While the world wastes about 2.5 billion metric tonnes (mt) of food every year, the U.S. discards nearly 60 million mt every year. That’s estimated to be almost 40 per cent of the entire U.S. food supply and equates to 325 pounds of waste per person. That’s like every person in America throwing 975 average-sized apples into the garbage, or rather, into landfills, as most discarded food ends up there. Food is the single largest component taking up space inside U.S. landfills, making up 22 per cent of municipal solid waste. All told, the amount of food wasted in America has an approximate value of nearly US$218 billion, the equivalent of 130 billion meals. 

Canadians in turn create over 50 million mt of food waste every year despite 60 per cent of it being avoidable through better planning and awareness. The average Canadian household produces 79 kilograms (174 pounds) of food waste per year, according to the UN Food Waste Index. Nearly half (47 per cent) of the waste is generated at the household level, yet more than 60 per cent could be easily avoided, says the government. Canada’s yearly food waste is equivalent to 9.8 million mt of carbon dioxide. Fruits and vegetables account for 45 per cent of food waste. 

Meanwhile, one in eight households in Canada, or four million Canadians, including 1.2 million children, were in food-insecure households in 2018. This number is higher than any recorded previously. In 2017-18, 84 per cent of people who lived in food-insecure households were in Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and British Columbia. But the territories had the highest prevalence of food insecurity, with Nunavut at 57 per cent, the Northwest Territories at 21.6 per cent and the Yukon at 16.9 per cent. 

Down south, it is estimated that nearly 35 million people across America, including 10 million children, suffer from food insecurity. This includes 12.8 per cent (17 million) of all households, according to a new report by USDA’s Economic Research Service. Food-insecure households (those with low and very low food security) had difficulty at some time during the year providing enough food for all their members because of a lack of resources. The 2022 prevalence of food insecurity was statistically significantly higher than the 10.2 per cent recorded in 2021 (13.5 million households) and the 10.5 per cent in 2020 (13.8 million households), says the Economic Research Service. 

Food spoilage, whether real or perceived, is one of the biggest reasons people throw out food. More than 80 per cent of Americans discard perfectly good, consumable food simply because they misunderstand expiration labels, says the Economic Research Service report. Labels like “sell by,” “use by,” “expires on,” “best before” or “best by” are confusing to people, and in an effort to not risk the potential of a foodborne illness, they’ll toss it in the garbage, says the report. 

The North American beef industry suffers its share of food spoilage. However, decades of packaging improvements — think case-ready — have helped reduce the wastage of red meat and poultry. But the industry can and should do more to educate consumers about recognizing when a beef product is still safe to eat. 

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About 58 per cent of the food produced in Canada is lost to the landfill, estimates the National Zero Waste Council, which comprises representatives from the Canadian food industry, retail, food service and government. Wasted food makes up about 23 per cent of the total waste sent to landfills in Canada each year, according to an Environment Climate Change Canada study. Biodegradable waste, such as food, is the source of landfill methane, making efforts to mitigate food waste helpful on the environmental front as well.

Meat wasted less than other foods
In Canada, there is significant waste of different types of foods. Meat is wasted less than any other food category, at six per cent. By weight, vegetables top the household food waste scale, coming in at 30 per cent, significantly higher than consumer estimates. Fruit follows at 15 per cent and leftovers at 13 per cent. Bread and bakery (nine per cent), dairy and eggs (seven per cent) round out the list.

Second Harvest awards action plan
Second Harvest is a food waste mitigation initiative that aims to reduce hunger, supporting sustainable environmental initiatives through food redistribution, research, awareness and education.

Approximately 32 per cent or the equivalent of 11.2 million tonnes of edible food that was going to waste is now helping people in need. At a gala event on February 16, 2023, in Toronto, Second Harvest awarded Sobeys Canada with the Food Partner of the Year prize while Artic Co-op and Loblaw received the No-Hunger awards.

Food waste reductions in the retail sector
Sobey’s Canada has implemented an innovative “OurPart” campaign to rescue food, prevent waste and help to redirect food surplus to communities across Canada. In this project, Sobeys offers Food Rescue tips on social media using #FoodRescue.ca on Twitter and with the FoodHero app.

Loblaw launched the Flashfood app which connects retailers to customers with offers of produce, meat, fish, bread, dairy and pantry staples nearing their best-before date. These items are often marked down by 50 per cent or more. Some items last for weeks, if frozen or cooked. Others have a day or two left.

Flashfood reportedly has diverted more than 13.5 million kilograms of food from landfills and saved users a collective $90 million.

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The plant’s 250-odd workers, represented by the Syndicat des salaries de la fromagerie — an arm of Centrale des syndicats democratiques (CSD) — have voted 73 per cent to ratify an agreement in principle with the company and were to return to work Monday (Aug. 8), the union said in a release Wednesday.

