Repurposing Farm-Based Food Waste Provides Pathway to a Healthier Planet | Sustainable Brands (2024)

Food waste handling presents itself as either a generator of deadly greenhouse gases — or a tool for immediate decarbonization of the food cycle, and anincrease in the adoption of regenerative agriculture practices.

The pandemic hasforced us, as a nation, to focus on the issues of environmental and personalhealth.More and more, consumers are coming to understand that these two massive partsof our daily life are inexorably linked, but few consumers understand that thisconnection can go much further than they may have considered. How food ismanufactured and how it is disposed of turns out to have direct and significantimpact on both the personal health of US consumers, as well as on ourenvironment.

More than 30 percent of all food that is produced in the US ends up in anincinerator or landfill. The breakdown of that food waste produces methane — oneof the most damaging greenhouse gases, estimated to be more than 40 times worsefor the environment than carbon dioxide. If food waste were a nation, it wouldbe the third-largest greenhouse gas contributor in the world, behind the US andChina.

Finding a positive solution to this challenge is the reason we started themovement to reframe the way the US food production, delivery and disposalprocess works. Vanguard Renewables has workedwith US farmers to scale a solution for recycling organic waste and producingcarbon-negative fuel.

Food waste is energy

Great strides are being made on reducing waste from existing manufacturing andsupply chains. Most food manufacturers are fully engaged in multi-facetedefforts to reduce foodwaste;but some amount of that waste is endemic to any manufacturing and distributionprocess, and cannot be overcome due to food safety and quality concerns.

The remarkable thing about food waste is that it can become either a dangerousgreenhouse gas or an incredible ingredient to produce renewable energy,low-carbon fertilizer and evenplastic.The deciding factor is based entirely on how we dispose of it. Sending foodwaste to landfill creates terrible issues with greenhouse gas emissions andtoxic leachate in our waterways, whereas recycling it in an anaerobic digestertakes all those negative issues and turns them into positive benefits.

Closing the loop on food waste reduction and food production

At Vanguard Renewables, we are proud to have been able to create a newclosed-loop model for US food waste by partnering with family farms. We buildand operate anaerobic digestion facilities on farms across the country thatrepurpose food waste into renewable energy and low-carbon fertilizer. Buildingour recycling facilities on farms leverages the amazing synergies that existbetween food waste recycling and regenerative agriculturepractices.

As is commonplace in Europe, our anaerobic digestionfacilitieson farms throughout the US take nutrients from unusable food and deliver it backto the soil; while the anaerobic digester sequesters the greenhouse gas thatwould otherwise have been emitted if the food waste was sent to a landfill. Thisprocess, called co-digestion, combines food waste and cow manure in a largesealed tank (much like an enormous cow’s stomach) for roughly one month, andlets the natural process of anaerobic digestion break down the waste into biogasand liquid digestate. The biogas can be used as renewable natural gas(RNG) for injection into the pipeline, for vehicle fueling, or on-site asfuel to produce renewable electricity. The leftover liquid from the process —called digestate — is a potent, low-carbon fertilizer used by the host farmerthat improves soil health. By substituting digestate for traditional fertilizer,our farmers can reduce their reliance on synthetic fertilizers by 80 to 100percent. As importantly, our farm partners have seen significant increase inboth crop yield per acre and the nutritional value of the crops. These costsavings and production enhancements combine to make our farmers moreeconomically and environmentally sustainable for the next generation.

RNG production via anaerobic digestion creates carbon-negative energy, sustains farms

Vanguard has been working with generational farmers for more than seven years tomake this solution work. During the company’s lifespan, RNG has gone fromrelative obscurity in the renewable energy world to one of the fastest-growingareas of investment focus. The important distinction with RNG is that, unlikewind and solar energy — which are carbon neutral — RNG is carbon negative.Therefore, the utilization of RNG in a manufacturing process has immediate andmeaningful impact on a user’s carbon footprint. Moreover, RNG can only beeconomically produced from the breakdown of organic materials either inlandfills or anaerobic digesters.

Consumers and companies catalyze decarbonization

What excites us most today is our position at the convergence of two totallyindependent catalysts toward decarbonization, now combined to dramaticallyincrease the adoption of repurposing organic waste to produce RNG.

The first catalyst: the public’s desire for transparency in the food production cycle

Consumers and investors have been seeking transparency in the sourcing andquality offoodfor at least a decade. Most recently, the food industry has focused on thecarbon footprint issues related to packaging and transportation. Now consumershave a growing awareness of the tragedy of the vast amount of food being wastedin the US, and are demanding transparency in the waste-disposal practices ofcompanies from which they purchase products. These same consumers are alsodemanding actionable solutions from business and government to directly impactclimatechange.This huge shift in consumer attitudes and buying patterns is being reinforced bysocially conscious investors at the commercial level by the environmental,social and governance (ESG)ratingson Wall Street.

Per a recent New York Timesarticle,cutting greenhouse gas emissions from food production is critical to limitingglobal warming. In addition to reducing food waste and repurposing what cannotbe eliminated, food producers and retailers can also work with supply chainpartnerson food waste repurposing, thereby dramatically reducing their Scope 3emissions. The food industry can also support the synergy between reducingcompanies’ carbon footprint and that of host farms, while producing vitalcarbon-negative energy.

The second catalyst: the commitment by companies to decarbonize their energy sources

Most major food industry participants have committed toscience-basedtargetsover the coming decade. It has been relatively easy to reduce or remove thecarbon impact ofelectricityat a facility, utilizing wind and solar energy. Removing the carbon impact ofthe thermal needs (hot water, refrigeration, and cooling) of a facility hasproven to be extremely hard and expensive. Retrofitting a manufacturing facilityto electrify thermal components requires enormous time, capital expenditure andplant shutdowns to execute the change. Additionally, the performance criteria ofthe thermal process would either exceed the maximum production capacity ofelectric components or be extremely expensive to run. RNG presents an immediate,zero-capital-expenditure pathway to target attainment.

The virtuous circle of recycling manufacturing food waste into RNG that is thenused at that same plant to decarbonize thermal energy requirements is incrediblyattractive. If the farm that hosts the digester produces the raw materials thatare processed into the food product, the feedback loop is almost perfect. Thismay seem an aspirational model; however, Vanguard Renewables has worked withseveral food and beverage manufacturers to do just this. We see closing thisloop as the future of the food and RNG industries.

The solutions pathway

Virtually all the major food manufacturers and retailers have committed toadmirable climate-change reduction goals. Food waste handling presents itself aseither a generator of deadly greenhouse gases — or a tool for immediatedecarbonization of the food cycle, and an increase in the adoption ofregenerative agriculture practices. We believe that integrating farm-basedanaerobic digestion into the food cycle is an immediately impactful solutionspathway that will protect people, planet and profit for the future.