your zip code that day. One truck that leaves our warehouse on that date,” he said.
Ramesh said sometimes a farmers market or CSA is even better at offering nearby seasonal food than his company. But in most parts of the country, those services stop when the harvest season ends. “And so your local grocery store, believe it or not, is still transporting it from California. But the difference is we’re able to pick up and transport that waste piece of food, which reduces a ton of emissions.”
Woods’ advice for using services like Misfits Market is the same as for other channels: eat seasonally, eat locally, and look for minimal packaging.
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