Local Food Systems; Concepts, Impacts, and Issues

Local Food Systems; Concepts, Impacts, and Issues

Author: Steve Martinez

Publisher: DIANE Publishing

Published: 2010-11

Total Pages: 87

ISBN-13: 1437933629

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This comprehensive overview of local food systems explores alternative definitions of local food, estimates market size and reach, describes the characteristics of local consumers and producers, and examines early indications of the economic and health impacts of local food systems. Defining ¿local¿ based on marketing arrangements, such as farmers selling directly to consumers at regional farmers¿ markets or to schools, is well recognized. Statistics suggest that local food markets account for a small, but growing, share of U.S. agricultural production. For smaller farms, direct marketing to consumers accounts for a higher percentage of their sales than for larger farms. Charts and tables.


The Lean Farm Guide to Growing Vegetables

The Lean Farm Guide to Growing Vegetables

Author: Ben Hartman

Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 1603586997

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At Clay Bottom Farm, author Ben Hartman and staff practice kaizen, or continuous improvement, cutting out more waste--of time, labor, space, money, and more--every year and aligning their organic production more tightly with customer demand. Applied alongside other lean principles originally developed by the Japanese auto industry, the end result has been increased profits and less work. In this field-guide companion to his award-winning first book, The Lean Farm, Hartman shows market vegetable growers in even more detail how Clay Bottom Farm implements lean thinking in every area of their work, including using kanbans, or replacement signals, to maximize land use; germination chambers to reduce defect waste; and right-sized machinery to save money and labor and increase efficiency. From finding land and assessing infrastructure needs to selling perfect produce at the farmers market, The Lean Farm Guide to Growing Vegetables digs deeper into specific, tested methods for waste-free farming that not only help farmers become more successful but make the work more enjoyable. These methods include: Using Japanese paper pot transplanters Building your own germinating chambers Leaning up your greenhouse Making and applying simple composts Using lean techniques for pest and weed control Creating Heijunka, or load-leveling calendars for efficient planning Farming is not static, and improvement requires constant change. The Lean Farm Guide to Growing Vegetables offers strategies for farmers to stay flexible and profitable even in the face of changing weather and markets. Much more than a simple exercise in cost-cutting, lean farming is about growing better, not cheaper, food--the food your customers want.


Sustainable Food Waste-to-Energy Systems

Sustainable Food Waste-to-Energy Systems

Author: Thomas Trabold

Publisher: Academic Press

Published: 2018-09-05

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 0128111585

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Sustainable Food Waste-to-Energy Systems assesses the utilization of food waste in sustainable energy conversion systems. It explores all sources of waste generated in the food supply chain (downstream from agriculture), with coverage of industrial, commercial, institutional and residential sources. It provides a detailed analysis of the conventional pathways for food waste disposal and utilization, including composting, incineration, landfilling and wastewater treatment. Next, users will find valuable sections on the chemical, biochemical and thermochemical waste-to-energy conversion processes applicable for food waste and an assessment of commercially available sustainable food waste-to-energy conversion technologies. Sustainability aspects, including consideration of environmental, economic and social impacts are also explored. The book concludes with an analysis of how deploying waste-to-energy systems is dependent on cross-cutting research methods, including geographical information systems and big data. It is a useful resource for professionals working in waste-to-energy technologies, as well as those in the food industry and food waste management sector planning and implementing these systems, but is also ideal for researchers, graduate students, energy policymakers and energy analysts interested in the most recent advances in the field. Provides guidance on how specific food waste characteristics drive possible waste-to-energy conversion processes Presents methodologies for selecting among different waste-to-energy options, based on waste volumes, distribution and properties, local energy demand (electrical/thermal/steam), opportunities for industrial symbiosis, regulations and incentives and social acceptance, etc. Contains tools to assess potential environmental and economic performance of deployed systems Links to publicly available resources on food waste data for energy conversion


