Food on a Local Scale
There are many ways food waste can be reduced, including only buying what you need, menu planning, extending the shelf-life of food by using better storage, like freezing raw or leftover food, and finding recipes to deal with excess food.
And you can be part of that, in your community and in your home. Keep reading to find out how small changes can make a big difference.
Growing food at home
During the first and second World Wars, people were encouraged to grow food at home, in public parks and sports grounds to take the pressure off the food supply and provide a morale booster.
A two-year study by the University of Sussex revealed that city allotments can produce the same yield as conventional farms. Furthermore, many allotment growers use fewer pesticides and provide a greater variety of plants for pollinators.
As the idea of growing your own fruit and vegetables has grown in popularity in recent times, many allotments have long waiting lists. Luckily, we have our own community gardens right here in the Meadows - The Arkwright Meadows Community Gardens (AMC).
Established in 2001, AMC grows and sells organic fruit, vegetables, plants and flowers. There are also regular events and activities, and a chance to volunteer if you would like to learn the skills and techniques for growing food or cooking seasonal recipes.
The benefits of growing your own food include:
Zero food miles and zero packaging.
You can grow food without using chemical pesticides or herbicides.
It is a fun and educational activity for kids where they can get involved and learn how food grows.
Sense of wellbeing and enjoyment from growing plants as a hobby, along with a sense of achievement from eating food you have grown yourself.
Plants for small spaces
If you want to try growing food at home, here are some ideas…
Windowsills – herbs such as mint, basil, chives and thyme. Salad leaves such as lettuce and cress. Chilli plants can also be grown in a pot on a windowsill. Be inventive and use old food containers to grow them in.
Small outdoor spaces – vegetables can often be grown in pots or buckets including tomatoes, carrots, onions, leeks and spinach. You can even grow a potato plant in a large container or sack. Grow climbing veg vertically such as vine tomatoes, cucumbers or small squash up trellis or supports. Strawberries also grow well in containers.
Cupboard, cellar or under the sink – you could try your hand at growing mushrooms. There are kits for growing mushrooms indoors which contain everything you need to get started.
What can we do at home?
Climate-friendly diets
The food you choose to buy can make a difference on a larger scale as suppliers adapt to make their products more popular.
Consider the type of food you eat
We now know that certain foods produce more greenhouse gases than others, such as meat and dairy. Therefore, reducing these foods and using plant-based alternatives can help make a difference.
Consider opting for organic products which subscribe to environmentally friendly practises, or try growing food organically at home.
Compost!
Composting helps to reduce the amount of green food waste that is sent to sit in landfill - which is vital when records show that the UK throws away 9.52 million tonnes of food per year.
Since April 2022, the Green Meadows Climate Champions have been setting up a Community Composting project right here in the Meadows. The project has resulted in composting boxes being set up at 2 sites (Queens Walk Recreation Ground and the Memorial Gardens), enabling up to 60 households to start composting!
Composting not only tackles food waste by recycling food into nutrient-rich compost, but also helps to bring the community together in a climate-positive way.
If you’re a Meadows resident interested in Community Composting - get in touch here.
Meadows residents taking part in Community Composting
Food saved from landfill
Reduce the amount of food you waste
Avoid buying too much food by using meal plans.
Consider using a company such as Oddbox which aims to rescue odd-shaped and excess fruit and veg from being wasted.
Find recipes online to use up leftover or excess food.
Freeze leftovers or ripe fruit and veg for use at a later date.
If you have a garden, consider setting up a compost bin for veg scraps.
Where to buy your food from
There is pressure on supermarkets to become more sustainable in their processes. During COP26, five supermarkets pledged to halve their impact on climate, deforestation and nature by 2030. The commitments were made by Co-op, Sainsbury’s, M&S, Tesco and Waitrose.
We are lucky in the Meadows to have many small independent shops and AMC Community Gardens, just a short walk from home. This means we can leave the car at home and save carbon emissions. The Bridgeway Centre has a greengrocer, butcher and supermarket, while there are several corner shops in the Meadows, also selling food from a range of cultures.
By shopping locally, it is easier to only buy what you need, when you need it, which also helps to reduce food waste.
The local ‘Bridgeway Fresh Fruit & Veg’ Greengrocer is a great place to buy your fruit and veg locally and sustainably!
Further reading:
Home - Out Of Date – A WRAP initiative for consumers to raise awareness of the impacts of household food waste.
Recipe Index - Zero-Waste Chef (zerowastechef.com) – plenty of recipe ideas to reduce food and packaging waste. You can also find recipe ideas to use food that may otherwise be thrown away and learn how to preserve food using methods such as pickling, chutneys and fermentation.
New Year Solutions - Meat - BBC Sounds – A light-hearted podcast talking about the idea of stopping eating meat.
Estimating the environmental impacts of 57,000 food products | PNAS – estimates of the environmental impact of >57,000 food products across four indicators: greenhouse gas emissions, land use, water stress, and eutrophication potential. Pairing it with a measure of nutrition shows a tendency for more nutritious foods to be more environmentally sustainable, and that like-for-like substitutes can have highly variable environmental and nutritional impacts.
Sources:
1 Environmental impacts of food production - Our World in Data
2 Independent Assessment of UK Climate Risk - Climate Change Committee (theccc.org.uk)
3 Food Statistics in your pocket: Global and UK supply - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
4 Environmental impacts of food production - Our World in Data
5 What is a plant-based diet? | BBC Good Food
7 UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2021 | UNEP - UN Environment Programme
8 25-year-environment-plan.pdf (publishing.service.gov.uk)
9 Food surplus and waste in the UK – key facts | WRAP
10 The Eco Experts I Food Waste Facts and Statistics
12 Arkwright Meadows Community Gardens – In The Heart Of The Meadows (amcgardens.co.uk)
13 Leading supermarkets join WWF in pledge to make UK weekly food shop greener | WWF