Seeing cherries from the US for sale in July reminded me of the folly of eating foods just because we can, not because they are locally ripe and tasty. It is a modern phenomenon that neglects the real cost of produce flown in from another country, where the social, health and environmental impacts are not counted. I guarantee they don’t compare with the cherries famous in our family’s collective memory, the ‘popping’ cherries, bought in Young on one long gone summer holiday.
This year our seasonal harvest in Northern Victoria has once more gone wrong. TV news recently showed the tragedy besetting farmers in the Riverina with footage of tonnes of oranges being dumped from a processing plant, uneconomical for the juicing market and further reports of 30 tonne a day being discarded elsewhere. By rough estimate those 30 tonne of oranges alone have enough Vitamin C to provide the recommended daily intake and seasonal immune enhancement for over 20,000 people.
Cherries and oranges, both examples of the failures of a free market responsible for their being sought after or forsaken and indicative of Why we need to change the food system. Dumping so much fresh produce is wrong on many levels and what is also clear is the disrespect for farmers. Where drought and financial difficulty reigned over the last decade, those resilient enough to continue their citrus farming are now paying the price.
It is a shameful addition to the estimated household food waste of over $5 billion/ year in Australia https://www.tai.org.au/index.php?q=node%2F19&pubid=696&act=display That doesn’t include the waste from produce that never reaches the distribution networks, such as the orange fiasco, the misshapen bananas and crooked carrots that consumers will supposedly reject and additionally what the supermarkets throw out.
The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation’s recent report Global Food Losses and Food Waste http://www.fao.org/docrep/014/mb060e/mb060e00.pdf explains the difference between pre and post farm gate waste.
The difference between loss and waste is that food loss takes place at production, post-harvest and processing stages of the food supply chain. Waste refers to the end of the food chain, the retailers and buyers’ behaviour. The report reveals that one third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted globally.
Globally the wealthier countries have a higher level of waste and the poorer countries have greater food losses. However, climate change and food security issues will eventually force solutions to this situation to emerge.
Waste of the resources used to grow food, particularly water, is difficult to justify, http://www.environment.gov.au/wastepolicy/publications/pubs/food-waste.pdf In addition, waste of resources used in food production brings with it the problem of emissions caused by production of food lost or wasted.
So how can we better make use of what is currently lost? If food losses could be reduced there is potential to affect the entire food system. Laying the framework for the sustainable food system of the future the production, distribution and marketing of food will, by necessity and with community input, require change.
Local community innovation is often the answer, with enterprising people like Eric Wright and the Nangiloc PS’s idea to sell oranges as fundraisers as an alternative to the chocolate drive http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2012/07/07/506045_farm-news.html Now at nearby Sunny Cliffs PS the students are starting a business selling oranges.
This could be a case study of the benefits of seasonal food. The story of oranges brings the opportunity to illustrate how seasonal and locally grown food taste better, costs less when in plentiful supply and has higher nutrient levels than produce harvested prior to ripening naturally. Then there is the story of reducing emissions from food going to landfill and the wasted water and other resources used to produce the food.
There is a resurgence of interest in the preserving of seasonal produce as those of a new generation appreciate its value and those of an older generation reprise lost arts. How many ways can one preserve an orange’s goodness? Could this case study be seen by social entrepreneurs as a ‘juicy opportunity’ to perhaps create a market for the forsaken oranges and bring a bit of Riverina sunshine into the homes of communities who don’t have access to the wonders of citrus? What needs to change to prevent this waste happening in future?
