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GoGreenNation news

How to make all your food waste disappear

News Feed
Tuesday, July 30, 2024

Composting is not for everyone.I realize this when I go home to visit my parents in Florida, or almost anywhere outside states, such as Vermont, that mandate it. Curbside pickup is rare. Many view it as a chore. Even for people like me who enjoy transforming leftovers into rocket fuel for their garden, composting can turn into a foul, stinking, sulfurous mess.But what if you could make food waste disappear by throwing it into a hole in the ground and walking away. No more fouled trash. Less climate pollution. While researching ways to compost, I discovered an easy method to turn virtually any organic waste from veggie scraps to chicken bones to pet waste back into nature: solar digesters.They don’t produce compost, the rich, fluffy organic matter that turns back into soil. Instead, these biodigesters — typically little more than half-buried plastic cones within a small patch of dirt — harness microbial workhorses and the sun’s heat to transform organic matter into its elemental components, mostly carbon, water, CO2 and micronutrients, says Yichao Rui, a soil scientist in the Department of Agronomy at Purdue University. “Nematodes, bacteria and fungi all work together to decompose all these organic materials,” he says. “Soil organisms large and small primarily digest and eat them,” transforming plant and animal matter back into the building blocks for soil and air.It’s a simple, easy, no-mess solution to keep organic waste out of trash and landfills: 58 percent of all methane emissions from municipal landfills are emitted by rotting food.So this January, I ordered my own “Green Cone,” buried it in the ground, and began filling it with lots of food waste every week to put it to the test. Here’s what happened.The mounting food waste problemEach year, the average household in the United States dumps 300 to 400 pounds of food waste into the trash, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. When this is buried in the airless depths of landfills, it turns into methane, a potent greenhouse gas fueling still more warming.States and federal agencies are hoping to choke off this source of global warming fuel. First, they hope to prevent food waste: encouraging less wasteful food shopping and storage, as well as donations and upcycling (such as reusing for animal feed). But waste will always exist, and a rising share of states now treat food waste similar to recyclables: a valuable material that should never go into the trash.On July 1, 2020, Vermont became the first U.S. state to ban the disposal of most food scraps in the trash or landfills. Most trash haulers must offer food scrap collection or residents can use home composting (residents who compost at home are not required to compost meat and bones — although you can). State officials estimate more than half of food scraps are now being diverted from landfills. Eighty-five percent of Vermonters compost, mostly in their backyards, according to the University of Vermont. Only about a fifth characterize it as “hard or very hard.”States are following Vermont’s lead by adopting food waste restrictions, says Dana Gunders, executive director of ReFED, a food waste reduction group. While most policies initially focus on large businesses, residential mandates become more feasible once compost and distribution facilities are in place. Ten states including Massachusetts and New York, as well as Washington, D.C., now restrict organic waste disposal. “I do think the emerging science demonstrating food in landfills is responsible for around 10 percent of U.S. methane is driving more attention to organic waste bans and diversion goals,” says Gunders.What are solar digesters?Solar digesters remain little known. For now, “soil savers” ($52), an insulated compost bin for cold climates, and “barrel composters” ($38), a compost bin or drum you can rotate to mix the contents inside, are the most popular, says Josh Kelly, a solid waste program manager at the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources.But solar digesters are poised to play a much larger role as organic waste bans spread.The most popular design is probably the Green Cone. The digester ($200 retail, or subsidized by many waste agencies) is a two-foot high cone above a plastic mesh basket buried a few inches underground that holds food scraps. The cone concentrates the sun’s heat. A bacterial culture, or “accelerator powder,” is sprinkled on the food scraps occasionally to speed decomposition.The plastic mesh basket allows soil microbes and invertebrates to join the party, while the large air chamber ensures aerobic conditions suppress smells. Since it’s buried underground, most animals are excluded, although wire mesh is recommended if burrowing animals become a problem.How much food waste can it handle? Two pounds per day, or the equivalent of food scraps from one to two families, says Karl Warkomski of Tar River Trading Post, the distributor of Green Cones in the United States. He says a combination of warm internal temperatures as high as 130 degrees and tailored microorganisms make quick work of almost any organic matter, even bones and pet waste (with a special bacterial culture). Every few years, anything remaining in the basket can be dumped. Only woody biomass like branches and yard waste, and industrially compostable plastic are not recommended.How well did my solar digester work?On a warm spring morning, I positioned my Green Cone in my backyard and began filling it with food waste. Over the subsequent months, it consumed everything I threw at it. The level of waste never rose more than a few inches. At one point, I did have a little unwanted help: a burrowing animal broke into the underground basket. I fixed it with cheap wire mesh. It’s still going to this day.Is a solar digester for everyone? You will need to dig a hole in well-drained ground and get enough sunlight. If you have waterlogged or clay soils, you’ll need to elevate the cone so the digestion chamber stays moist, but not soaked. Decomposition slows, but does not stop, in the winter so long as there’s sun exposure. If it’s too pricey (Warkomski says high manufacturing costs in Canada, the United States and Britain, as well as the use of high-grade recycled plastic contribute to higher costs), share with another family or, if you have the time, you can DIY you own.Composting doesn’t have to be hard. With a solar digester, it’s almost too easy. Weeks might go by without emptying the trash. Recycling takes care of the bulkiest things. My Green Cone handles the rest.