Off the job since June 29, the employees “will gradually return to work next week to clean the plant in order to resume cheese production as soon as possible,” Agropur said in a separate statement Wednesday.

Producteurs de lait du Quebec president Daniel Gobeil on July 22 had written to the company, reiterating the dairy farmer group’s request for at least a minimal level of processing work to continue at the facility, to prevent milk waste.

Quebec media reports put the Granby plant’s processing capacity at about 800,000 litres per day.

The Granby plant will now start receiving milk “in the coming weeks,” Agropur said Wednesday, which “will help ensure the supply of our customers and avoid further food waste.”

Agropur said it “believes that it has reached an agreement with the employees that will ensure stability for the coming years.”

The new collective agreement expires July 23, 2026, the union said.

“If we have reached an agreement that suits our members, it is because they have remained united throughout the conflict,” CSD counsel Bernard Cournoyer said in the union’s release.

The deal includes increases of between 2.5 and 3.5 per cent in annual worker salaries, increased RRSP contributions from the company and concessions on allowances and advances due to disability-related absences, and on choosing vacation days, the union said. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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“It keeps it interesting,” says Buis, who farms at Chatham, Ont., and feeds cull vegetables and processing byproducts to his herd. “They need to almost drive directly by the feed bunk to get to the store, so it’s always interesting when they see a great big pile of carrots or a great big pile of ears of corn.”

Buis and his family run around 325 females, finish their own calves and grow several cash crops. When they started their herd shortly after the BSE crisis, cost-effective feed sources were a high priority. “It was really difficult to make a dollar in the cattle business, so we had to find alternative feeds and shortcuts that would work for us,” says Buis.

Their location in an area predominantly known for vegetable and cash crop production made this a logical option. “Land values are very high, so pasturing and growing hay is not a viable option for us here,” he says. “So the reason we started using vegetable crops was we could get them virtually for free.”

They source products such as carrots, potatoes, red beets, green and yellow beans and sweet corn. “In the area that we’re in, there’s very little livestock, so as a result there’s no competition for quite a few of these products,” he says. “Most of this comes from the processing industry, so we have a few factories within an hour’s truck ride from our feedlot.”

Feeding livestock cull fruits and vegetables or food processing byproducts is not a new practice by any means, but it’s receiving more attention as producers in some parts of Canada look for alternate feed sources, while others seek options that benefit their cattle and reduce food waste. The availability of different products will depend on region, and supply isn’t always consistent. While there are many benefits to this approach, there are considerations such as cost, storage and nutrition when deciding whether this is the right approach for your operation.

There are legitimate concerns about disease transmission associated with feeding livestock food waste from the consumption phase, or kitchen scraps, and animal by-products. For the purpose of this article, we are discussing plant-based food waste from the processing stage.

Feeding potatoes on P.E.I.

“Cattle will go through anything to get at a potato. They’re highly palatable,” says Halliday, who recommends feeding cull potatoes to feeder cattle 600 lbs. and over. “It’s a good feed for pushing the envelope.”

Similar to any feed, cull potatoes need to be slowly introduced to a ration and in moderation. Chopping potatoes before feeding is recommended to avoid choking hazards, and this can be done with a tub grinder or TMR mixer.

One way to reduce choking risk and prevent spoilage with a large supply is to ensile washed potatoes with fresh-cut silage. The fermentation process will cook the potatoes, says Halliday.

“You can get a four or a five-ounce potato, it’ll actually flatten it like a potato patty, and when you dig those out, they just basically crumble in your hand.”

Feed testing and properly balancing your ration are key. “You’re only dealing with nine per cent protein, so for younger cattle you just make sure you’ve got the protein levels where they should be,” says Halliday. At around 80 per cent total digestible nutrients, potatoes are a good source of energy, and the skins have plenty of vitamins and minerals.

The high moisture content can be a tradeoff, though. “Because they are a wet feed — 80 per cent moisture — the more potatoes you put in the ration, around here because we’re dealing with barns, the more bedding you need,” he says.

In feed trials using potato byproducts, the best performance came from a ration on a dry basis of 40 per cent potatoes, 40 per cent grain, 20 per cent forage and protein and mineral supplementation if needed.

Finding a consistent source of clean cull potatoes is worth careful consideration and spending a little extra money, Halliday says. “Normally we have them available pretty well year-round for some fellows, but lately because we’ve got really good potato storage, a lot of our packing houses don’t start to grade out for the market until probably the middle of January. So sometimes we’ll get a glut of potatoes in January, February, March.”

While Halliday recommends storing potatoes inside to prevent freezing in winter, outside storage is acceptable, as long as frozen potatoes are chopped well enough. In P.E.I., all feed potatoes have to be under cover after June 15 and require a permit for storage.

“That’s more to protect the potato crop this year because if you have cull potatoes that start to sprout, then there’s a blight problem.”

