Reducing Emissions by Reducing Agricultural Waste - Starting with Apple-Monitoring Tech (seattletimes.com) 49
Three years ago Strella Biotechnology launched to "try to reduce waste in the U.S. food system — a problem that by some estimates creates as much emissions as 33 million passenger vehicles," reports the Washington Post. Alternate URL here and here.)
And today the founder's warehouse-monitoring device — about half the size of a shoebox — watches over about 15% of all the apples grown in America: Already, agriculture contributes more to greenhouse gas emissions than the total of all the cars, planes, trains and trucks in the world. The pressure to grow more food is leading to deforestation in the Amazon, the drying up of rivers and a greater demand for fossil fuel-based fertilizer. Anything that can be done to reduce waste and increase the productivity of existing agricultural land is a big win for the climate. [Strella CEO and founder] Sizov, 24, wants to eliminate food waste one fruit at a time...
Sizov chanced upon a website that described the climate impact of food waste — up to 4% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, according to analyses from ReFed, a nonprofit organization that works to reduce food waste... The problem will only intensify as the global population grows, experts say. By 2050, the United Nations expects there will be another 2 billion mouths to feed around the world, an increase of more than 25% in just three decades. And as countries such as China and India grow richer, their populations are gradually changing their eating habits: more meat, more eggs — and a bigger carbon footprint tied to raising all of those animals and clearing off land to grow more food. "If you reduce food loss and waste by 50%, you can save a lot of production emissions, but you can also avoid a heck of a lot of deforestation," said Tim Searchinger, a senior research scholar at Princeton University's Center for Policy Research on Energy and the Environment. Searchinger explained that after accounting for the fact that an acre of farmland could otherwise be an acre of forest, the carbon footprint of food skyrockets as trees soak up so much carbon dioxide.
Eliminating waste also happens to be a way to help farmers and grocery stores earn more money, since the more efficiently food makes it to consumers, the more cash ends up with the people who've done the selling... [T]hat's where Strella's sensors come in. They monitor ethylene, a gas key to the ripening of fruits and vegetables. Apples accelerate their production of ethylene as they grow sweeter inside the storerooms. Once they're ready, the gas levels off, telling Strella's monitors that they're ready to be sent to supermarkets. Wait too long and the apples turn brown or grow mealy. If producers are lucky, they can try to break even by turning those apples into juice or applesauce. If they're unlucky, the overripe apples end up in compost or landfills.
Ultimately one out of every five apples doesn't make it from the warehouse to the supermarket, the Post points out (while some others lose their crunch). So Sizov hopes their waste-reducing technology will catch on because it's also a way to reduce business losses. "There's a direct alignment of a sustainable goal with a profitability incentive."
And today the founder's warehouse-monitoring device — about half the size of a shoebox — watches over about 15% of all the apples grown in America: Already, agriculture contributes more to greenhouse gas emissions than the total of all the cars, planes, trains and trucks in the world. The pressure to grow more food is leading to deforestation in the Amazon, the drying up of rivers and a greater demand for fossil fuel-based fertilizer. Anything that can be done to reduce waste and increase the productivity of existing agricultural land is a big win for the climate. [Strella CEO and founder] Sizov, 24, wants to eliminate food waste one fruit at a time...
Sizov chanced upon a website that described the climate impact of food waste — up to 4% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, according to analyses from ReFed, a nonprofit organization that works to reduce food waste... The problem will only intensify as the global population grows, experts say. By 2050, the United Nations expects there will be another 2 billion mouths to feed around the world, an increase of more than 25% in just three decades. And as countries such as China and India grow richer, their populations are gradually changing their eating habits: more meat, more eggs — and a bigger carbon footprint tied to raising all of those animals and clearing off land to grow more food. "If you reduce food loss and waste by 50%, you can save a lot of production emissions, but you can also avoid a heck of a lot of deforestation," said Tim Searchinger, a senior research scholar at Princeton University's Center for Policy Research on Energy and the Environment. Searchinger explained that after accounting for the fact that an acre of farmland could otherwise be an acre of forest, the carbon footprint of food skyrockets as trees soak up so much carbon dioxide.
Eliminating waste also happens to be a way to help farmers and grocery stores earn more money, since the more efficiently food makes it to consumers, the more cash ends up with the people who've done the selling... [T]hat's where Strella's sensors come in. They monitor ethylene, a gas key to the ripening of fruits and vegetables. Apples accelerate their production of ethylene as they grow sweeter inside the storerooms. Once they're ready, the gas levels off, telling Strella's monitors that they're ready to be sent to supermarkets. Wait too long and the apples turn brown or grow mealy. If producers are lucky, they can try to break even by turning those apples into juice or applesauce. If they're unlucky, the overripe apples end up in compost or landfills.
