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Consumer Food Waste -a Potential Animal Feed

Resource

David Galligan ,VMD MBAProfessor of Animal Health Economics

Zhengxia DouProfessor of Agricultural Systems

Animal Agriculture

• “providing our dinner” or “taking our lunch” ?

• Competes for use of resources (land, water, .. .) for other activities.

Our Focus:

• What is the “appropriate role” of animal agriculture in a sustainable system?

• Can they play a synergistic role?

Historical approach to improving animal efficiency

• Increase yield/animal unit

Mechanism

• Dilution of animal maintenance cost

• More yield/animal, requires fewer animals, fewer replacement animals and fewer resources proportional to animal numbers.

Link to Milk Intensity PDF

New dimensions of efficiency – use of human food waste as animal feed

• 30% of Human Food Production is used as by products in animal feeding systems

• However Food Waste in U.S. is very large

The Magnitude of the Problem

On Farm Processing

ManufacturingConsumption

Stage

9.1 Mt 0.9 Mt 47 Mt

FLW along the food chain

0 2 4 6 8 10 12

Tree nuts and…

Eggs

Added fats and…

Meat, poultry,…

Added sugars…

Fruit

Grain products

Vegetables

Dairy products

Retail loss

Consumer loss\1

Million metric tonnes

36% 11.5

72%28%

64%

61%39%

68%32%

73%27%

82%18%

55%

25%

45%

36%, 64%

75%

7.0

7.6

8.4

8.4

11.4

0.2

1.3

4.5

Retail and consumer food loss by food group

The Magnitude of the Problem

Resources and Financial Drains with Retail and Consumer Level FLW

• 27% of cropland

• 25% of irrigation water

• 26% of fertilizer

• 25% of energy

• Retail value of $161.6 billion

• Intangible impacts, e.g. water pollution, GHGs, biodiversity, and habitat loss

U.S. 2030 FLW Reduction Goal: 50%

FLW Reduction, Recovery, and Recycling

San Francisco

Austin

Boulder

Cities with food waste regulations

States with food waste regulations

Seattle,

New York City

The Hierarchy

FLW Reduction, Recovery, and Recycling

Reduction/Prevention

Recovery/Diversion

Recycling

Disposal

Source reduction

Food rescue for people

Industrial uses

Feeding animals

CompostingIncineration

AD

Landfill

Hierarchy Mt Notes

Prevention (rescue/donation) to feed people

0.32 Manufacturer donation

0.30 Retail/wholesale donation

0.008 Farm gleaning

0.19 Donation, Feeding America data

0.56 Donation from consumer and retail

Diversionnonhuman beneficial use

13.9 Manufacturer diversion to feed animals

0.1 Retail/wholesale diversion to feed animals

1.1 Restaurant grease recovery

Recycling 5.0 Manufacturer-reported composting

0.53 Retail/wholesale reported composting

1.42 EPA data on composting

1.66 Survey response of 24 states

Major Data on Food Waste Prevention and Recycling

1-2 Mt

7-8 Mt

15 Mt

Precontemplation

Contemplation

Preparation

Action

Maintenance

• Our decisions and actions are not necessarily rational or straightforward…

Interpretive Analysis

Changing food-wasting behavior

• No one buys food to throw it away but...

• Nudging for behavioral change…

Technologies and the 50% reduction goal

• Composting• Reduced volume, moisture, and pathogens

• Compost as soil amendment

Interpretive Analysis

• Anaerobic digestion (AD)• Biogas as a source of renewable energy• Digestate as soil amendment

• Efficacy, costs-benefits, scale-up?• Tradeoffs?

Interpretive Analysis

A game changer?

ReFeed

Save resource Reduce

pollution

Grain spared

47 Mt 1 MtSoil erosion

N&P losses

GHGs

Biodiversity

Energy

Water

Fertilizer

Land

Agricultural

crops

Processing

manufacturingConsumption

stage

Livestock

animals

9 Mt

Conclusions

• Sustainable food consumption must be taken into account of the food security and sustainability agenda.

• Food waste prevention is a top priority; changing consumer wasteful behavior is essential. Still, need all workable solutions.

• Technologies have a critical role to play. Research must evaluate the overall impacts of different technologies on food, energy, water, other resources, economic viability, and environmental-climate outcomes.

Questions/Discussion

Zhengxia Doudouzheng@vet.upenn.edu

This CAST Issue Paper is available at

www.cast-science.org/publications.