Halliday is seeing more people interested in feeding cull potatoes and byproducts to cattle, as well as other food waste products locally available. “Between brewers’ grains, cabbage, turnips and carrots and potatoes, there seems to be a lot of people out there that want to use them,” he says. “It’s all good fibrous feed, and we can always make use of it.”

Find what works best for you

Because of this, they have to be careful when deciding which products to use in their feedlot, and they’ve found that sweet corn silage, green and yellow beans, brewers’ grains and distillers grains work in this context.

Buis uses a TMR mixer to chop the various products, though they have run into a few choking issues with potatoes and red beets in the past. “If we can, we’ll let potatoes and red beets sit so that they actually start to break down a little and become mushy, and then they’re much easier to feed and much less risky to feed,” he says.

When feeding high-moisture products such as carrots, they add straw to the ration as a buffer to aid in digestion.

Given the high moisture content of some of these products, storage can be a challenge, and items such as carrots need to be fed promptly. “The carrots will lose the juice, so in our bunkers we need to be able to capture that juice,” Buis explains. “The runoff from our feed storage needs to be managed in a special way because obviously we can’t let it get into the streams forever. So we capture that in a liquid lagoon and we spread it as liquid fertilizer on our fields.”

Buis advises producers to carefully weigh the investment, especially when looking at transportation costs and how much you’re getting from each load. “You have to take a serious look at your cost of these products. I’ll use the carrot example: (it’s) 85 to 90 per cent water, so as you’re bringing in a tonne of that, you need to remember that … 10 to 15 per cent of that tonne is actual feed.”

He also advises producers to be vigilant when it comes to sourcing a clean, safe product, and to be aware of the possibility of hardware or plastic in the load. “We’ve actually rejected loads because there’s been plastic and stuff in it.”

Despite some of these challenges, Buis finds the palatability of these products to be very good and his cattle love it. “The cows are not nearly as picky as you’d thought they might be, so bringing in some of these byproducts, they actually will leave good-quality hay or good-quality feed and come running over.”

An angle for consumer connection

“We tested the key messages around grasslands and tested that with a key message of cattle diverting food waste, and asking participants which one resonated with them more. And more people chose the food waste key message,” says Amie Peck, CCA’s public and stakeholder engagement manager.

Audience members expressed their enthusiasm for this practice, stating that knowing this has changed their perception of beef production for the better. “Food waste is something they’re trying to do in their own homes, and so they understand the principles behind it, whereas grasslands seems like kind of an abstract concept if they don’t live close to the grasslands or they don’t understand preserving landscape,” says Peck.

“I’ve heard from a lot of producers some trepidation about linking food waste and cattle, and their concerns are that are people going to think that the food is not high quality, that cattle are being fed garbage,” she continues. “There was not a single comment whether or not this would fit quality standards.”

Peck explains that the industry’s key message on feedlots being the most efficient use of resources in beef production hasn’t resonated with consumers, so they tested this message against a message related to using food waste at feedlots. When asked to choose the message they preferred, 76 per cent of respondents chose the food waste message.

“It gives us a new angle to talk about the role of feedlots and the benefits of feedlots, and really focus on their role in diverting food waste.”

This October, CCA plans to release a short documentary on food waste as cattle feed. “It’s going to be similar to Guardians of the Grasslands in style and tone, and we want to create a suite, so ideally three to five additional videos that all fit together and talk about some of the unexpected benefits of raising beef cattle,” says Peck.

As well, they’re planning an advertising campaign with social media content and strategic partnerships.

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The aim of the summit is to deliver progress on 17 sustainable development goals, created by the United Nations in 2015 as a wide-ranging “to-do” list including ending hunger and poverty, achieving gender equality and taking action on climate change.

Guterres told the summit — held virtually because of the coronavirus pandemic on the sidelines of the annual high-level U.N. General Assembly — that food systems need to support the health and well-being of all people, protect the planet and support prosperity.

“As a global community, we need to shift our approach on agricultural subsidies, and employment support for workers,” he said. “And we need to re-think how we see and value food — not simply as a commodity to be traded, but as a right that every person shares.”

After remaining virtually unchanged for five years, world hunger and malnutrition rose last year by around 118 million people to 768 million, with most of the increase likely caused by the pandemic, according to a U.N. report.

On internationally traded markets, world food prices were up 33.9 per cent year-on-year in June, according to the U.N. food agency’s price index, which measures a basket of cereals, oilseeds, dairy products, meat and sugar.

“We must grow food where the environment supports it best and where emissions efficiency is greatest, while minimizing the barriers to trade and efficient distribution,” New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told the summit.

U.S. President Joe Biden said Tuesday that Washington would spend US$10 billion to end hunger and invest in food systems at home and abroad. U.S. officials said half of that money would fund Feed the Future over the next five years, a U.S initiative that aims to reduce poverty, hunger and malnutrition.