Ultimately one out of every five apples doesn't make it from the warehouse to the supermarket, the Post points out (while some others lose their crunch). So Sizov hopes their waste-reducing technology will catch on because it's also a way to reduce business losses. "There's a direct alignment of a sustainable goal with a profitability incentive."
Re:Reduce population (Score:4, Insightful)
Currently 40-50 million lives are ended every year due to abortion. Understand that's a World War II death event, every two years. That's more lives ended than pretty much every war or disease has ever brought upon mankind. It makes COVID look like a pathetic joke.
Ah yes, the bullshit that a bunch of cells is a "life". Considering that story book says life begins at first breath, your comment is moot.
Also, roughly 40 million die from starvation each year around the world, but I don't hear you whining about that. So much for being "pro life". You're not. You're pro birth, but once someone pops out, they're on their own. Especially those people.
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So much for being "pro life". You're not. You're pro birth, but once someone pops out, they're on their own. Especially those people.
On your own? No idiot, that is the responsibility of those who birthed you.
That is nominally how we do things now, but I believe the GP's point was you don't get to call yourself pro-life if you're anti-abortion and also anti-aid-for-the-living. And since the bible states that life begins with the first breath, one cannot claim a biblical argument for being against abortion either; if one claims to be a Christian of any denomination which allegedly follows the bible then one must agree that life does not begin until the baby proves it's breathing.
Responsibility is a funny thing. L
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So much for being "pro life". You're not. You're pro birth, but once someone pops out, they're on their own. Especially those people.
On your own? No idiot, that is the responsibility of those who birthed you.
That is nominally how we do things now, but I believe the GP's point was you don't get to call yourself pro-life if you're anti-abortion and also anti-aid-for-the-living. And since the bible states that life begins with the first breath, one cannot claim a biblical argument for being against abortion either; if one claims to be a Christian of any denomination which allegedly follows the bible then one must agree that life does not begin until the baby proves it's breathing.
Wrong. You have ignorantly assumed that any part of this conversation has anything to do with religion or religious beliefs. This is cold hard math. 40-50 million human lives are ended or prevented (however your silly belief system wants you to define it). Stop trying to bring some pro/anti argument into this and instead realize it's a simple discussion around math. Doesn't matter how it happens. Accept the fact that it happens.
Responsibility is a funny thing. Lots of people feel like it ends at different points. My take on it is that if you have a stake in the outcome, then you share responsibility for it. Otherwise don't complain if it doesn't come out how you want.
Yeah, it is practically funny when humans are too stupid to realize humans
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Also, roughly 40 million die from starvation each year around the world
Do you have a source for this factoid?
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Currently 40-50 million lives are ended every year due to abortion.
*Citation needed.
I'm sure once the child is born you'll have no problems with the government providing all the necessary resources because the mother is unable to.
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It's not so much about needing fewer of us, so much as it is about needing fewer of them.
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True, but most of the food we grow doesn't actually go into our mouths. Three quarters of the US food production goes into raising livestock - most of it into beef production. So fewer people will consume fewer resources, but fewer beef eaters will have a much larger effect due to the inefficiency of beef in converting feed to meat (about 10:1 or so - 10lbs of feed produces 1lb of beef.
Chicken is the most efficient at around 1.7:1, pork is around 5:1.
S
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So getting people to eat less beef would help reduce the amount of food needed to raise cattle, reducing the amount of waste. But that's going to be a tough sale - it's kind of why the "plant based meat" generally is used to replace beef products.
Making everyone eat vegan, and on a diet just short of starvation would help even more.
I can envision a world where food is produced in huge factories where humanity eats algae to sustain life. https://www.digitaltrends.com/... [digitaltrends.com] Why you can even buy a countertop unit now! https://www.dezeen.com/2019/11... [dezeen.com]
This will be awesome - we can stuff even more people on earth, and if we could genetically alter humans to a prey species diet, we wouldn't need beef or chicken or any other animal. We could just eat and
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https://www.wwf.org.za/?21962/The-truth-about-our-food-waste-problem#:~:text=1%20In%20South%20Africa%2C%20a%20third%20of%20all,be%20a%20fundamental%20strategy%20to%20improving%20food%20security.
