Food For Thought (Herald Editorial)

Food For Thought The theme of this year's world environment day celebrations as mandated by the United Nations is Think.Eat.Save. For Goa, the theme has significance as well, given the increasing amounts of food waste that accrue from the tourism and restaurant businesses in the State. As reported by this newspaper, Panjim itself generates 25 tonnes of food waste a day, of which some 12 tonnes, approximately half, originates from the 250 hotels/restaurants/eateries/caterers in the capital. That around six tonnes may be still fit for consumption is an indicator of the kind of waste that takes place in the food sector. Food waste in the hotel segment is a known fact. That Panjim's food waste that is still good could feed a lakh people should be a sobering thought. With no systems for food donors and food gleaning ~ unlike in some cities like Jerusalem, where still consumable restaurant left overs go through a scientific collection and redistribution system to the poor ~ much of Goa's edible leftovers become a problem for garbage managers. The organic waste converters being used and promoted by corporations like the CCP require additional inputs of sawdust and paper to mop up the liquid content of the wet waste generated in the city. Obviously waste needs to be reduced at source. Along the coastal belt as well, management of wet food waste is a problematic area. Hotels have to refrigerate wet waste to prevent odours before they go into composting units on site. It is a fact that smaller hotels have a space and logistical issue dealing with food waste. With panchayats unwilling to step into this area, in the absence of municipal councils, smaller hotels/restaurants have been finding ad hoc, environmentally unhealthy methods to deal with food waste, including dumping it, leading to its decomposition into methane, a greenhouse emission twenty times more harmful than carbon dioxide. In this scenario, an initiative that it being pursued vigorously but is still in its early planning stages, by a section of hoteliers in the Bardez coastal area, deserves support. The group are planning to set up a scientifically run piggery that will use hotel food waste as feed and have already initiated talks with companies in Israel for transfer of technology for the scientifically run farms, that mechanically and scientifically treat food waste before converting it to feed. This sort of vertical integration could be a winner given that it reduces the problem at source, recycles waste into the food chain, and besides could plug the shortfall of pork supplies to the region,that is way short of the demand of an estimated seven tonnes a day. Though early days yet, initiatives of this sort provide value addition and problem solving for garbage management and food production as well. Still, the UN and Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) backed movement of Think, Eat, Save has a larger cause of attempting to reduce the food waste footprint of individuals in their homes, besides establishments catering to food needs in the hospitality and allied sectors. It should be a sobering thought that worldwide 1.3 billion tonnes of food, one third of the 10 billion tones of food produced globally, is lost in the food production and distribution stage (this more in developing countries with inadequate technologies) and in post produced food waste. Affluent consumerist nations in industrial Europe and North America waste an estimated 95-115 kg of food per capita to the 6-11 kg per capita food waste estimated by FAO in sub Saharan Africa, South and South East Asia. Food waste at the individual level was and is still, thankfully, anathema in India, though at the hotel/institutional levels this is less so, given the dynamics of industrial food production at such places. It might be worth ruminating over the fact that civic bodies and hotels in the UK have begun, besides recycling programmes, specific food waste reduction policies in their establishments. Studies in the UK have found that smaller plate sizes in restaurants, food recycling within hotel kitchens, more a la carte menus and less buffets, besides signage at restaurant buffets that people could come back for a second helping ~ all helped cut food waste by 20%. Considering that global food production uses up 25 % land, 70 % fresh water, 80% energy and other inputs ~ food waste and the relatively easy steps required to reduce it ~ should itself give us pause. http://www.heraldgoa.in/newscategory/Edit/15