The World Bank Group, International Food Policy Research Institute and the Food + Land Use Coalition introduced a roadmap at the summit that aims to show how capital can be shifted from a high-carbon, unequal, extractive food system and into models that add value for people, planet and the economy.

The said the roadmap could unlock US$4.5 trillion in new business opportunities every year by 2030 and ensure a more sustainable food system.

For their part, in a joint release Thursday, representatives from 13 Canadian primary producer and ag industry groups hailed the U.N. summit as providing the platform to “look forward and together chart an inclusive, multi-stakeholder and systems approach for the future of food.”

The groups said they “recognize that continual advances are critical to creating a more sustainable future and one that Canada will play a leadership role in.”

— Reporting for Reuters by Michelle Nichols. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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But some of this food loss and waste does reach human mouths indirectly, through livestock. As part of a Beef Cluster project, Dr. Kim Ominski and collaborators from the Universities of Manitoba and Lethbridge and Agriculture Canada are examining how livestock help reduce food loss and waste. Their first report, “Utilization of by-products and food waste in livestock production systems: A Canadian Perspective,” will be published in Animal Frontiers. Here are some of their key findings so far.

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) distinguishes between “food loss” and “food waste.” Food waste happens in the store, the restaurant or the home. Some companies have set goals to reduce or eliminate food waste in their operations as part of their corporate responsibility initiatives. For example, some retail stores donate bruised produce or unsold, outdated bakery products to food banks or farmers to use as livestock feed, as Jill Burkhardt explained in Canadian Cattlemen back in November 2020. Feeding plate waste from homes or restaurants to livestock is often illegal unless it’s been re-cooked to kill potential pathogens. In fact, unregulated cross-border sales of unprocessed plate waste for pig feed may have contributed to the spread of African swine fever in parts of Europe and Asia.

Food loss occurs during production, storage and processing, long before it ever reaches the store, restaurant or home. This definition of food loss is incredibly broad. Crops that get hailed out, chaff, kernels that go out the back of the combine, bumper crops that exceed bin capacity and sprout in the pile, barley that fails to grade malt, and wheat that fails to meet milling standards are all examples of on-farm food loss. Byproducts from food processing including broken or small potatoes, over-cooked chips and French fries, beet pulp, hulls, screenings, distillers grains and oilseed meals are also considered food loss.

This broad definition of “food loss” is problematic for two reasons. First, humans can’t or won’t normally eat these things. If they did, they either couldn’t digest them due to their high fibre content, or they might become sick (e.g. mycotoxins). Perhaps these things shouldn’t be classed as “food” to begin with.

But second, just because these things can’t be used for food doesn’t mean they can’t be used for feed. These crops and byproducts can be fed to livestock, which can handle higher levels of fibre or mycotoxins than people can. So a considerable amount of “lost food” does reach human mouths — it just reaches humans indirectly, through eggs, milk or meat. Without livestock, this food truly would be lost, and the fertilizer, herbicide and fuel inputs (and all their accompanying environmental impacts) would also be completely wasted. Without livestock, that food might be landfilled or used to generate biogas or biofuel. But biogas and biofuel won’t feed a growing population, unlike eggs, milk, meat or beef.

Cattle have some unique advantages. Because they can digest high-fibre byproducts very effectively, cattle can consume up to 50 per cent distillers grains in their diet, much more than pigs (15 per cent) or chickens (10 per cent). High-fibre hulls from oats, soybeans and sunflowers are useful for cattle, but not hogs or chickens. Beef cattle can also cope with higher levels of mycotoxins in the diet than monogastrics.

Unlike other livestock, beef cattle can go out and collect “lost food” for themselves; they can graze a hailed-out or frozen crop, for example. No harvest and transportation is needed. So cattle may be a uniquely efficient solution to some of the food loss problem. In fact, cattle may even be viewed as a miraculous solution. For example, straw isn’t considered food, so straw isn’t food loss. But straw is 50 per cent of the biomass from a grain field. Cattle can digest straw as a part of their diet, just like they can digest the grass on marginal lands that won’t support crops. That’s a net gain of food for humankind, thanks to beef cattle.

Government also has a practical role in addressing regulatory barriers that contribute to food loss. Byproducts can’t legally be sold or used in a livestock ration until the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has approved and added them to Schedule IV of the Feeds Act. For example, quinoa, faba beans and hemp oil are increasingly popular with consumers. The byproducts from these crops could replace some of the grains and protein supplements that are currently used in livestock diets, but not until they’ve received regulatory approval.

This team will also measure how upcycling “food waste and food loss” through livestock benefits overall greenhouse gas emissions, land use and biodiversity. These researchers are involved in international initiatives at the FAO, and will use these research results to help policy-makers around the world understand that beef cattle aren’t the problem — they’re part of the solution.

