Fighting Food Waste – SAFE club screens “Wasted!” with local organizations

People converse with the organizations represented. / PHOTO: Wes Brooks

12/3/18 – East Peoria, IL – On Nov. 28th, SAFE club at ICC—the Student Association for the Environment—screened Wasted! The Story of Food Waste, a 2017 documentary tackling the widespread problem of food waste and how to address it. In addition to the screening, local organizations set up booths to promote their involvement in helping to alleviate food waste in central IL. They included Better Earth Compost, Better Earth LogisticsSous Chef, Down River Farm, and the Sun Foundation. Some staggering statistics were featured in the film. It states that 40% of food produced in the U.S. for human consumption goes to waste, and that the annual cost of food waste is $1 trillion annually. One of the major problems outlined in the film is that over 90% of uneaten food winds up in the landfill, where oxygen is unable to reach the food in order to properly decompose it. The landfill produces methane gas, contributing to harmful greenhouse gases.

A couple of young boys enjoyed running around the place, full of laughter and hard at play while people stopped by the booths. “Those two running around are my why,” explains Luke Rosenbohm of Better Earth Logistics. “Obviously, [waste] is going to be their problem to deal with.” Rosenbohm’s father started a compost facility 20 years ago. “Now, we’re realizing that we can do more than just yard waste, we can do more than just big volumes of food waste from one source.” They want to inform as many as they can that all organics can come to the compost facility instead of being thrown in the landfill. “Any customer we pick up that has produce that is perfectly good for human consumption, we try to get them involved in the Gitm Foundation first, so that way, they can source that food to a shelter or a kitchen that can use that for people who need a more affordable or free source of healthy food. Whatever can’t be consumed after that point, we’ll come in and we’ll take that from you and turn it into compost.”

The film was narrated by the animated and passionate Anthony Bourdain, who rose to prominence as a popular chef on television. He commented, “When you see the number of hungry people in this world, when you see how hard they struggle everyday to live, to feed themselves and their families, that makes you more empathetic and appreciate more the scope of the problem and how obscene it is to waste the amount of food that we do.”

Robert Lawrence, president of SAFE club, says, “[Waste] is a huge problem. Especially here in the United States. It’s cheap enough that we can just throw it out even if it’s perfectly good. One bad apple doesn’t spoil the bunch, but that’s how we’re treating it because it’s so cheap. We don’t realize that the impact of what we’re doing could’ve saved two or three people’s lives who are starving in the Middle East or in Africa or even in China. There’s so many people starving on this planet. We can fix this. Each one of us can do a little bit more to help mitigate the problem.” Lawrence provided a glimpse of future SAFE events for the upcoming spring semester: 1) A population forum, talking about sexual health, sex education and the ecological impact of the population. 2) Another documentary screening near the end of the spring semester, and 3) the 2nd annual Eco-Friendly Fashion Show.

By Wes Brooks

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