Film - Wasted: The Story of Food Waste

EPA Earth Day. Source: Wikimedia Commons

“Wasted” is a film that was shown on campus on Tuesday, April 23 in the science center. It was provided by Environmental Advocacy Students for Professor Fred Taylor. I found out about the screening during the previous day, which was Earth Day, while signing petitions and getting educated about environmental issues outside of the Student Center. The film begins with one staggering fact: 40% of food in the United States is wasted. The entire movie is dedicated to deciphering why this is the case, as well as offering real-life, sometimes already implemented solutions. Wasting over 1.3 billion tons annually, we lose $1 trillion from uneaten food. And it’s not just about throwing it away, we’re growing too much as well. 10 million tons of the food we grow goes unharvested each year.

The film outlined a pyramid proposed by The Environmental Protection Agency to combat food waste called “The Food Waste Pyramid”. At the top was “feed people”. This means taking the food we have and prioritizing people as the main consumer of that food. Before we do anything else with it, it must go to people. The second tier of the pyramid was “feed animals”. If we are not feeding the food we grow to people, we should be feeding it to animals, which can also then become food. 70% of the grain we grow is fed to livestock, according to the movie. The third tier of the pyramid is creating energy with the food we have. In the film, we saw a General Mills’ Yoplait Yogurt Factory which produces 900,000 pounds of Greek yogurt daily. It takes 3 gallons of milk to make 1 gallon of Greek yogurt -- which means a lot of leftover whey. There is an anaerobic digester that General Mills installed on site, which transforms the leftover whey, which would otherwise be waste, back into electricity. The energy then powers machinery at the plant and pulls much less electricity off the local grid. The fourth tier of the pyramid is composting. In New Orleans, a school has implemented a program where pre-K through 8^thgrade students participate in garden education and composting, which will ideally encourage them to continue composting and growing their own food throughout their lives. The last tier of the pyramid is landfills. This is the tier we should be avoiding the most but are actually almost entirely reliant on for our food waste. 90% of food scrapings end up in landfills, and this creates methane, a large contributor to global warming and climate change. Additionally, we just don’t have the room to keep sending our waste to landfills. A head of lettuce can take up to 25 years to fully decompose. 

Food Waste Recovery Hierarchy, Includes Limiting/Reducing Food Production. Source: Wikimedia Commons

One of the solutions shown to combat food waste is a grocery store in Dorchester, MA called the Daily Table. As feeding people in need is one of the top priorities of the pyramid, this is a non-profit store where healthy food is sold at prices that are low enough to compete with fast food prices, encouraging families to choose better, more sustainable options. The store takes unwanted or unsold food, often past “sell by” or “use by” dates from other local supermarkets and sells it for affordable prices. The film emphasizes that these dates are only meant for circulation and more profit; the best way to check if your food is still good to eat is to smell it.  

Another solution shown was various chefs using food “waste” to create delicious meals. From cow tongue to the uneaten leaves of cauliflower, they took uncommon ingredients and used their talent to create appetizing dishes.

Bread Ends are Often Wasted. Source: Wikimedia Commons

A creative way to reduce waste that was shown in the film was to make beer from unused bread. Many people don’t want or don’t eat the ends of the bread, and when premade sandwiches are made in factories, all of those ends are discarded. In London and Ripon, England, a company called Hambleton Ales has created “Toast Ale”, which contains about one slice of “unwanted” bread per bottle. The company is creating a new use for perfectly good, edible food that would otherwise be thrown away. More information about this product can be found at https://www.toastale.com. 

Pigs Eating Grains Instead of
 Eco-Feed. Source: Wikimedia Commons

A global solution in the film was a perfect example of the second tier of the pyramid; feed animals. In Tokyo and Chiba, Japan, a farmer named Koichi Takahashi created the Japanese Food Ecology Center and created “Eco-Feed”, which is essentially food waste that has been turned into a safe, healthy, beneficial food for pigs. It is naturally full of vitamins and probiotics, but is processed in a way that makes it all right for the pigs to eat. Feeding pigs certain things can also change the flavor profile of the pig, and in the movie, pigs who had been fed eco-feed were described as being some of the best pork. 

The film also touched upon the importance of crop rotation. Farms that grow food for large corporations often don’t rotate their crops, leading to bad soil and an unstable ecosystem. Rotating crops leads to fertile soil, and farmers that practice it end up having better crops because each crop planted leaves behind certain nutrients that can benefit a different crop. By rotating crops, we could create less waste, more variety, stable ecosystems, and fertile soil. 

EPA Encourages Limiting Food Waste. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Much of the negative impact we have on the environment is not from driving our cars too much, it’s from the food we eat. This film was filled with unbelievable facts about our food waste, and it made me rethink my own waste. I try to eat everything on my plate, and only take as much as I think I will eat. However, when I do have waste, I almost always just throw it in the trash. Watching “Wasted” made me more conscious of my habits, more motivated to try different methods of discarding my food waste, and more willing to use and appreciate every part of every crop. 

This film can be rented to watch at home on platforms like amazon and iTunes for about $4, or it is available for screenings through schools and organizations. It’s important to stay educated about issues like this because it directly impacts everyone on the planet. Climate change is hurting our planet, we are filling the earth with trash that cannot decompose fast enough, and people are going hungry because we are being frivolous and senseless with our food excess. Taking action against food waste is easy and impactful, and I plan to continue to advocate for it. Go to wastedfilm.com to learn more.