In 2024, Environmental Defence Canada published Left Holding the Bag: A Survey of Plastic Packaging in Canada’s Grocery Stores. They found that over 70 percent of products in the produce and baby food aisle are encased in plastic. It’s not much better in the US. In 2019 Greenpeace USA assessed 20 grocery retailers with a significant national or regional presence. None of the retailers, according to Greenpeace, appeared to have comprehensive plans on how to reduce plastic use.

And while it’s true that consumers increasingly report that using less plastic matters to them, statistics paint a different picture. In 2020, over 242 million Americans used bagged or packaged salads–a figure expected to have risen to 251.47 million in 2024. Salad bags are generally categorized as “plastic film” and they jam recycling machinery. They end up in the landfill where they decompose releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Alongside the environmental concerns, there are potential health issues. Growing research suggests that chemicals used in the manufacture of plastic contribute to a multitude of health issues. Consumer Reports tested nearly 100 foods ranging from dairy products to canned goods.They found that phthalates, a chemical used to make plastic flexible, were in almost all of them. Studies suggest that regular exposure to phthalates can affect reproductive health and that older adults with phthalates in their bodies were more likely to suffer heart disease.  

But, there’s hope. In April 2024, the European Parliament voted to approve new rules aimed at reducing plastic packaging. Starting in 2030, bans will be in place for packaging of unprocessed fresh fruits and vegetables. Consumers will be encouraged to bring their containers to restaurants and cafés, which will also aim to offer 10 percent of products in reusable packaging. Since 2022,  Canada has banned the use of single use plastic bags at supermarket checkouts. And, in the US more than a hundred municipalities and cities have banned polystyrene ( styrofoam) used in food containers, including Los Angeles and New York. Illinois has gone even further. Legislation came into effect in 2024, permitting restaurants and retailers to fill or refill consumer-owned containers with ready-made or bulk food. Still, plastic packaging persists. 

Currently, out of over 300,000 grocery stores in the U.S., which range from expansive supermarkets to small specialty shops, only 1,300 zero-waste stores offer a plastic-free shopping experience.We spoke with a few shops around the country to see how they ditched the plastic. 

Maison: pay for food, not packaging

After visiting France and shopping plastic-free, Larasita Vitoux was inspired to open Maison Jar Refillery and Grocery Store in Brooklyn.

“In Europe, there are so many refilleries and stores with bulk aisles,” Vitoux says.   

Maison Jar sells bread, vegetables and dried goods all free of plastic covering. According to the store’s year-end impact report for 2023, they are making a dent in plastic use. For example: in 2023 Maison Jar sold 39,075 fluid ounces of kombucha–the equivalent of 2,443 16 oz plastic bottles. 

Something Vitoux believes could propel plastic free bulk shopping into the mainstream market is the introduction of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) legislation. An EPR shifts the responsibility for managing materials at the end of life away from consumers and onto producers who are required to provide funding and/or services that assist in managing products after the use phase. To accomplish this, as Vitoux points out, there can be an embedded cost associated with the packaged goods that gets passed on to the consumer. 

Because bulk buying eliminates packaging, bulk items would not incur this carry over expense. 

“It would make bulk much more competitive,” Vitoux says. As of January 2025 legislation to establish EPR’s in New York State, where Maison Jar is,  had been introduced.  

Re_grocery: direct from the farm 

After living in San Francisco and enjoying bulk plastic-free shopping at the city’s iconic Rainbow Grocer, Joseph Macrino returned to Los Angeles in 2016. “ There weren’t any options in L.A. like that,” he says. So, he created his own. re_grocery’s first location opened in April 2020.

From the start, the store was popular; five years later re_grocery has expanded to a chain of three stores. One in Studio City, another in East L.A. and one in Venice. Carrying everything from cooking oils, quinoa, and organic vegetables, they work to keep  prices as competitive as conventional grocers.

“A lot of it has to do with the bulk nature of products we are purchasing,” Macrino explains. “For example, we purchase quinoa in 25lb bags. We get it directly from the farm after some processing and re-packing. It’s not going to another co-packer, where it is getting broken down into smaller packages. By avoiding that other middleman – the co-packer,  we are able to price bulk packages cheaper.” 

Customers at re_grocery weigh their containers when they arrive and receive a laser chip that is attached to the receptacle.When their goods are weighed at the check out the laser tag is scanned and the container weight is subtracted. The customer does not pay any extra for the container.

Roots Zero Waste Market: on demand ordering

The argument for wrapping a cucumber or head of cabbage in plastic is to maintain shelf life and freshness longer. At Roots, Rainey applies a “just-in-time ordering policy.” By ordering more frequently – often three times a week and only what she needs – food remains fresh. Roots sell eggs, milk, meat, and organic produce alongside bulk items such as olive oil, spices and rice. “We evaluate what’s moving on the floor seasonally and adjust to how people’s buying patterns are fluctuating at the time,” she says.

“We are an environmental company disguised as a retailer,” she says.  

Roots operates on a closed-loop business model that fits with Rainey’s environment consciousness, who is adamant that recycling does not work.

“There is no such thing as recycling,” she says. Not only do rules for what can be recycled vary by state: a plastic strawberry container, for instance, may be repurposed, but cling wrap may not be so lucky. Items such as toothpaste containers, chip bags, or juice boxes are formed with multiple layers of materials making them hard to break down and recycle.  

“We never send anything to the landfill,” Rainey says. If, for example, an apple gets bruised in produce, it’s taken to the deli where it is pressed into juice, with the  pulp repurposed for muffins and its core composted. 

 “We are an environmental company disguised as a retailer,” she says.  

The post On the Ground with Grocery Stores Ditching Plastic appeared first on Modern Farmer.

