A Wasteful Life: Rethinking Sustainabilty

The System of Root Intensification (SRI) method resulted in dramatically high yields from one Indian village. The system centers on a "less is more" approach and results in higher yields—without the use of GMOs. The idea has faced barriers in spreading, as scientists are wary of it, even as villagers embrace the empirically successful approach.

After realizing the rate that which food gets thrown away at grocery stores due to approaching expiration dates, one man in Nigeria decided to do something about it. Oscar Ekponimo created a web-based app that lets grocery store retailers know if something is near expiration. Once notified, the retailers mark down the item; this allows non-governmental organizations to purchase and sell to people that are food insecure.

Bruce Friedrich, the Executive Director of The Good Food Institute in Washington, DC, thinks that we're wasting resources raising animals for food products. He thinks the answer is creating a product that doesn't replace meat, but rather competes with it.

The small town of Iola, KS, and Allen County's GROW Council offer a case study of how local communities across this prairie state have worked to solve the absence of grocery stores in many rural areas. Through local resourcefulness and organizing efforts; knowledge and financial support from the state government; and partnership with Kansas State University's Rural Grocery Initiative, towns have succeeded in bringing grocery stores, from locally-owned coops to school-based distribution hubs, back to their Main Streets.

Philabundance, a nonprofit organization aimed at fighting food insecurity, has a sustainable and creative solution. They launched a line of cheeses, known as Abundantly Good, and proceeds will help pay farmers to turn extra milk into cheese for people grappling with hunger. The process will engage ethically-minded consumers, support local farmers, make use of food waste, help the planet, and provide high-quality food to those who are food insecure. It’s a solution that benefits everyone involved.

In Jackson, Mississippi, a series of community-led cooperatives are creating opportunities for affordable home ownership. This is part of a trend across the country to create community land trusts. They are financed through donations, other community businesses, or commissions. Though each land trust faces hurdles, they are collectively allowing more access to wealth and ownership in historically low-income neighborhoods.

To cope with and combat gentrification, residents of Miami's Little Haiti neighborhood created a community garden called the Femme Fairy Garden, founded by Fempower. Community members come together every Sunday to tend to their plants and connect with their neighbors.

A food hub in Spokane, Washington, is providing a marketplace where fresh, local food is accessible from multiple small farms in one convenient location and website. LINC gives farmers access to a market of consumers without the hassle of deliveries, cultivating business, or staffing booths at farmers' markets. The food hub is helping strengthen the small farm economy while promoting access to fresh foods.

A community organization in Indiana called Cultivate "rescues" food from local caterers, hospitals, casinos, and businesses to then be packaged into take-home meals for students at Woodland Elementary School that come from food-insecure homes. Cultivate is in its second year of existence, has three staff and 400 volunteers, and hopes to expand beyond their pilot program to reach all 21 schools in the district.

Solar-powered cold storage units help farmers in India to store their harvests during extreme heat instead of discarding their produce or trying to sell it quickly for cheap to avoid waste. The solar-powered option is significantly cheaper than typical electric cold storage, making it more accessible to small-scale farmers.