Zambia's solution for chickens and keeping them in their backyards would work for our Food waste too. We need to decentralize our waste processes and partner up with our critters locally. It works so elegantly for the following reasons:
a. Getting timed out leftovers and prep waste to hens within a short amount of time reduces hauling from the "Food Waste mile" from our centralized MRFs(materials reclamation facilities) to our compost sites. Our county is 127 miles MRF to compost facility. "Animal Food Rescue" is less than 5-10.
b. Feeding animals before spoilage recovers the 'water inputs' used to grow and process. In the Careit(dot)com calculator, 400lbs fed critters recovered a water footprint of 14,000 gallons directly. My own restaurant site made over 19K lbs in 8 months and fed near 200 little stomachs better than kibble. That is a lot of water in SoCalifornia.
c. Getting leftovers inoculated with microbes and pooped back to the soil immediately skips the NH4 and N20 off gassing from Wind Row Composting, even done aerobically. The soil microbes grab it faster than we can ever do. Witness termite mounds and gardens...no methane above them.
And yet the shiny objects of "zero Depackaging Anaerobic Digesters" were the most talked about at the Waste Expo in Las Vegas this year. As if we need more methods to put Microplastics into our soils, food, and bodies. No one wants to pay staff to remove plastic in a centralized system. So lets all okay the giant truck tipping sites which grind, juice out, and dehydrate the polluted food waste slurry to keep the microplastics hidden from sight.
People need to change, but 'Animal Altruism' can help. We just need to recognize it.
Glad you are writing about my favorite subject.
Zambia's solution for chickens and keeping them in their backyards would work for our Food waste too. We need to decentralize our waste processes and partner up with our critters locally. It works so elegantly for the following reasons:
a. Getting timed out leftovers and prep waste to hens within a short amount of time reduces hauling from the "Food Waste mile" from our centralized MRFs(materials reclamation facilities) to our compost sites. Our county is 127 miles MRF to compost facility. "Animal Food Rescue" is less than 5-10.
b. Feeding animals before spoilage recovers the 'water inputs' used to grow and process. In the Careit(dot)com calculator, 400lbs fed critters recovered a water footprint of 14,000 gallons directly. My own restaurant site made over 19K lbs in 8 months and fed near 200 little stomachs better than kibble. That is a lot of water in SoCalifornia.
c. Getting leftovers inoculated with microbes and pooped back to the soil immediately skips the NH4 and N20 off gassing from Wind Row Composting, even done aerobically. The soil microbes grab it faster than we can ever do. Witness termite mounds and gardens...no methane above them.
And yet the shiny objects of "zero Depackaging Anaerobic Digesters" were the most talked about at the Waste Expo in Las Vegas this year. As if we need more methods to put Microplastics into our soils, food, and bodies. No one wants to pay staff to remove plastic in a centralized system. So lets all okay the giant truck tipping sites which grind, juice out, and dehydrate the polluted food waste slurry to keep the microplastics hidden from sight.
People need to change, but 'Animal Altruism' can help. We just need to recognize it.