We know, from the last census of agriculture, that farm life is changing. The number of farms is dropping, while the size of the average farm is going up. That means fewer farmers are working more land.

In order to be efficient, farmers have to turn to technology. Whether that means electric tractors or drone sprayers, to save manpower on the fields, or installing solar panels or virtual fencing to make the most out of the acreage they have, farmers are getting creative.

Here we’ve collected some of our most popular stories exploring the biggest tech in use on farms today.

The post The High Tech Farm appeared first on Modern Farmer.

“Our major goal is to support the ecosystem, heal nature, and be more attuned with nature’s processes,” says Bosch, who farms using organic and regenerative agricultural practices. “As I researched more about soil health, I started to learn how plastic impacts microorganisms in the soil.”

Start thinking about all the ways we use plastic in the garden—seedling trays, landscape fabric, plant pots, to name a few—and it’s hard to unsee all that planetary warming fossil fuel-produced plastic. Most of it tends to get used for a season or two before ending up in a landfill, where the consequences for the planet and ourselves can be dire.

We all know about the issue of plastics in the ocean. The United Nations has declared the plastic pollution of our oceans “a planetary crisis.” Each year, according to National Geographic, about eight million tons of plastic waste ends up in oceans. Yet, there’s likely even more plastic pollution in our soils than in our oceans. Scientists estimate that more than half of the world’s human population might have plastic passing through their bodies. 

Researchers are still trying to understand what all that plastic is doing to us and to the soil, but some recent studies have found that microplastics can change the structure of the soil and potentially interfere with plant growth if they enter the plant tissues through the soil.

But there are steps we can take to reduce the use of plastic in our gardens, ultimately helping to protect our health and the planet.

Here’s how to start reducing the plastic used in your garden.

Swap your plastic plant labels

for wooden sticks, stones, or even popsicle sticks. 

“I love the look and the fun of painting rocks as reusable labels! You can get paint markers, too, to keep things less messy with the kids,” says Nicole Baker, a biologist with The Wild Center, an interactive science museum in New York’s Adirondacks.

Instead of buying plastic ties and stakes

use natural twine to tie up plants and wooden or bamboo stakes to support them. You could even use a sturdy branch from your backyard or a big stick as a stake. These materials break down naturally and are safer for the environment.

Give the plastic pots or containers you have a second life.

You can wash, sanitize, and reuse them. “If they start to break down, you can often use them as drainage material in larger pots or garden beds,” says Georgia-based entrepreneur and gardener Adria Marshall. Marshall, the founder of a plant-based hair care company, Ecoslay, has been gardening alongside her mother and grandfather since the age of 12 and is on a mission to reduce single-use plastics in her garden. 

If you have loads of old plastic pots or seed starter trays you’re not using, you may also be able to return some to your local greenhouse. “This plastic costs money for those nurseries, many of which are mom-and-pop-owned shops and farms,” says Baker. “Many businesses will welcome the return of their plastics, and they will reuse them. This helps out the local business and keeps that plastic out of the landfill. It’s always good manners to call ahead and ask if they would be willing to take the old, still useful, plastic pots.” 

When you do need seed starter trays or pots, consider your options.

“Instead of buying plastic seed trays or pots, use items you already have around the house,” says Marshall. 

You can likely repurpose items such as coffee cans, egg cartons, and maybe even old casserole dishes.

Bosch has found a lot of success using cedar seed starter trays. “It holds up phenomenally well. You would think they would rot, but they don’t.”

You can also look for grow bags made from natural fibers such as cotton, burlap, jute, hemp, terracotta, and clay pots or biodegradable options like those made from coconut coir, peat, or compressed paper.

Baker has even had success planting directly into straw bales. “They act as both the container and as a growing medium. Straw bales get bonus points because they can be composted after the growing season for future use as a natural fertilizer.”

Instead of using plastic weed barriers or synthetic mulch

use compostable materials such as straw, grass clippings, wood chips, newspaper, or leaves. “It reduces plastic waste, and organic mulches also break down over time and add nutrients to the soil,” says Marshall.

Bagged soils, along with the seed starter trays, are two of the biggest culprits of single-use plastic in home gardens, says Bosh, adding that, most of the time, your soil probably doesn’t need much. If you need mulch or soil amendments, try to buy the biggest container you can. Some garden centers or even town landfills that have composting may offer refill stations where you can bring your own containers.

“It hasn’t been as hard as I thought,” says Bosch, who was determined to find ways to farm without using plastic. She started by removing about two-thirds of all the landscape fabric she used before eventually removing all landscape fabric and plastic netting, using natural mulch or cover crops to control weeds instead. The hardest part has been finding an alternative to the plastic irrigation tubing, as tubes with fabric are lined with resin and copper is simply cost prohibitive. “We’re buying the highest quality we can find so we’re not replacing it every year and can patch it as needed.”

You can start by targeting one thing at a time, and it might not be perfect. 

The post How to Reduce Your Plastic Usage in the Garden appeared first on Modern Farmer.

“I was stunned,” says Harward. “Sophie said the little boys were crying because their bellies hurt. We just had no idea there were kids in our community that were hungry.” Harward and some families gathered food for the family, but she knew more had to be done. 

It was her daughter who mentioned all the food going to waste at her school and asked her mom a simple question: Why couldn’t they give families the food from her school instead of throwing it away?

Sophie’s idea became the spark that launched the Georgia nonprofit Helping Hands Ending Hunger, which now works with 150 schools throughout the state to divert food waste.

And there’s a lot of food going to waste. A 2019 USDA School Nutrition and Meal Cost Study found that 31 percent of vegetables and 41 percent of milk were tossed.