The Beef Cattle Research Council is funded by the Canadian Beef Cattle Check-Off. The BCRC partners with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, provincial beef industry groups and governments to advance research and technology transfer supporting the Canadian beef industry’s vision to be recognized as a preferred supplier of healthy, high-quality beef, cattle and genetics.

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Public consultations on a “Food Policy for Canada” started in 2017, leading to the release of a 2018 report from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada highlighting what was heard. The government in 2019 dedicated about $134 million to support the policy’s development and the creation of a national food system.

There are four pillars to the policy:

• helping Canadian communities access healthy food;
• making Canadian food the top choice at home and abroad;
• supporting food security in Northern and Indigenous communities; and
• reducing food waste.

The new council is to report to Agriculture Minister Marie Claude Bibeau and “bring together the expertise and diversity within the food system to address both the challenges of today and the future,” the government said in a release.

In total, 23 members were announced for the council, which will meet virtually for the first time March 4. Its co-chairs will be Evan Fraser, director of the University of Guelph’s Arrell Food Institute, and Sylvie Cloutier, CEO of the Conseil de la transformation alimentaire du Quebec, a body representing food processors.

Other council members include Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Mary Robinson; Marcel Groleau, president of Quebec’s Union des producteurs agricoles (UPA); Yukon Agriculture Association president Sonny Gray; B.C. farmer and researcher Connor Williamson; and B.C. ag sector consultant Brenda Schoepp, a columnist for Alberta Farmer.

Fraser, in particular, is expected to be a leading voice on the committee; he was one of the first voices in Canada who proposed the federal government create such a council, and maintains a respected voice within the sector.

The food policy “is a roadmap for a healthier and more sustainable food system in Canada,” Bibeau said in announcing the council’s lineup. “The policy brings everyone across our food system together to deliver real, long lasting change,”

Some funding related to those projects is already taking place. For example, a $20 million Food Waste Reduction Challenge was launched in November last year, beginning with a funding envelope of up to $10.8 million for innovators with proposals to help prevent or reduce food waste “at any point from farm-to-plate.”

“More and more we’re seeing food waste as an opportunity as well as a challenge,” said Bibeau.

The government announced last week it had received 343 applications for shares of the $10.8 million, with successful applicants expected to be announced “in the coming months” and additional challenges to be launched later this spring.

On top of helping to implement the food policy, the new council will also help shape Canada’s policy position at the upcoming United Nations Food Systems Summit, Bibeau said.

At that summit, planned for next October, the UN has said it expects to “launch bold new actions to transform the way the world produces and consumes food,” in pursuit of 17 goals laid out in the international body’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

— D.C. Fraser reports for Glacier FarmMedia from Ottawa.

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Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland on Jan. 25 launched pre-budget consultations and since then, her schedule has involved several meetings with stakeholders.

“We want to hear ideas from Canadians, from all walks of life, on how to restore strong growth, forge a more resilient middle class, and build back better. This is your budget; tell us what matters most to you,” she said at the time.

A hard date hasn’t yet been set for the next budget, but Freeland’s consultation period is scheduled to close on Feb. 19. An online questionnaire for the public is available until that date.

In August, the Canadian Federation of Agriculture released its wish list for the 2021 budget. In these budget consultations, the organization plans to continue to refer back to that document, which offers three broad recommendations, each highlighted by specific measures that can be taken.

To kickstart the economic recovery, the CFA recommends the government restore the AgriStability program’s payment trigger to 85 per cent and eliminate the cap to reference margins.

Ottawa is prepared to remove the reference margin limit and boost the program’s compensation rate, but releasing extra dollars to farmers qualifying for payments is being held up by Prairie provinces reluctant to sign onto the deal. The provinces are responsible for covering 40 per cent of the government tab on AgriStability payouts.

CFA is also putting a particular focus is put on the processing sector. Citing a $77 million investment from the federal government to help food processors combat COVID-19, the organization says additional support is needed.

“To secure these critical food infrastructure links in advance of a second wave and the peak harvest season for many Canadian commodities, CFA recommends the next federal budget increase financial support to the food processing sector,” the document says.

“In addition to this support for existing food processors, CFA also recommends that the next federal budget invest in programming to support the development of more food processing facilities across Canada.”

CFA is also asking Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) “to reallocate underutilized AgriMarketing program dollars to implement a Buy Canadian campaign for Canadian retail channels, and engage exporters to identify and address key export opportunities.”

The 2020-21 spending estimates from the federal government show $20.3 million was transferred to partners through AgriMarketing programs, while talk of an Ottawa-led “Buy Canadian” campaign has floated around since at least 2019.

That year, the Liberals committed $25 million over five years to “develop a national approach to better connect Canadians with and instill pride in Canada’s food system and its agriculture, food and seafood products.”