This is just about South Africa, but it's the same in so many places.
In the US, its not really better. 32% of all produce is wasted before it even gets to the consumer (who in turn wastes another 28%).
https://www.rubicon.com/blog/food-was
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Yeah...good luck with that.
I like all sorts of dead animal, and I eat whatever I'm in the mood for.
And for Thanksgiving, I do a prime grade, home rotisseried standing rib roast on my Big Green Egg ceramic grill.
The only turkey at my house on TDay is 101 proof.
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I'd be interested to hear how you plan to reduce the population.
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I'd be interested to hear how you plan to reduce the population.
I believe that we will just continue the way we are going, and nature or ourselves will take care of that.
The present day plan of micromanaging the bejeezuz out of smaller and smaller things is sorta like putting humanity on life support.
What will be the trigger?
Food?
Water?
Mineral resources?
Extreme reduction in quality of life?
First world resistance to the huge changes needed to continue our growth, which will eventually require more of a third world existence for the vast majority of the populat
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We could waste all we wanted if there were fewer of us.
I agree. Why don't you get things started by killing yourself.
Is climate change that much of a threat? (Score:1)
We could waste all we wanted if there were fewer of us.
It's well known that the US has much higher per-capita emissions than other modern nations, such as Germany. This is reflected in calls for Americans to reduce their emissions by reducing their lifestyle. We see this all the time in climate change articles.
The US has roughly 15 million illegal aliens, who could be deported immediately, and millions streaming across the border (expected 2 million this year). In their home country they would have much less emissions than in the US.
Question for the audience. W
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It's well known that the US has much higher per-capita emissions than other modern nations, such as Germany. This is reflected in calls for Americans to reduce their emissions by reducing their lifestyle. We see this all the time in climate change articles.
Interesting because I have yet to see a study on the lifestyle of immigrants themselves. However, I have seen studies indicating it's the most wealthy that pollute the most.
The US has roughly 15 million illegal aliens, who could be deported immediately, and millions streaming across the border (expected 2 million this year). In their home country they would have much less emissions than in the US.
Funny because the economic impact of deporting 15 million illegal aliens would be far greater than if we simply passed a uniform pollution tax. In fact, the pollution tax would have a much better and lasting result, whereas deporting people takes a lot of resources and may simply be temporary.
Furthermore, if you think immigration is a
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This is reflected in calls for Americans to reduce their emissions by reducing their lifestyle. We see this all the time in climate change articles.
The misconception is that no one needs to reduce his quality of life - life style. You can reduce the emissions without that. And that is the point, But: most Americans don't want to do anything. Because: it is a hoax anyway.
The US has roughly 15 million illegal aliens, who could be deported immediately, and millions streaming across the border (expected 2 mill
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Nope, it's too late for that. If the entire world stopped polluting today, climate change would still continue marching on. To stop climate change we will need to actually remove CO2 from the atmosphere. For now, we need to reduce our pollution as much as possible until we go neutral before we go negative.
"Agricultural Waste" is misused in headline FFS (Score:2)
"Agricultural Waste" is bull shit, and other things.
It is NOT "waste in the agricultural industry".
A real Editor would care and fix the headline.
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Re:"Agricultural Waste" is misused in headline FFS (Score:4, Informative)
This is more to do with waste in the supply chain. Supermarkets demand high standards for produce, which means a lot of it gets discarded because they won't sell a bruised apple.
Some UK supermarkets now sell "imperfect" produce at a discounted rate. Even then the issue is that the growers can't simply divert those cosmetically unacceptable items to things like factories and restaurants where nobody is going to notice or care anyway.
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growers can't simply divert those cosmetically unacceptable items to things like factories and restaurants where nobody is going to notice or care anyway.
Why not? Why can't they just offer them for sale as being of a lower cosmetic grade, and let factories and restaurants buy them for less?
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Why not? Why can't they just offer them for sale as being of a lower cosmetic grade, and let factories and restaurants buy them for less?
Grocery stores sell only "Grade A" vegetables. "Grade B" and "Grade C" are commonly sold to the military and prisons.
Misshapen carrots are cut up and made into "baby carrots". Cosmetically imperfect apples can be used to make applesauce and cider. Other imperfect veggies can be diced or pureed into baby food.
But there is still a huge amount of waste. It is shocking to see how many vegetables are thrown out every day by a grocery store.
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But there is still a huge amount of waste. It is shocking to see how many vegetables are thrown out every day by a grocery store.