Composting is not for everyone. But you haven’t tried solar digesters.

Composting is not for everyone.

I realize this when I go home to visit my parents in Florida, or almost anywhere outside states, such as Vermont, that mandate it. Curbside pickup is rare. Many view it as a chore. Even for people like me who enjoy transforming leftovers into rocket fuel for their garden, composting can turn into a foul, stinking, sulfurous mess.

But what if you could make food waste disappear by throwing it into a hole in the ground and walking away. No more fouled trash. Less climate pollution. While researching ways to compost, I discovered an easy method to turn virtually any organic waste from veggie scraps to chicken bones to pet waste back into nature: solar digesters.

They don’t produce compost, the rich, fluffy organic matter that turns back into soil. Instead, these biodigesters — typically little more than half-buried plastic cones within a small patch of dirt — harness microbial workhorses and the sun’s heat to transform organic matter into its elemental components, mostly carbon, water, CO2 and micronutrients, says Yichao Rui, a soil scientist in the Department of Agronomy at Purdue University. “Nematodes, bacteria and fungi all work together to decompose all these organic materials,” he says. “Soil organisms large and small primarily digest and eat them,” transforming plant and animal matter back into the building blocks for soil and air.

It’s a simple, easy, no-mess solution to keep organic waste out of trash and landfills: 58 percent of all methane emissions from municipal landfills are emitted by rotting food.

So this January, I ordered my own “Green Cone,” buried it in the ground, and began filling it with lots of food waste every week to put it to the test. Here’s what happened.

The mounting food waste problem

Each year, the average household in the United States dumps 300 to 400 pounds of food waste into the trash, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. When this is buried in the airless depths of landfills, it turns into methane, a potent greenhouse gas fueling still more warming.

States and federal agencies are hoping to choke off this source of global warming fuel. First, they hope to prevent food waste: encouraging less wasteful food shopping and storage, as well as donations and upcycling (such as reusing for animal feed). But waste will always exist, and a rising share of states now treat food waste similar to recyclables: a valuable material that should never go into the trash.

On July 1, 2020, Vermont became the first U.S. state to ban the disposal of most food scraps in the trash or landfills. Most trash haulers must offer food scrap collection or residents can use home composting (residents who compost at home are not required to compost meat and bones — although you can). State officials estimate more than half of food scraps are now being diverted from landfills. Eighty-five percent of Vermonters compost, mostly in their backyards, according to the University of Vermont. Only about a fifth characterize it as “hard or very hard.”

States are following Vermont’s lead by adopting food waste restrictions, says Dana Gunders, executive director of ReFED, a food waste reduction group. While most policies initially focus on large businesses, residential mandates become more feasible once compost and distribution facilities are in place. Ten states including Massachusetts and New York, as well as Washington, D.C., now restrict organic waste disposal. “I do think the emerging science demonstrating food in landfills is responsible for around 10 percent of U.S. methane is driving more attention to organic waste bans and diversion goals,” says Gunders.