But those figures are changing. Schools in Atlanta are working to feed hungry families and rethink how they approach school food. Here are three making huge environmental impacts.

Helping Hands Ending Hunger

Harward thought her daughter’s idea to repurpose the food kids didn’t eat sounded simple, but the USDA has strict rules on preventing cold cafeteria food from being saved. 

But Harward wasn’t deterred. In 2016, she formed a 501(c)(3) and tested the pilot in her daughter’s school. After lunches, students collected uneaten prepackaged food or dry goods, such as apple sauce, packaged carrots, and unopened milk cartons. The students learned how to safely collect and store the unused food, and then handed it out weekly to families in need. 

In Georgia, that included more than 13 percent of children who lacked access to healthy food in 2022 (the latest numbers available), according to the nonprofit Feeding America. 

Today, the Helping Hands program is in 150 Georgia schools and is run by students. “We now train volunteers and school staff at every school chapter to teach kids that food is not trash,” says Harward.

Students at Atlanta Public School’s Springdale Park Elementary School (SPARK) STEAM program rescued about 700 pounds of food between February and May 2024 alone, according to Harward. It was repurposed into 566 meals and another 486 pounds of food for the community. 

“Food that can’t be saved is collected in compost buckets in the cafeteria and used in our [rooftop] garden; nothing goes to waste,” says Kristin Siembieda, STEAM program specialist and Helping Hands coordinator at SPARK.

Harward says the program works incredibly well. “These kids are taking charge and are going to be amazing future leaders.” 

Food Waste Warriors

The students at Gwinnett County School’s Lovin Elementary have a warrior mentality when it comes to food waste. 

In 2018, Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful’s Green and Healthy Schools had a rare opportunity to participate in a new initiative of the World Wildlife Fund, the Food Waste Warriors program.

“The World Wildlife Fund was looking for systems to collect data for its first food waste report, and to help write curriculum around how to do food waste audits,” says Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful board member Jay Bassett, who also works for the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). “The Green and Healthy Schools program was already established [at Gwinnett County Schools], so we did it.” 

In 2019, Gwinnett County Schools enlisted Lovin Elementary in Lawrenceville to be part of the Food Waste Warriors program, conducting food waste audits. They sorted milk, fruits, and vegetables left on lunch trays into buckets and weighed it all. They were shocked that the school had trashed almost 600 pounds of food — in one day. 

Thirteen Gwinnett County Schools completed the 31 food waste audits for the WWF’s Food Waste Warriors report. The data for Gwinnett County Schools was eye-opening: On average, 95,169 pounds of food per school, per year was wasted, and 49.4 pounds of food per student, per year was wasted, as well as almost 56,000 cartons of milk per school, per year.

The first 31 audits launched the ongoing relationship with the WWF and Gwinnett County Schools, which continues to focus on K-12 education. Today, the Food Waste Warriors program is a critical part of the Green and Healthy Schools and STEAM education within Gwinnett County Schools, which is the largest in Georgia.

“The most important thing about the Food Waste Warrior program is the students tackle every aspect of the project,” says Brenda McDaniel, environmental education manager, Gwinnett County Schools. “It’s not just about doing food waste audits; the students must come up with solutions to tackle the problems.”

That first student-led audit at Lovin Elementary provided the school with different resolutions it has now implemented, including serving food differently to reduce packaging waste, eliminating straws and breakfast cutlery, and using biodegradable trays.

Third-graders now collect food scraps that would be trashed at the end of lunch and add them to the compost bin that’s part of the Food Well Alliance’s Compost Connectors program. They learn about composting in STEAM classes and how to use it to fertilize their gardens and help feed the school’s chickens.

First- and third-graders have improved their skillsets in science and math so much, the county revised its middle school curriculum to accommodate their new abilities.

“I never envisioned where this would go,” says Bassett. “We just wanted to change policy on how to reduce waste in cafeterias. That led to systemically building this culture around agriculture, nature-based learning, biology and engineering. Reducing food waste is just a small part of it.”

Raccoon Eyes

Georgia Tech in Atlanta is synonymous with engineering, prestigious research and cutting-edge technology. Soon, its dining services could be a leader in what universities can do to cut down on food waste in their dining halls, thanks to Tech students Bruce Tan, Ivan Zou, and Nathanael Koh. 

The three students focused their CREATE-X Capstone, which is an undergraduate senior design course for entrepreneurial projects, on reducing food waste on campus because of the amount of food being trashed in the university dining halls. Their solution: Raccoon Eyes. 

“The eye-opener for me was a time I was in the kitchen at the end of lunch service,” says Zou. “A worker pushed in carts full of food that were going straight to the trash.” 

Raccoon Eyes has two components: 3D cameras and a computer screen on the dining hall trash cans. The 3D cameras take pictures of every plate and calculate the type and weight of food waste going into the trash using software the three students developed. The computer screen uses visual and audio to collect feedback about the food and to nudge students about future food waste.

During the period between Jan. 11 and May 2, 2024, the system tracked and measured the amount of food waste on more than 240,000 plates at Tech. While there was still about an ounce of food left on each plate, the overall amount of food being tossed dropped by 19 percent during the semester.

The post On the Ground With Atlanta Schools Reducing Food Waste appeared first on Modern Farmer.

Confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) of swine impact the air in Sampson County. Not only is the smell overwhelming, but the odor is an indicator of what these facilities are emitting—dangerous substances such as ammonia and hydrogen sulfide. CAFOs are densely populated in communities of color in eastern North Carolina, and the pollution and impact of them has been on the books for decades. The issue, and the environmental justice advocates in the community who have spoken out against it, are well documented in the film “The Smell of Money.” 