American Wasteland

American Wasteland

Author: Jonathan Bloom

Publisher: Da Capo Lifelong Books

Published: 2011-08-30

Total Pages: 380

ISBN-13: 0738215627

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What Tom Vanderbilt did for traffic and Brian Wansink did for mindless eating, Jonathan Bloom does for food waste. The topic couldn't be timelier: As more people are going hungry while simultaneously more people are morbidly obese, American Wasteland sheds light on the history, culture, and mindset of waste while exploring the parallel eco-friendly and sustainable-food movements. As the era of unprecedented prosperity comes to an end, it's time to reexamine our culture of excess. Working at both a local grocery store and a major fast food chain and volunteering with a food recovery group, Bloom also interviews experts—from Brian Wansink to Alice Waters to Nobel Prize–winning economist Amartya Sen—and digs up not only why and how we waste, but, more importantly, what we can do to change our ways.


A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level

A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2020-10-14

Total Pages: 323

ISBN-13: 030968076X

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Approximately 30 percent of the edible food produced in the United States is wasted and a significant portion of this waste occurs at the consumer level. Despite food's essential role as a source of nutrients and energy and its emotional and cultural importance, U.S. consumers waste an estimated average of 1 pound of food per person per day at home and in places where they buy and consume food away from home. Many factors contribute to this wasteâ€"consumers behaviors are shaped not only by individual and interpersonal factors but also by influences within the food system, such as policies, food marketing and the media. Some food waste is unavoidable, and there is substantial variation in how food waste and its impacts are defined and measured. But there is no doubt that the consequences of food waste are severe: the wasting of food is costly to consumers, depletes natural resources, and degrades the environment. In addition, at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has severely strained the U.S. economy and sharply increased food insecurity, it is predicted that food waste will worsen in the short term because of both supply chain disruptions and the closures of food businesses that affect the way people eat and the types of food they can afford. A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level identifies strategies for changing consumer behavior, considering interactions and feedbacks within the food system. It explores the reasons food is wasted in the United States, including the characteristics of the complex systems through which food is produced, marketed, and sold, as well as the many other interconnected influences on consumers' conscious and unconscious choices about purchasing, preparing, consuming, storing, and discarding food. This report presents a strategy for addressing the challenge of reducing food waste at the consumer level from a holistic, systems perspective.


Drawdown

Drawdown

Author: Paul Hawken

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2017-04-18

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 1524704652

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• New York Times bestseller • The 100 most substantive solutions to reverse global warming, based on meticulous research by leading scientists and policymakers around the world “At this point in time, the Drawdown book is exactly what is needed; a credible, conservative solution-by-solution narrative that we can do it. Reading it is an effective inoculation against the widespread perception of doom that humanity cannot and will not solve the climate crisis. Reported by-effects include increased determination and a sense of grounded hope.” —Per Espen Stoknes, Author, What We Think About When We Try Not To Think About Global Warming “There’s been no real way for ordinary people to get an understanding of what they can do and what impact it can have. There remains no single, comprehensive, reliable compendium of carbon-reduction solutions across sectors. At least until now. . . . The public is hungry for this kind of practical wisdom.” —David Roberts, Vox “This is the ideal environmental sciences textbook—only it is too interesting and inspiring to be called a textbook.” —Peter Kareiva, Director of the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, UCLA In the face of widespread fear and apathy, an international coalition of researchers, professionals, and scientists have come together to offer a set of realistic and bold solutions to climate change. One hundred techniques and practices are described here—some are well known; some you may have never heard of. They range from clean energy to educating girls in lower-income countries to land use practices that pull carbon out of the air. The solutions exist, are economically viable, and communities throughout the world are currently enacting them with skill and determination. If deployed collectively on a global scale over the next thirty years, they represent a credible path forward, not just to slow the earth’s warming but to reach drawdown, that point in time when greenhouse gases in the atmosphere peak and begin to decline. These measures promise cascading benefits to human health, security, prosperity, and well-being—giving us every reason to see this planetary crisis as an opportunity to create a just and livable world.