What are solar digesters?

Solar digesters remain little known. For now, “soil savers” ($52), an insulated compost bin for cold climates, and “barrel composters” ($38), a compost bin or drum you can rotate to mix the contents inside, are the most popular, says Josh Kelly, a solid waste program manager at the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources.

But solar digesters are poised to play a much larger role as organic waste bans spread.

The most popular design is probably the Green Cone. The digester ($200 retail, or subsidized by many waste agencies) is a two-foot high cone above a plastic mesh basket buried a few inches underground that holds food scraps. The cone concentrates the sun’s heat. A bacterial culture, or “accelerator powder,” is sprinkled on the food scraps occasionally to speed decomposition.

The plastic mesh basket allows soil microbes and invertebrates to join the party, while the large air chamber ensures aerobic conditions suppress smells. Since it’s buried underground, most animals are excluded, although wire mesh is recommended if burrowing animals become a problem.

How much food waste can it handle? Two pounds per day, or the equivalent of food scraps from one to two families, says Karl Warkomski of Tar River Trading Post, the distributor of Green Cones in the United States. He says a combination of warm internal temperatures as high as 130 degrees and tailored microorganisms make quick work of almost any organic matter, even bones and pet waste (with a special bacterial culture). Every few years, anything remaining in the basket can be dumped. Only woody biomass like branches and yard waste, and industrially compostable plastic are not recommended.

How well did my solar digester work?

On a warm spring morning, I positioned my Green Cone in my backyard and began filling it with food waste. Over the subsequent months, it consumed everything I threw at it. The level of waste never rose more than a few inches. At one point, I did have a little unwanted help: a burrowing animal broke into the underground basket. I fixed it with cheap wire mesh. It’s still going to this day.

Is a solar digester for everyone? You will need to dig a hole in well-drained ground and get enough sunlight. If you have waterlogged or clay soils, you’ll need to elevate the cone so the digestion chamber stays moist, but not soaked. Decomposition slows, but does not stop, in the winter so long as there’s sun exposure. If it’s too pricey (Warkomski says high manufacturing costs in Canada, the United States and Britain, as well as the use of high-grade recycled plastic contribute to higher costs), share with another family or, if you have the time, you can DIY you own.

Composting doesn’t have to be hard. With a solar digester, it’s almost too easy. Weeks might go by without emptying the trash. Recycling takes care of the bulkiest things. My Green Cone handles the rest.

Read the full story here.
Photos courtesy of

Related News

A Different Kind of Materialism

Tamar Adler’s food writing doubles as a philosophy of kitchen scraps.