The EPA has air sensors deployed around the country to monitor air quality. When there’s documented pollution, it can enable the government to hold polluters accountable. But rural areas can get overlooked when it comes to air quality measurements—in Sampson County there is a gap in data collection. One of the aims of this project is to make the case for a federal air monitor in the county. 

“One of the end goals is to advocate for a federal air monitor within the county,” says Wall, Community Science Manager for CleanAIRE NC. “And that’s actually something that we’ve been able to do in the past.”

CAFOs and Air Pollution

On a broad scale, very large-scale industrial livestock operations (with tens of thousands of animals) have been getting away with air pollution for a long time. 

“These facilities have not been required to report their air emissions for almost two decades,” says Carrie Apfel, deputy managing attorney for the Sustainable Food & Farming Program at Earthjustice. 

This exemption to the Clean Air Act can be traced back to a consent agreement made between the EPA and thousands of hog CAFOs in the early aughts. The EPA decided it needed to establish reporting methodologies for CAFOs in order to enforce emissions regulations—and so it traded legal immunity to some of the country’s biggest producers in exchange for a few years of data collection. Those few years came and went, producing very little useful data. Two decades later, CAFOs still get a free pass to pollute the air.

Meanwhile, a study from 2021 reports that agriculture leads to 17,900 air quality-related deaths every year in the US. This has been an urgent environmental justice issue for decades now, but the EPA is no closer to regulating air emissions from CAFOs.

Organizations such as Earthjustice have been working to hold the government accountable. It sued the EPA, challenging the reporting exemption for CAFOs under EPCRA as unlawful. This is one of the few statutes that would give the public the right to this reported information. Part of the resistance, says Apfel, has come from the idea that this will burden small farmers with having to figure out their emissions impact. But it won’t —this law would only affect the largest of operations, a small percentage overall.

“There’s a lot of mythology out there about where our food comes from and what these CAFOs are and are not, and I think that Big Ag does everything it can to keep it that way,” says Apfel. “I think that a lot of this is a narrative battle just trying to explain that these are not farms…They’re factories, and they don’t resemble anything like farms.”

While big wheels turn, Sampson County is taking action.

Community-driven data collection

CleanAire NC has seen success with its air quality work before, in Charlotte, NC.

Charlotte’s Historic West End endured redlining—the practice of banks refusing loans to communities of color. This contributed to multiple polluting industries moving into the area and impacting air quality. Residents wanted to know to what extent. So, community members approached CleanAIRE NC.

Residents and ClearnAIRE NC partnered to install PurpleAir sensors at peoples’ homes. The air sensors automatically track and record air quality, mainly through measuring particulate matter in the air. You can see the dashboard of operating air sensors here.

But measuring particulate matter presents a limited picture, and that’s where volunteer airkeepers come in. When levels get high, they can record their observations of what they see and smell and they can take pictures and videos. This will help the data set reflect the differences between highway emissions, CAFO pollution, rock dust from a quarry, and more.

“Particulate matter is so variable, and so it’s hard to pinpoint what might be going on at a specific time,” says Wall. 

Thanks to the data collected by these air sensors, Mecklenburg County Air Quality installed an air sensor. 

Community leaders and CleanAIRE NC have partnered on other efforts to create a green district in the Historic West End, such as planting trees, installing electric vehicle chargers, and supporting green infrastructure.

Now, 30 sensors have been deployed in Sampson County. Just as the work in Charlotte’s Historic West End has been driven by community questions, input, and resources so, too, will be the work in Sampson County.

“That’s a way that we’re trying to fill the gap between these researchers that are coming in to be a part of our project, and maintaining our values on engaging communities,” says Wall.

The post In Eastern North Carolina, Community Science Aims to Fill an Air Quality Gap appeared first on Modern Farmer.

“When you walk through our kitchens, it’s very clear to see that we contribute to food waste. And we were very concerned about particularly the greenhouse gases that are created when food goes to landfills,” says vice president of food education and wellness Terri Brownlee. “We knew that there were lots of things we could do.”

In California, BAMCO now must be compliant with SB 1383 regulations, and its program positioned it ahead of the curve.

Passed in 2016, SB 1383 is California legislation that reduces emissions by diverting organic waste from landfills. It included a component that requires food recovery from food generators of a certain size—restaurants that seat more than 250, grocery stores, hospitals, schools, and more.

These entities donate surplus food as a way to reduce food waste and also feed the hungry. Regulations went into effect in 2022.

Wasted food and other organic matter is responsible for about a third of methane produced by landfills, so food recovery has the potential to greatly reduce emissions. And in a country where hunger rates are unacceptably high—over one-fifth of California’s population was food insecure in 2020—wasted food could be better used elsewhere.

But legislation like this is also one of a kind. While the Good Samaritan Act provides federal liability protection for surplus food donations, California is the first to mandate it. This means that California’s program is a statewide experiment that will likely inform if and how other parts of the country choose to address food waste.

Cutting down on institutional food waste is not a small task—but Brownlee says it’s doable.

“Don’t be scared of it,” says Brownlee. “It might feel overwhelming to begin with. But if you just take it and break it down and create some systems, it becomes very manageable.”

Food recovery in practice

On any given week, the Alameda County Community Food Bank (ACCFB) in California has about 490 scheduled food pick-ups from entities that produce surplus food—grocery stores, food distributors and more. These pick-ups are accomplished by approximately 70 of ACCFB’s agency partners. Under the logistical guidance of ACCFB, the food that gets picked up every week gets redistributed to food pantries, soup kitchens and other entities that can directly service community members who need it.

