Agricultural practices and food production have evolved from hunting and gathering and small-scale agricultural production to the massive high-yield food systems we see today. Thanks to modern energy, new technology, and scientific discoveries, we have succeeded in maximizing and modifying food production to fit people's unique desires. Yet, not all is well in the food industry. Fueled by the desire to provide grocery stores with excessive amounts of aesthetically pleasing produce and meat, unhealthy and environmentally damaging practices like the use of harmful fertilizers and pesticides, the overconsumption of water, and deforestation have become part of the standard around the globe. To make matters worse, about one-third of the food produced worldwide is lost or wasted. With food insecurity rates rising and the impact of climate change creating dangerous obstacles around the globe, changing the way in which we view food and our natural resources has become a necessity.
Consequently, people everywhere have now taken a step back to analyze their daily habits. While many of these problems require institutional changes and government support for the development of more sustainable systems like vertical farming or aquaponics, there are actions you can take at home to alleviate the impact on the planet. Growing your own food garden, for example, is one of the most fulfilling ways to connect with nature and create a more direct connection with food in your home.
Eat fresh produce
By growing your own food garden in your yard, even a small one, with the help of indoor gardening tools like Smart Gardens or Hydroponic kits, if you live in an apartment, you can take full control of the quality of the produce you consume. Often, large food producers will trade quantity and aesthetics for quality and nutrition. By planting your own fruits, vegetables, and garnishes, you can grow ingredients with high-quality soil and skip the harmful chemicals and pesticides that you would otherwise consume. What better way to lead a clean, healthy lifestyle than by ensuring your food is packed with nutrients? You could even take things to the next level by playing around with different types of soils and varieties of seeds to modify the sweetness or overall taste of what you grow.
Compost
Even when growing your own food, you are likely to end up with some leftovers. Thankfully, if you have a garden, you can use things you would ordinarily throw out, like egg shells, vegetable scraps, stale bread, coffee grounds, or even coffee filters to fuel a compost to add essential vitamins and minerals to your garden. In the end, it's a win-win; you can reduce food waste and improve the quality of the food on your table.
Save water
According to the 2022 UN World Water Development Report, an astonishing 70% of groundwater withdrawals worldwide are being used agriculturally to produce food, livestock, industrial crops, and fibers. Water, as abundant as it may seem in certain parts of the world, is a limited resource and should be used strategically and with caution. By taking the time to grow a personal food garden for you and your family, you can use different techniques and technologies to make your garden as water-efficient as possible.
Improving our relationship and creating a more direct connection with food is essential for a prosperous, healthy future. Something as seemingly small as starting your own food garden can allow you to reduce waste, improve the quality of your food, save water, and take back control over what you consume. What you do matters, so take action and start making a difference. To learn more about the connection between human activities, energy, and the environment, visit Resourcefulness.org, and don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Instagram. For information on energy careers and fun energy-related activities, visit Smart Energy Education and Watt Watchers!
Our relationship with food has changed dramatically over the history of humanity. We have shifted over time from hunter-gatherer communities to farmers to modern-day consumers. You may not think much about where our food comes from or how it's produced. Yet, how we acquire our food influences our routines in more ways than most people imagine. Not too long ago, the food options we had at our disposal were limited to the geographic resources of our region and the time of year.
Modern energy has successfully facilitated the production and distribution of produce and meat products on a larger scale than ever before. Our society seems to no longer be subject to regional or seasonal limitations. Consequently, we have developed a food culture of overconsumption. But how exactly is food correlated with energy? And why is building a sustainable food system so important?
What is energy?
Energy is the propeller of all the processes we need to function in our daily lives. From the food and water we consume and cars we drive to the medicines we use in our hospitals and clinics. We need energy to survive on the most foundational levels. Still, we can and have also used energy to improve our lives by improving the systems we use for food production, transportation, medicine, and technology. We now use our energy resources for much more than our basic necessities. Solar energy, for example, powers our food system through photosynthesis, cellular function, and the water cycle, and our modern technology systems through solar panels that create electricity.
How is water connected to energy?
Often referred to as the energy-water nexus, the connection between water and energy results from needing water resources to create energy and energy to access water. Electricity, for example, is often produced through dams and hydroelectric plants. Water is also used to cool power plants and extract fossil fuels. On the other hand, access to fresh water, as an unlimited resource, requires an incredible amount of energy. Often, communities face obstacles due to geographic, economic, and political factors. They then have to resort to purification plants, water importation, or desalination processes to ensure they have enough water to sustain their population's demand. For more information regarding the energy-water nexus, check out our blog here!
What is the food-water-energy nexus?
On a basic level, the relationship between our food system and energy resources can be seen through the solar energy and water that allows plants to go through photosynthesis, providing produce for ourselves and the livestock we eat. However, energy is also embedded in our food system in less obvious ways. This relationship is referred to as the food-water-energy nexus and can be seen in all aspects of our lives.
Take something as simple as a grilled chicken salad, for example. A salad like this could include chicken, green leaves, onion, cherry tomatoes, and dressing. Such a basic ingredient list might not seem to require an incredible amount of energy. Yet, each ingredient requires a certain amount of land, water, and fertilizers to grow. Food producers will need fossil fuels to harvest, process, package, and ship the products. Electricity, water, and fuel will be required to refrigerate and cook the ingredients, which will then be presented to you as a grilled chicken salad. Now say you order the salad but find that you aren't that hungry. You decide to throw half the salad away, wasting valuable resources as you do so.