Broccoli stems don’t tend to rouse strong emotions. Most home cooks toss them in the trash or compost without a second thought. But when I threw out some broccoli stalks—tough and woody ones, let it be known—while cooking dinner recently, guilt overcame me. I could have pickled those stalks; I could have boiled them and turned them into pesto. Instead, I had turned them into landfill.Waste is endemic to American cooking and eating. The Department of Agriculture estimates that the country loses or throws away 30 to 40 percent of its food supply. But my stem shame didn’t come solely from this staggering fact, or from environmental consciousness. Though I was alone in my kitchen, I said quietly, “Sorry, Tamar.”Tamar is Tamar Adler, a former chef who has made a career of writing about humble ingredients, especially leftovers and scraps. Her 2011 book, An Everlasting Meal, an elegant manifesto urging readers to use every single thing that enters their kitchens, is the only reason pickling a stem has ever crossed my mind. Adler’s goal isn’t to guilt her audience: She wants to get cooks excited about kitchen refuse, to help them see cast-offs as ingredients in their own right. She wrote An Everlasting Meal, she told me recently, to convince people that when you throw usable food scraps away, “you’re just creating an extra problem for yourself—a dual problem.” Not only do you have more garbage to deal with, you also have to go buy more food.Beneath that pragmatic language lies a fundamentally spiritual approach to the problem of waste. Adler is concerned with both the environmental toll of trash and the prevalence of food insecurity in the United States—“We’re talking about aesthetics for the rich people and hunger for the poor,” she said angrily—but, as befits somebody who describes herself as “pretty woo-woo,” she also empathizes with the scraps. In her latest book, a kitchen diary called Feast on Your Life, Adler describes an audience member at an event who asked why Adler cared so deeply about leftovers. She writes, “I answered that it was because I love things so much. Because I am, most of the time, seized by a love for everything, awash in the tireless function of creation, the relentlessness of the world’s making. When you feel that, it is hard to throw anything away.”In general, Adler approaches her work more like a philosopher poet than a food writer. Her prose is distinctive and beautiful, with a slight but discernible theological bent. At the start of An Everlasting Meal, she notes that cooking with leftovers mirrors the behavior of nature, and she urges readers to “imagine if the world had to begin from scratch each dawn: a tree would never grow, nor would we ever get to see the etchings of gentle rings on a clamshell.” Shortly after, she interrupts her instructions on boiling—start potatoes and eggs in cold water, but drop leafy vegetables “at the last second into a bubble as big as your fist”—to remind her audience that “ecclesiastical writers on the subject point out that in the beginning there was water, all life proceeded from water, there was water in Eden.”[Read: Foodie culture as we know it is over]This is not the sort of writing that accompanies most recipes. It’s odd and earnest, impractical in that it doesn’t contain clear instructions and is not designed to awaken readers’ appetites for a specific dish. Rather, the book is meant to make its audience want to cook something, anything, everything. Adler’s existential intensity is such that An Everlasting Meal reminds me less of culinarily similar cookbooks such as Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, by her fellow Chez Panisse alum, Samin Nosrat, than of more sweeping pronouncements such as Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet and Wendell Berry’s The Unsettling of America, which offer grand philosophical approaches to poetry and farming, respectively. Berry, in fact, is an inspiration to Adler; she said that reading his work helped her articulate and embrace her sense that there’s an “innate holiness to all things.” This belief is the ethos of her books. It’s the reason she can make a waste-avoidance strategy like core-and-stem pesto sound delicious, even luxurious. I’ve learned that it can be, despite the effort, which sometimes overwhelms me.I asked Adler whether she, too, grows overwhelmed by her philosophy, or struggles to live by it every day. Surely she tosses out the occasional scrap—composts it, at least—when no readers are looking. But no, she said: She saves everything, no matter how tired she is. She was cleaning mushrooms the night before we spoke, and “there were all these little bits that I couldn’t really put into the pan because they were going to get burned, and they had a lot of dirt and pine needles stuck on them,” she said. “I really tried to force myself to just throw them out, and I couldn’t do it. I put them in a plastic bag. They’re in the freezer.” Someday, I’d wager, they will emerge to flavor beans or soup.To Adler, this practice is neither a compulsion nor a burden. (“Only for my husband,” she cracked when I asked about the latter.) Yet she understands—sort of—that not all readers will want to follow every bit of her advice. Anything that’s “stressing you out and feeling like a chore,” she said, you just shouldn’t do, even if that means the only practice you take from her books is using cheese rinds, which can sit ignored for months without danger, to later season a slow-cooking meal. She denies having ever been a purist, but when she wrote An Everlasting Meal, she was certainly more of an evangelist than she is now. She was coming straight from Chez Panisse, a restaurant famous for doing things by hand as an expression of reverence for its