In January 2020, AAFC put out a tender seeking a marketing firm to launch a “social marketing campaign to better connect Canadians with, and instil pride in, Canada’s food system and its agriculture, food and seafood products.”

The tender said an annual media buy budget between an estimated $1.5 million and $4 million would be available.

By June, Bibeau was saying the promotional campaign would “have to wait a bit longer” before being launched. At the time, concerns were being raised within her department over the timing of that program, and on which commodities it would focus.

On Jan. 15, the federal government awarded a $113,000 contract to Markham, Ont.-based digital ad agency Feast Interactive for the Buy Canadian campaign, but a timeline for its launch remains unclear.

CFA’s budget wish list also includes a call for better leveraging of agriculture’s environmental contributions. It asks the government to create programs allowing “producers to generate credits for agricultural activities under both the federal Greenhouse Gas Offset System and Clean Fuel Standard.”

Building resilience into Canada’s food system through a $3 million investment is another ask of CFA. They propose the dollars be used to reduce job vacancies “through career promotion, improve skills training opportunities for workers, support human resource management training/certification, and support commercialization of labour-saving technologies.”

The CFA is also requesting the federal government reinforce a $50 million fund targeted at reducing food waste.

— D.C. Fraser reports for Glacier FarmMedia from Ottawa.

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Loop started in 2017 in Dawson Creek, B.C., as a concept of feeding grocery store leftovers to farm animals. Working with the local Co-op grocery store, Jaime White, founder of Loop, was looking for a way for his farm to reduce its feed costs. He was tired of working away from home and wanted to find a way to stay home with his family, all while building up their farm.

He said, “Let’s build our life in a way we can be present.”

White was the one who navigated the legal hoop-jumping, paperwork and lawyers, creating the symbiotic relationship. “We call this ‘Loop’ because it had to have a name, but also because we need to close the loop between waste and food.”

Loop stretches from British Columbia to the Saskatchewan-Manitoba border and as far north as Ft. St. John, B.C. Over 790 (and growing) Loop farms visit grocery store chains such as Co-op, Real Canadian Superstore and Save-On-Foods daily.

As a Loop member, we partner with a local grocery store and are assigned a pickup day. On the designated day, we give the store a “head’s up” call so they can gather all their shrink, or goods that would otherwise be discarded in the dumpster that day. When we arrive at the store we take everything that the store discards. Whether it’s one box, 60 boxes or more, we take it all from three main departments — produce, meat and kitchen/deli, which are always included in pickups. Other departments, such as bakery, dairy, dry goods or grocery, frozen foods and floral, may or may not be in a pickup. The departments come pre-sorted by department but when we get home, we further sort the load into what is useable by what animals and what is able to be donated to a food bank.

Picking up from Save-On-Foods allows us to donate “still good” items to a food bank or registered charity. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, we donated an average of five or six banana-sized boxes of various goods a week through the Wetaskiwin Mission Church and helped out those in need on the Pigeon Lake Indian Reserve. Since the pandemic restrictions, we haven’t made donations to the food bank, mainly because there haven’t been many “still good” items to donate.

We started out feeding most of the Loop produce to our small flock of laying hens. As time went on it became too much for the hens to eat, so we thought, “What else can we do?” I did some research and found many dairies and feedlots in the U.S. feed grocery waste to their animals. We began feeding greens (lettuce and spinach), mushrooms and cakes to the cows. When we started feeding the Loop food to the cows, we simply top-dressed the hay with the Loop food after it had gone through the bale shredder. It was mostly by trial-and-error and observation that we found out that the cows preferred the hay and the young, unweaned calves preferred the Loop food.

That first year, we continued to feed the weaned calves Loop. We would fill their bunks with shredded hay and then top-dress the feed by hand with bakery items. The young steers and heifers really liked eating the bakery items, though our feeding process was a bit inefficient. While we didn’t notice significant gains in most of our yearlings that first year, there was a noticeable difference in appearance in the animals that preferred Loop items to the animals that showed no interest.

This led us to do some thinking and research into being more efficient with how we fed our yearlings. We purchased a TMR mixer in late 2019. We have been able to improve our efficiency feeding Loop to the cattle, but we have also been able to feed more of the Loop load to the weaned calves and even cows now.

Prior to purchasing the TMR we only fed the bakery items to the weaned calves. Most of the other produce went to the chickens and we shared a fair amount with neighbours for their animals because there were things our animals would not eat. Now with the TMR, we can use more of the Loop load. We now feed all the produce, bakery, most of the dairy (milk and yogurt) and grocery, and some select frozen food items such as frozen french fries. We have gone from feeding 15-20 pounds of bakery items early on, to upwards of 500-600 pounds of grocery waste now, making up three per cent of the total ration for the cattle. Since we only pick up one day a week, the three per cent is only one to two days per week, depending on the size of the Loop load received.