What's shocking is that they're allowed to just throw it away instead of having to at least compost it. That just adds load to the refuse system with no benefit.
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From what I understand here in Germany, part of the reason is liability, which is why you can't even take the produce that they throw out in the garbage without being sued for theft. After all, they could be liable if you ate it and got sick from it, or some rationale like that.
I'm not sure what the reason for not composting it is (I know that some of the stuff may be 'donated' to biogas facilities), but it wouldn't surprise me to find some
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Here in the US I believe it's a liability issue as well for why grocers throw out all the produce - composting would make more sense from a sustainability point of view, but there is no money in it. So that would have to come by regulation, not competition.
Expiration dates I believe are more of a CYA (cover your ass) thing. The date is not when the food is certain to be bad, but more likely the date when the food *could* be bad. 95% of the time, it's still fine past the expiration date. But if someone g
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Or perhaps on some fruit and vegetable produce like juices you'll find something like "use within X days after opening and store in refrigerator".
Since I'm also quite familiar with fermentation of juices (like making wine) I usually also apply a visual and smell inspection before throwing something out. An
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It's because of the way the market works. Fresh fruit and veg has a short shelf life, so they need to have the contracts for supply set up well in advance. The people buying the less than perfect stuff will have contracts in place too, so their supply needs are already met.
The net result is that a random farm that happens to have some random amount of produce left over that varies from harvest to harvest, can't easily find someone to take them at a price that makes them even worth delivering.
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This is what freezing or drying is for. I get why they can't make fruit paste and why drying is infeasible in most of the country (humidity during that season) but if the price of reducing waste is building some freezer facilities that will only operate part of the year, so be it.
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Ideally people would just be less fussy about the food they eat and not get too upset about a bent carrot.
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I don't care about what food looks like for looks' sake. If a carrot were bent I'd just use the carrot. I care about what food looks like for freshness' sake, or what passes for it in supermarkets. If the fruit is bruised, I don't want it. A whole lot of the fruit we're talking about is bruised, and you can't tell until it ripens. It's still useful for making fruit paste or similar, but I don't want to eat it. Or more to the point, I don't want to pay full price for an Apple I'm only going to eat 75% of.
Re: "Agricultural Waste" is misused in headline FF (Score:3)
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The Apple orchard down the road sells "seconds " for half price at the roadside stand. They make fine applesauce. Or pies for that matter. The usual problem is a thick brown patch on the skin, or they are misshapen. Neither is a problem in cooking. But the stores won't take them.
The really bad apple end up on the ground in the orchard where they become fertilizer, either directly or after processing by one of the raccoons.
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If there's not enough agricultural usable area within a reasonable vicinity of the 'fertilizer' odds are that a good portion of it will end up eventually in rivers, ground water / fresh water supply where it promotes the growth of algae (blooms) that when they die off and are decomposed by toxin producing bacteria.
This can become an issue with strongly centralized livestock breeding and largely distributed food crop cultivation.
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As lots of "agricultural waste" is landing on landfills: it is neither compost nor fertilizer.
Rounded corners (Score:3)
Stop Capitalizing Every Word (Score:1, Offtopic)
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deforestation in the Amazon
I'm sure Bezos is upset over the damage to his little rain forest [digitaltrends.com].
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Title case is a widely accepted form of capitalization. The problem here is that they wrote an ambiguous headline. We could have easily done the same in a normal sentence by simply starting the sentence with the word “apple”, such that it would have been capitalized by virtue of being at the start of the sentence. The hyphen helps clarify things a bit, but as someone who also read it the way that you did, I agree that it was still too ambiguous
Apple monitoring tech (Score:1)
Wait, I thought Apple cared about privacy—now you're telling me they're monitoring us on our MacBooks and iPhones, and then that helps reduce emissions? I'm all for reducing emissions, but can we find a way to do that without compromising our privacy?
Great news for kids! (Score:2)
"Eat your peas!" sayeth mom.
"No, says Billy, they pollute."
"But they'll be wasted," cryeth the momma.
Cackling, Billy calls FPS to report his mother for agricultural waste. Suitably taxed, she never tries to poison him with the green things again!
Let's Start Cutting Down On e-Waste (Score:1)
by starting with Apple technologies that cannot be repaired ... and that covers much of what Apple produces and has produced ... based on my own impressions of iFixIt videos.
If we eliminated Apple. (Score:2)
What a horrible fluff piece (Score:2)