Many of the donors from which ACCFB’s partners collect food are edible food generators compliant with SB 1383. “Edible food generators” such as grocery stores are important to target in pursuit of food waste solutions because consumer-facing businesses are responsible for about 20 percent of food waste in the US.

So far, California is making progress on its food recovery goal of sending 20 percent of edible surplus food to people who need it by 2025. In 2022, about 405,782,341 pounds of food was recovered. That translates to approximately 338 million meals.

Organizations such as ACCFB, which have been in food recovery work for years, are finding themselves as subject matter experts in this field that is now relevant to a lot more organizations.

This legislation has resulted in an uptick in donations from existing partners and brought new donors to the table, says Xochi Hernandez, sustainability program manager for ACCFB.

“We were kind of able to leverage this legislation and say, ‘hey, help us help you be in compliance.’”

In order to safeguard against existing food recovery organizations being bombarded with food donations beyond their capacity, SB1383 stipulates that food recovery organizations are not required to accept food that they can’t handle.

Food Share is a food recovery organization in Ventura County. Chief operations officer Brian Fisher says there’s a need for additional education for food producers about what can actually be donated.

“Food donations have increased but so has the amount of unusable food, which, unfortunately, ends up in the trash,” wrote Fisher to Modern Farmer in an email. “We have discovered there is a need to educate donors on what food recovery organizations can accept and what should be thrown away.”

Food Share has been handling what the legislation calls “tier one” foods for years—these are shelf-stable items and produce. But education will also be important as the roll-out begins of tier 2 food recovery. These are foods that are more distinctly perishable. Tier 2 includes prepared foods such as sandwiches and pre-packed meals, and Fisher says the coordination between nonprofits and the county governments will be paramount to finesse this process safely.

“Dealing with prepared foods and produce, it’s a totally different way that food is stored and dealt with, having two totally different health requirements and code requirements,” says Fisher.

Reducing surplus food

Replate is a food recovery organization with chapters all over the country. One of the biggest bonuses that COO Katie Marchini observed from the legislation is the education component—SB 1383 requires counties to educate those in their jurisdictions about the requirements they must meet. A common misconception that she encounters in her work is that food donation is illegal. It’s great that now businesses will know that it’s not only legal, it’s required.

But leaving education up to counties to administer also means there is slight variation throughout the state, says Marchini. Additionally, SB 1383 was an unfunded mandate. She’s observed that counties haven’t had enough resources to fully implement the education aspect. This leaves nonprofits to up the slack.

“I think the education component has been heavily on the shoulders of nonprofits,” says Marchini.

Currently, there is an amendment to SB 1383 in the California Senate that would require CalRecycle, the state’s waste management branch, to provide technical assistance to jurisdictions that request it. That technical assistance could include education programming.

By reducing the amount of organic waste that ends up in landfills, this legislation is a great way to approach a positive impact on climate change, says Marchini, but it’s not the answer to food insecurity.

“I think everyone who works in this system understands that food recovery is not the solution for food insecurity,” she says. “The fact that food recovery and food insecurity keep getting paired up together kind of complicates these matters.”

But Marchini expects that SB 1383 will have a ripple effect, inspiring future interventions and legislation in other places. She sees it already—some of the organizations with which Replate works have locations in both California and other states, so SB1383 has prompted them to start programs elsewhere as well, for the sake of uniformity.

The legislation backs into what she perceives as the real aim, which is to reduce the amount of surplus that occurs in the first place. It’s much easier to reroute excess away from the landfill if there’s less excess in the first place.

“I think requiring food donation makes a lot of sense, but I think it only makes sense if it’s also paired with source reduction,” says Marchini.

Dana Gunders, president and CEO of ReFED agrees, saying she wishes California had incentivized source reduction more upfront.

It’s too early to know the long-term effects of SB 1383, but Gunders says she thinks we may see a trend of more cities or states creating food recovery legislation in the future, as California pilots it out.

“I think a lot of eyes are on California,” she says.

The post California’s Food Recovery Program is the First of its Kind in the US appeared first on Modern Farmer.

The rates of food insecurity shot up during the pandemic, with two peaks. The first was at the start of the pandemic, as people lost jobs and so much was up in the air. And the second peak happened once COVID supports ran out. In 2022, 17 million households in the US reported trouble finding food, which is additionally frustrating considering the amount of food that ends up in landfills.

The amount of food waste in North America is staggering. In the US, close to 40 percent of food is wasted, with 92 billion pounds of food thrown away each year. Canadians create 50 million tonnes of food waste every year, but there are estimates that more than half of that waste could be prevented.

That’s where community fridges come in.

The food comes to fridges in one of three main ways. Ideally, organizers have consistent larger donations from grocery stores and other retailers. If a grocer has a load of apples, juice boxes or lettuce and they know it will pass the sell-by date, they will often partner with a community fridge. Volunteers will pick up the load of food and stock the fridges as food becomes available. Then there are individual donations. These can be leftovers from your dinner or a loaf of bread you grabbed at the grocery store that you don’t need. For many fridges, neighbors can pick up what they need and drop off what they have to give. Lastly, there are the restaurant donations. Just like retail stores, some restaurants partner with community fridges to pick up unsold meals and redistribute them.

In this series, we explore how community fridges popped up in different neighborhoods, speak with folks who both use and volunteer at community fridges, and find out the best ways for citizens to get involved in their own community fridges.

The post The Rise of the Community Fridge appeared first on Modern Farmer.

As it rots, it emits methane, a greenhouse gas that for the first 20 years of its life in the atmosphere has 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide. What’s worse is that while all that edible food percolates in the dump, one in eight American adults is experiencing food insecurity.

But like many modern-day problems, there’s an app for that. 