When the pandemic initially began, our loads were considerably smaller. But as time went on, our loads became very erratic; some were exceptionally large while others were only a few boxes. When the loads were smaller, the cattle didn’t receive much and on the larger load days, we tried to keep the ration the same percentage. But instead of them receiving the Loop food in one or two days, they may have received it all week, for example.

Currently, our only challenge feeding the cattle Loop is when they are out on pasture. We have tried taking them “Loop treats” but they prefer green grass over bakery items. We have remedied this by partnering with a neighbour who has pigs for the summer. They are able to use in the summer what we would use for cattle feed in the winter.

When deciding what to feed the cattle, we are very careful to read labels on items we are unsure of. If there is ever a question of whether or not we should feed it due to potential contamination from meat or animal products, for example, we always err on the side of caution and avoid feeding it.

The average farm using Loop has three to 15 pigs, 20 to 150 chickens, three dogs and other miscellaneous farm animals. Our farm has greatly benefited from Loop. With this being our first winter of feeding Loop with the TMR, we noticed the yearling cattle had better weight gains this year and carcass fat than if they’d been on a grass-only diet.

Our biggest benefit from Loop is the money savings from purchasing feed for various animals around the farm. We’ve eliminated our barn cat food bill which was running us about $35 a month. Since the chickens receive various dairy products in their diet now, we no longer need to buy a layer protein supplement, which ran about $60 a month. The chickens still receive free-choice farm-raised grain but their intake is reduced — they used to eat four five-gallon pails of grain a week. Now 40 layers consume a pail or two a week.

In addition to the savings in feed, our farm is also helping to keep literally tons of waste out of the landfill. Along with the beverage containers, all the plastic packages, containers and clam-shell packages are taken to recycling locally.

The Loop is a fairly new concept in Alberta, starting in June 2018. There is talk of other grocers partnering with the concept and expansion into other provinces and territories. I enjoy participating in Loop and I’m excited to see a program that helps farms save money, prosper, grow and thrive.

Jill Burkhardt, her husband Kelly, and their three children, own and operate a mixed farm near Gwynne, Alta. Originally hailing from Montana, she has a range management degree from Montana State University. Burkhardt’s agricultural passions are cattle and range management but she enjoys writing and learning more about all aspects of farming.

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It’s not a treat. They can either feed their crops to animals or let them spoil. And other farmers are doing just that — dumping truckloads of fresh grapes to rot on compost heaps.

The farmers cannot get their produce to consumers because of lockdowns that aim to stop the spread of coronavirus. In India, as in many parts of the world, restrictions on population movement are wreaking havoc on farming and food supply chains and raising concern of more widespread shortages and price spikes to come.

Across the globe, millions of labourers cannot get to the fields for harvesting and planting. There are too few truckers to keep goods moving. Air freight capacity for fresh produce has plummeted as planes are grounded. And there is a shortage of food containers for shipping because of a drop in voyages from China.

In Florida, a lack of Mexican migrant labourers means watermelon and blueberry growers face the prospect of rotting crops. Similar shortages of workers in Europe mean vegetable farms are missing the window to plant.

Such sprawling food production and distribution shocks illustrate the pandemic’s seemingly boundless capacity to suffocate economies worldwide and upend even the most essential business and consumer markets. There has been limited disruption so far to supplies of staple grains such as rice and wheat, although problems with planting and logistics are mounting.

Indian farmer Anil Salunkhe is feeding his strawberries to cows because the local tourists who usually eat them are gone, as are the fruit vendors who once worked the streets of the nearby metropolis of Mumbai.

“Nobody was willing to buy strawberries due to the lockdown,” Salunkhe told Reuters as he fed strawberries to a cow in Darewadi village, in Satara district.

He can’t even give his strawberries away: With stay-home orders in place, few villagers ventured out from their homes when he offered them the berries for free, he said.

In nearby Bhuinj village, Prabhakar Bhosale feeds lettuce to buffalo and lets villagers take more for their own cattle. The hotels and restaurants that normally buy lettuce are closed.

Migrant labourers stranded

The potential impact of planting and harvest disruptions is most acute in poorer countries with big populations, said Abdolreza Abbassian, a senior economist at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

India — the world’s second-most populous country, where a majority of the population is involved in agriculture — is among the most vulnerable nations to the disruptions.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi imposed a 21-day lockdown with just a few hours notice on March 25, leaving many of its 120 million migrant labourers struggling to get home and with no money for rent, food or transport.

The country’s northern grain bowl relies on labour from eastern parts of the country, but workers have left the farms because of the lockdown.

“Who is going to fill the grain bags and bring the produce to market, and transport it to mills?” asked Jadish Lal, a merchant in Punjab’s Khanna grain market, the country’s largest.