Our societies, specifically those with more wealth and access to resources, are not aware of the consequences of their actions. We have become far too accustomed to the facilitated access to anything we want, whenever we want. Buying large amounts of food and letting them go to waste in the fridge is common. Throwing away a portion of your meal at a restaurant is a regular habit for many. Still, the complex processes needed to produce the foods we love are excessively energy-intensive. We need our energy resources for much more than food. Therefore, being aware of our food production and consumption habits is paramount for sustainability.
What can you do to reduce waste and conserve the world's energy resources?
As a modern-day food consumer, there are many things you can do to help! Think of the number of times you've bought a package of spinach and then failed to finish the bag. It happens to the best of us. But taking the initiative and only buying products you are confident you will consume can make a huge difference. Additionally, everyone should make an effort to do their research. There is much to learn about the source of our food products, the production habits and sustainability efforts of agricultural organizations and the energy needed to produce certain products.
For more information regarding the connection between food and energy and what you can do to help visit Smart Energy Education, Resourcefulness and Watt Watchers of Texas! And don't forget to follow the Smart Energy Education Facebook page for updates on all our projects, scholarship opportunities, blog posts and more!
If you live in an area where food is readily available, it’s possible to forget that not everyone has quick and easy access to food.
Across America, not everyone has access to fresh foods, and thus they live in what’s known as a food desert - an area with limited access to quality, affordable food.
Our friends at Sustainable America have created a toolkit to serve as a starter guide for fostering a more robust local food system in communities all across the country.
First, let’s define what exactly a food system is before we discuss the differences between industrial and local food systems.
A food system describes the network of parts required to grow, process, transport, store, sell, and consume food. The various types of food we consume daily go through quite a long journey from farmers to the tables of individual families.
Industrial food systems are the large mechanisms used to do all of the food system activities as a way to bring food to as many people as possible.
These more extensive systems enable us to have almost any kind of food we desire whenever we want it, and the production of food is ramped up, which brings cheaper food to more significant numbers of people.
However, there are tradeoffs with using industrial food systems. These include:
Rather than rely on industrial food systems to bring food to our local communities, residents of those communities can focus on local food systems to get them the nutrition they need.
Smaller local food systems can do everything that industrial food systems can do. It is just done on a much smaller scale.
There are many benefits of the small scale in terms of sustainability because it requires fewer systems and less planning to get fresh food to the residents of local communities.
Food produced and sold within a local food system is usually fresher and healthier because it is sold at its peak ripeness. Additionally, it requires fewer to no preservatives or chemicals because transportation concerns do not exist.
Local communities can also have access to specialty foods and varieties that may not be accessible on a larger scale.
Local food systems are quite beneficial for the local economy because they support local businesses and workers rather than giant corporations that do not contribute to a local economy.
The local food system provides a great sense of community, opens opportunities to access, and can provide flexibility and reliability during a crisis. Although the food may be a bit more expensive, you can be rest assured that you are supporting the local community.
If you are interested in spreading awareness of investing in local food systems, please download Sustainable America’s food system toolkit.
Sustainable America is dedicated to helping those who are interested in being a part of building a better local food system and a sustainable food and fuel future. They want to help you support your local food systems and provide your community access to fresh, healthy foods that benefit your economy as well.
Image Credits: PhotoSky/Shutterstock.com.
Food is essential for life. Every living creature on Earth must eat. Animals, in general, can scavenge or hunt for food to sustain themselves.
Most animals consume all of the food they find. On the other hand, humans, especially in the United States, consume more than they need to survive.
Going shopping for our weekly grocery haul or deciding to dine out for the evening, the amount of food we gather or are served tends to be more than we can reasonably consume.
Whether it is leftovers shoved to the back of the fridge or forgotten grocery items that have expired, this food ends up in the trash as food waste.
In the U.S., we throw away so much spoiled, half-eaten, and leftover food that we could power the entire country of Switzerland for one year with the embedded energy in that food. We call this Food Waste.
Each year Americans throw away 30-40% of food that is supposed to be consumed. We dispose of more food than glass, metal, plastic, or paper, and that waste percentage has tripled since the 1950s.
Even our average food portions have quadrupled since the 1950s. When food gets wasted, it also wastes the water, money, and fuel it takes to grow, store, transport, and sell the food we are supposed to consume.
To exacerbate the problem of food waste, 49 million Americans live in households that are food insecure, meaning they are unsure of how they will be able to put a meal on the table.
When we dispose of uneaten, rotten, and forgotten food products, it is more than last week’s casserole or a half-eaten sandwich going in the garbage can. Every food item must come from a variety of sources before it arrives at your home.
From farmers to delivery drivers, manufacturing companies to grocery stores, many different aspects of the food production process contribute to your meals. The effort, money, fuel, and other resources used to bring you the food that is now being thrown into a garbage bag headed for a landfill is also wasted.
Let’s put this into some real-world examples:
All of this information can be shocking and difficult to absorb fully, but the truth is that we must all do our part to ensure that less food (and the accompanying money, energy, and resources) is wasted in our homes.
Suppose every household in America did its part to limit the amount of food wasted daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly. In that case, we can reduce our consumption of energy and resources needed to produce the food.
Here are several easy ways for you and your family to reduce the amount of food wasted in your home:
These are all practical and easy ways to limit the amount of food you and your family waste. While one person alone cannot change the food waste problem in the United States, the combination of everyone’s efforts can truly make a difference.