These apps connect farmers, restaurants, and grocery stores that have extra food that might otherwise go to waste, with folks who bring it back into circulation. “If some of these apps can change how we think about food and can include educational components and resources, this may help their customers spread the word about the importance of reducing food waste,” says Dr. Tammara Soma, director of research for Simon Fraser University’s Food Systems Lab.

Too Good to Go

Too Good to Go’s app is a location-based service free for download in every Canadian province and in 30 cities across the US from New York to Phoenix. “What users in one community will see differs from what someone 40 miles away in another city will see,” says Sarah Soteroff, senior public relations manager for Too Good to Go Canada and the United States.

The app user finds restaurants, grocery stores, bakeries, and donut shops within their own neighborhoods that, at the end of the day, find themselves with a surplus. The retailer may not want to store the food overnight, and, sometimes, food regulations prevent the reheating of day-old restaurant meals that makes those three leftover slices of pizza unsaleable. 

“It’s based on the surplus of that day and what the store has. It’s unpredictable, so we make it a surprise bag,” says Soteroff. It could, for example, be three dozen donuts divided into four to a bag. Too Good to Go makes $1.99 from the purchase of each bag, and it recommends bags sell for between $3.99 and $9.99. The products in the bag are usually, according to Soteroff, discounted by a third of the original price. 

The app keeps track of how much money the user has saved by buying food destined for the landfill as compared to what it would cost at full price. “Apps like these,” says Soma, “may help restaurants reduce the amount of food that is wasted at the end of the day, especially when people are motivated by cheaper prices.”

The app launched in Denmark in 2016, and it now has 90 million users globally. It has saved American consumers an estimated $127 million on food they otherwise would have bought at full price, and it has earned $41 million for businesses that otherwise would have tossed food away. 

Every time a surprise bag is sold, 2.5 kilograms of Co2 equivalent (Co2e) is diverted from the landfill and atmosphere, with approximately 35 million kg of Co2e diverted in the US. The app personalizes this for the user, by providing a running tally of the CO2e they’ve kept out of the landfill through the purchase of surprise bags and, subsequently, the difference they’ve individually made to global warming. 

Food Rescue US

In 2011, one in seven Connecticut households was experiencing food insecurity, while more than 36 million tons of food was being tossed out across the US. This didn’t make sense to Jeff Schacher, a software developer, and Kevin Mullins, a local pastor, from Fairfax County, Connecticut. They founded Community Plates (now Food Rescue US) and created a model of food rescue that depicts the true meaning of the adage “waste not, want not.”

“We were born out of a problem and a solution,” says James Hart, development director for Food Rescue US.

Businesses agree to donate food, and not-for-profit social service organizations such as shelters, soup kitchens, and food pantries agree to take it. The app’s secret to success is the volunteers who sign up to rescue food and deliver it to the organizations in need. The app gives detailed instructions on where to pick up the food and where to take it. Anyone can sign into the app and claim a food recovery in their area.

For Jenna von Elling, a parent volunteer at Luther Jackson Middle School in Falls Church Virginia, Food Rescue US has made a huge difference to her school community. “At the start of the pandemic, we wondered how we were going to keep the school pantry stocked for families,” she says. After a quick Google search, she discovered Food Rescue US and the pantry has not been without food since.

Twice a week, von Elling and her fellow food rescuers fill two SUVs full of food they claim and recover from the local Target grocery store. What they bring back to the school pantry includes produce that is nearing the end of its grocery store shelf life but is still edible. There are also chicken breasts and other meat nearing best-before dates to boxes of diapers that are damaged. 

Since its founding, the organization has expanded to 23 states, provided 152 million meals to those in need, kept 183 million pounds of excess food out of landfills, and boasts 20,000 volunteer food rescues.

Misfits Market

Misfits tackles food loss at the beginning of its life cycle, including, what Rose Hartley, head of sustainability for Misfits, calls “cosmetically challenged” produce. 

“What we have been hearing from farmers,” she says, “is that they need an outlet to be able to sell this produce.” 

Misfits buys the twisted zucchini, the sunburnt cauliflower, and the pepper that’s grown into a cylinder instead of a bell, and makes the produce available via the app in the form of a food box delivered directly to the user’s doorstep. Subscribers can expect a 30-percent savings compared to food bought at the grocery store.

Sign into the app, anywhere in the contiguous US, and subscribe to a weekly or bi-weekly box, or choose a flex plan to shop as needed. Boxes also contain rejected shelf products—maybe the packaging is crinkled, or the printing of the label is slightly off-center, and, therefore, rejected by the store.

“We are trying to fill that gap that buyers back out of,” says Hartley. “The hope and the dream is that we create a different conception of what good food looks like.”

She admits though that change of this scale could take decades. In the meantime, Misfits continues to recover unwanted food. In 2023, it prevented 26, 444,000 pounds of food from going to waste across the US.

The post On the Ground With Apps Preventing Food Waste appeared first on Modern Farmer.

Buoys are a key component of aquaculture and fisheries—there are hundreds of thousands used in the United States alone. The buoy market, already a multi-billion-dollar industry, continues to expand by 5.5 percent each year thanks to increased interest in aquaculture farming. These buoyant orbs come in all shapes and sizes and help to moor lines, mark objects, and signal navigation. In the long history of ocean farming and exploration, we’ve used wooden buoys, cork ones, and iron ones. But today, the majority of buoys on the ocean are made from styrofoam or other polystyrene and polyethylene plastic compounds. There are thousands of buoys in use for weather and navigation alone, and every lobsterman and oyster farmer uses several dozen at a minimum.

Lost plastic buoys float on the currents and join the tonnes of plastics that now cover as much as 40 percent of the world’s seas. Bits and pieces of plastic buoys break off or disintegrate in the ocean sun, joining billions of pieces of microplastics that end up in our seafood.