Supply problems in one place are quickly felt on the other side of the world. In Canada, imports of speciality Indian vegetables such as onions, okra, and eggplant have dropped by as much as 80 per cent in the past two weeks as air cargo space dwindled, said Clay Castelino, president of Ontario-based Orbit Brokers, which helps shipments clear customs.

Castelino figured the sharp decline meant the food had simply gone to waste: “With perishable food, once it’s gone, it’s gone,” he said.

Europe’s missing workers

Spain has a shortage of migrant workers from countries such as Morocco who cannot travel.

“In around 15 days time, the blueberry season will peak until mid-May,” said manager Francisco Sanchez, a manager at Spanish growers association Onubafruit. “We need a big concentration of labour then.”

In Italy, about 200,000 seasonal workers will be needed in the next two months. The government may have to ask people receiving state benefits to pick the fruit and vegetables, said Ivano Vacondio, head of Italy’s Food Association Federalimentare.

In France, Agriculture Minister Didier Guillaume has issued a rallying cry to what he called France’s “shadow army” of newly laid-off workers to replace the usual crews of migrant workers on the farms.

“If the call is not heard, the production will remain in the fields, and the entire sector will be damaged,” said Christiane Lambert, head of France’s largest farm union, FNSEA.

In Brazil — the world’s top exporter of soybeans, coffee, and sugar — farm lobby CNA said the industry faces a range of problems, including challenges hiring truck drivers to haul crops and a shortage of spare parts for farm equipment.

In Argentina, the world’s top exporter of soymeal, exports have been delayed as the government ramps up inspections of incoming cargo ships.

Land, sea and air

In addition to the trucking problems, a sharp decline in air traffic has cut deeply into capacity to move fresh produce long distances.

Andres Ocampo, chief executive of Miami fruit importer HLB Specialties, relied on commercial flights to shift papayas and other produce from Brazil to Florida. Now he is buying more from Mexico and Guatemala, where goods can still be shipped by trucks.

Ocampo says volumes of the company’s imports from Brazil have dropped by 80 per cent.

“In Europe, it’s even worse, because they don’t have a Mexico-like source for papayas,” he said.

U.S. and Canadian exporters are grappling with a shortage of refrigerated containers to supply goods, as voyages of container ships from China to the West Coast are down by a quarter due to reduced demand because of lockdowns.

“The containers are tough to get right now,” said Michael Dykes, president of the International Dairy Foods Association, a U.S.-based trade group. “If a company needs five containers, they’ll find they can get one.”

Port congestion is slowing shipments of pork and beef to destinations such as China because workers have been told to stay at home. That is exacerbating the shortage of protein supplies in China, where an outbreak of African swine fever has taken a quarter of the world’s pigs off the market in the past year and a half.

A different kind of crisis

The emerging supply-chain disruptions are much different than the food crises of 2007-08 and 2010-2012, when droughts in grain-producing nations caused shortages that led to higher prices, unrest and riots in several countries. Those price spikes were driven in part by state hoarding of rice and other staples.

Now, staple grain supplies are relatively plentiful and global prices have been low for years as farmers in the U.S., Brazil and in the Black Sea region have planted more and improved yields.

Although there are signs that big importers such as Iraq and Egypt are boosting grains purchases amid rising food security concerns, other countries are boosting exports. Second-largest rice exporter Thailand, for instance, is taking advantage of higher rice prices by increasing exports from stockpiles.

Top rice exporter India, however, has stopped rice exports due to labour shortages and logistics problems. Third-largest exporter Vietnam has also curbed exports.

African nations — where many people spend more than half of their income on food — are among the most vulnerable to disruptions in staple food supplies.

The continent is the fastest-growing consumer of rice, accounting for 35 per cent of global imports and 30 per cent of wheat imports. Sub-Saharan Africa alone is the third-largest rice consuming region, yet holds the smallest grain inventories — relative to demand — of all regions, because of tight government budgets and limited storage.

While the earlier food crises involved supply shocks, today the problem is getting plentiful supplies to the people who need it — many of whom have suddenly lost their income.

“It is a whole different animal,” the FAO’s Abbassian said. “You don’t have labour, you don’t have trucks to move the food, you don’t have money to buy the food.”

— Reporting for Reuters by Rajendra Jadhav, Naveen Thukral and Nigel Hunt; additional reporting by Mayank Bhardwaj in New Delhi, Veronica Brown and Jonathan Saul in London, Sonya Dowsett in Madrid, Libby George in Lagos, Phil Blenkinsop in Brussels, Stephen Jewkes in Milan, Gus Trompiz and Sybille de La Hamaide in Paris, Emma Farge in Geneva, Michael Hogan in Hamburg, Christopher Walljasper, Karl Plume, PJ Huffstutter and Tom Polansek in Chicago, Rod Nickel in Winnipeg and Ana Mano in Sao Paulo.

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