You cannot have aquaculture without buoys—but you can have buoys without plastic. Sue Van Hook had a lifetime of expertise in fungi when she joined Ecovative Design as the mycologist in 2007. Ecovative Design is a technology company focused on using mycelium—the fine white vegetative filaments of fungus—to solve human needs. After discovering early on in her research that mycelium would float, Van Hook quickly realized the potential for creating buoys.

“My grandfather turned his lobster buoys on a lathe in the ‘50s and ‘60s on North Haven Island,” says Van Hook say, remembering her very first introduction to aquaculture’s wooden floatation devices. “I watched him do all that, all those years ago, and we helped paint the colors on and all of that stuff. And then I watched the whole ocean turn to Styrofoam, which at the time seemed fine, right? It was cheaper. They didn’t have to go through all of that labor of crafting this beautiful thing individually, and they lasted a long time.”

As an adult, Van Hook had become a professor of environmental studies and focused on mycology, which she taught at Skidmore College for 18 years. Now observing the buoyancy of mycelium, it didn’t take her long to remember her grandfather’s lobster buoys and their shift to Styrofoam—and to realize the environmental impact of an ocean full of Styrofoam buoys. She set to work designing and growing mycelium buoys.

Now the founder and CEO of her own company, Mycobuoys™, Van Hook has pioneered the fungus alternative to plastic buoys. To make her buoys, Van Hook will take a rope of pasteurized hemp and inoculate it with a low percentage of mycelium wood rot fungus. The fungus will then grow, spread and take up whatever space it is given to fill. Originally, she used empty soda bottles, and today, she has prototypes up to the size of mooring buoys more than two feet in diameter.

Van Hook has run into challenges finding the perfect fungus for the job, and she continues to work on the durability of the buoys. “We use wood rot fungus,” she says, explaining that the type of mycelium that creates sturdier, more perennial mushrooms like reishi is more suited to the job than the lawn fungus that grows many culinary mushrooms. She has tested dozens of strains of fungus, and she continues to work through varieties in buoy trials.

Currently, Van Hook’s Mycobuoys™ are being tested at 11 oyster farms, shellfish hatcheries, and ocean schools throughout New England and New York. Her goal is to be able to guarantee the buoys for a full season before offering them for retail sale.

Abigail Barrows was one of the first oyster farmers to trial Van Hook’s Mycobuoys™. Barrows has a background in marine biology and studies ocean microplastics. In 2015, she bought the lease on Deer Isle Oyster Company with a goal of turning it into a plastic-free oyster farm.

“We were blown away by the process,” Barrows says of her early experiences with mycelium buoys. “It was really exciting to grow something and then have this product which is so functional. And we were pretty excited about the potential application as we started our sea trials.”

The greatest challenge for Mycobuoys™ and those trialing the buoys is their durability. In addition to their hard plastic bodies, many of today’s buoys have thick toxic paint shells. To create a durable shell for a Mycobuoy™, both Van Hook and Barrows have experimented with natural paints that will protect the buoys from the sun, curious birds, and the hard use inherent in ocean farming.

“We are still looking for a more rugged coating,” explains Barrows, who has used pine tar and linseed coatings and linseed based paints on the buoys. “That would give them more robustness, because boats are going to bang into them, so we need to protect them for more than a season.”

“We are trying to find that beautifully environmentally friendly coating to prolong the life of the buoys,” says Van Hook. Today’s plastic lobster buoys do not last forever—at least not as functional aquaculture tools. Most lobstermen and oyster farmers will use a buoy for 20 or 25 years. Van Hook’s goal for Mycobuoy™ durability is a little bit shorter.

“My ideal business plan is that we grow the buoys every year,” she says. “You buy your buoys at a reasonable price, you have it out there floating your cages for a year, and at the end, we buy it back from you and dry it, grind it ourselves for fertilizer or you could compost them in your own garden.” Van Hook uses old mycelium buoy prototypes in her garden, where she never has to add fertilizer or composite thanks to the nutrition of the fungus. 

“You wouldn’t have to store [the buoys] in your driveway or your yard,” Van Hook continues, referring to the large piles of buoys that spring up on fishermen’s lawns during the off-season, “where all that UV light deteriorates the polyethylene plastic that they are currently using faster.” 

Recent legislation in South Korea will ban the use of styrofoam buoys by 2025, and Van Hook believes that other nations will soon follow. Van Hook hopes her buoys will retail around 10 percent to 20 percent above current plastic buoy prices and believes increasing restrictions on plastics will only make the mycelium option for buoys more appealing. Styrofoam and plastic buoys average between $20 and $50, depending on size, while the cost of Van Hook’s buoys will depend on the ability to scale up production and the solution to the problem of a durable coating. Those interested in helping Van Hook trial Mycobuoys™ can reach out to her via her website for 2025 buoys.

As oyster farmers such as Barrows continue to trial buoys and Van Hook expands to more shapes and sizes, the future of Mycobuoys™ is bright. On her quest to reduce ocean plastics, Van Hook may have stumbled on to an answer for more than just buoys.

“There is just so much potential here,” says Barrows.

Plastics can be found in almost all fishing gear, from nets to floatation systems in boats. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is almost half what is called “ghost gear,” fishing plastics lost overboard or abandoned. In addition to Mycobuoys™, Barrows works on prototypes of wooden oyster cages, and she sells her oysters in compostable beechwood bags from a new company called Ocean Farm Supply. “We need to think outside of the box, in terms of using them for mooring balls, other kinds of floatation, other marine systems such as replacing styrofoam boat hulls and marine docks.”

The post Meet the Mycologist Stopping Ocean Plastics, One Mushroom Buoy at a Time appeared first on Modern Farmer.

In a span of less than 10 minutes, no fewer than five people open the doors of the bright yellow community fridge and pantry just outside the Medlock Park neighborhood in Decatur, Georgia. Most come here searching for fresh food and produce, or personal products such as toothpaste or diapers, donated by the community.

“I come here about three times a week,” says Anne. She depends on the food, especially fresh produce, to supplement her diet. “If it wasn’t for this fridge, I definitely wouldn’t get to eat as healthy as I do,” she says. “It’s amazing what people donate.” 

The community fridge, known as ATLFreeFridge, stands in front of North Decatur Presbyterian Church. The goal is to provide free food and help reduce food waste. It’s open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and anybody can take or donate food.

The ATLFreeFridge was one of six installed in 2020 as part of the volunteer initiative Free99Fridge started by former Atlantan and activist Latisha Springer. Her goal was to maintain community fridges and pantries across metro Atlanta to help combat food insecurity and waste. (Springer ran the program until she left Atlanta to pursue other opportunities.) Initially, all of the fridges were a success.

But unlike the fridge at the church, the others depended on local businesses such as coffee shops and breweries for their spaces and electricity. When Springer left the program, the fridge sponsors had to choose whether to keep their fridges or close them down. Only North Decatur Presbyterian Church chose to keep its fridge, renaming it ATLFreeFridge.

Today, volunteers install, clean and monitor the ATLFreeFridge. They donate the food, hygiene products and dry goods, and make sure no food is expired or goes bad. Most of the fresh food comes from the neighboring community, although a team of volunteers coordinate food pickups from local restaurants, farms, and grocery stores that also provide tons of fresh food.

“It was a new idea here when I first heard about it,” says Monique. “It was unusual because it was a mutual aid project instead of a non-profit. It was so smart and done with respect. There were no questions asked whether you were donating or coming for food.”

But neighbors in Medlock Park had a lot of questions early on. They expressed their concerns to the church and volunteer coordinators about things such as sanitation, people lingering at the fridge, and homeless encampments that began popping up. Most reservations, though, were about safety around the neighborhood. Those were exacerbated in 2022 after a man who appeared to be having a mental health crisis threw the contents of the fridge into the street, some at passing cars. 

That’s why, Nancy Gathany, a church member on the ATLFreeFridge executive committee, says the church doubled down to keep the fridge rather than close it. “I’m sure it was stressful for the other commercial businesses [hosting fridges] because they become magnets for unhoused people,” she says. “But it’s hard to ignore the needs of so many people coming to our fridge. It hits you in the face.” 

Co-pastor Rev. David Lewicki held a meeting in October 2022 to address community fears. They’ve since established rules for fridge shoppers, including new boundaries on the campus grounds, although there’s rarely a time without someone loitering around the fridge. The church also now enforces no overnight sleeping, but it still happens off church grounds on occasion. 

North Decatur Presbyterian now provides local resource information, including temporary housing, legal assistance, employment services, and child and pet care, to users and has designated parking spaces to address concerns about traffic.

Perhaps the biggest change is the church now has a dedicated case manager for anyone who needs assistance. He’s available once a week and sees about four clients on average, helping them get health care, housing, and employment. 

“The congregation is very supportive of the case manager,” says Gathany. “We are really trying to get the shoppers past their struggles.” Between August 2023 and March 2024, he had nearly 100 client meetings, Gathany says, and assisted several families get off the streets.

Of course, not all the shoppers at the fridge are homeless. Gathany says the fridge feeds more families who come in cars, but they have so many singles who come on foot, and are down on their luck. The 2020 poverty rate in Dekalb County for children aged 5-17 was 26.6 percent, much higher than the state average of 18.8 percent. That number improved to 18.6 percent in 2022 (the latest numbers available), but it’s still higher than the state average of 16.3 percent. And with poverty comes food insecurity, whether it’s because of lack of money, long waits for SNAP benefits, or a lack of transportation.

And, according to Feeding America, the number of food-insecure children in Dekalb County where the fridge is located hovered around 21 percent in 2022 (the latest numbers available), much higher than the county’s overall rate of 11.2 percent.

“What many don’t realize is that some of these people are coming from the neighborhood,” says Monique. “Sometimes, people are ashamed that they don’t have enough money for food. The fridge is one great place they can go for it.”

Still, some neighbors who support the fridge are still hesitant to do so. “Those who are gathering there are a deterrent to my donating,” says local Kern Thompson. “I can only assume that I’m not the only person who’s cut back donating because of their presence.” The fridge has become a hangout, of sorts, which can be both a good and bad thing when it comes to prospective donations. 

Medlock resident Monica Morgan says that’s one reason she consistently donates. “Every time I’ve been there, there’s such a need,” she explains. “There are people waiting—families—who are just down on their luck. But I’ve never felt uncomfortable dropping off food. All the people seem very grateful.”

Today, nearly four years to the day the fridge was first installed, there is still support for the ATLFreeFridge. 

But it’s not without controversy. During the writing of this piece, on July 9, the fridge was vandalized again. An unknown person cut the electrical wire, destroying the fridge and taking it out of commission for nearly a week until volunteers could find a new one. Gathany says she has no idea who did it or why, but that doesn’t change the demonstrated need.

“The fact that we even need this fridge shows us where our society is failing,” says Gathany. “Everybody is having a hard time, not just the homeless. There’s never going to be anything that 100 percent of the community supports. But the church is doing this because it’s the church’s business.” 

The post This Community Fridge is the Only One Left in Atlanta—and the Need is Growing appeared first on Modern Farmer.