ingredients; she also hadn’t yet had a child. Only such a person could write, as she does in that book, “Unless you are an aspiring laser beam, your microwave won’t teach you anything. Use yours as a bookshelf, or to store gadgets you don’t use.” Now she sees that as “a little bit preachy.” She’s less interested in converting her audience to cooking her precise way than in sharing the habits and tendencies that allow her to cook good food easily, which to her means cooking without using hard-to-get ingredients or fussy techniques. (Also, she’s got a microwave in her new apartment, and she loves how quickly it lets her thaw food.)Ease seems to have become central to Adler’s thinking in the years between An Everlasting Meal and Feast on Your Life, though she understands it quite differently than many home cooks. In 2023, exhausted from writing that year’s scrap-use encyclopedia An Everlasting Meal Cookbook, she “went through a glorious period of just throwing things out.” She recalled a jar of chili crisp that “was empty; all the chili crisp was out of it. But instead of keeping it, and then cracking an egg into it to then put in fried rice, I rinsed out the jar and recycled it.” She’s remembered that jar for two years—which is to say she’s spent two years remembering the egg she could’ve made. It would have been a good egg.This reveals Adler’s true understanding of ease. For her, scrap saving is the single easiest way to produce flavorful food: The more bits of mushroom you can toss in your broth, the better that broth will be. This will certainly be true once you’re in the habit of freezing those mushroom bits—and yet it works only for a person with time to make broth at home. While An Everlasting Meal seemed not to remember the other sorts of people, Feast on Your Life shows glimmers of idiosyncratic anger on their behalf. An insulated mug that she borrows from her brother throws Adler into “internal disarray at a good invention—double-wall insulation—pressed into the service of constant productivity.” This, she told me, came from an entirely different place than her earlier reaction to the microwave: not a lack of comprehension of rushing, but a fury at “the structures that make us have to rush.”[Read: The culture war comes to the kitchen]Feast on Your Life also reveals a deep exasperation with fussy cooking, which Adler sees as both a cause of waste and an enemy of home-cooking ease. All she does, to borrow a phrase she uses in her newsletter, is turn things “from raw to cooked”; early in the book, she describes a simple farro soup that “tasted like water, beans, grains, vegetables. Why do we make eating complicated? Here, says Creation: Eat this! What should we say but, Thank you!” In reading this line, with its explicitly spiritual appreciation of simplicity, I registered the resemblance between Adler’s work and the prayers that observant Jews say to thank God for creating the ingredients of every meal they eat. Adler was raised Jewish, but she spent many years feeling distant from the religion because, pre-meal blessings aside, it tends to be grounded far more in interpreting scripture than in the physical world. Food and cooking, she said, “provided me an alternative, a material path.” It delivered her to something close to kitchen animism: a world in which ingredients come to life. When she tells readers of An Everlasting Meal about prepping their greens, she suggests that they just “wash everyone together.”This spirituality can sometimes verge on preciousness. I asked Adler whether she worries about this, and she said yes—or almost yes. Her dedication to saving every scrap “sounds ridiculous when I say it,” she conceded. But she sees that issue as a “style problem”: a failure of her writing, not a sign that her approach goes too far. My impression is that she’s far more interested in respecting resources—which to her always means maximizing them—than she is in sounding grounded or accessible. This conviction is the steel core of her books. It makes her writing, beneath its flights of verbal and metaphysical fancy, insistent and unembarrassed, willing to go too far (as with the microwave) in the service of what are, really, not so much habits as ideals. It also enables her to evolve (again, the microwave).Adler seems to believe more deeply in enjoying her meals than I think I believe in anything. Far more than any culinary trick or skill I’ve gathered from reading her over the years, this dedication is what brings me back to her work. Its frank strangeness, whether or not it converts you to stem saving, is a prime example of what I consider her books’ greatest pleasure: They let you visit lives and minds—and, in this case, kitchens—that may be nothing like your own.

Food
Agriculture
Nature

Can smart greenhouses bring back food production in cities?

Hidden in city car parks or warehouses, smart greenhouses promise to bring farming back to the city. But can these technology boost resilience?

Sydney, like many other Australian cities, has a long history of urban farming. Market gardens, oyster fisheries and wineries on urban fringe once supplied fresh food to city markets. As suburbs expanded, many farms in and around cities were converted to houses, roads and parks. The process is continuing. But this isn’t the whole story. Urban farming is making a comeback in a different guise. Underneath the Barangaroo towers in Sydney’s CBD, a basement carpark has been transformed into a farm. Trays of more than 40 different varieties of sprouts and microgreens grow under LED lights, often maturing within two weeks. Within hours of harvest, they’re in the kitchens of nearby restaurants. The urban farmers use sensors, ventilation systems and smartphone apps to ensure growing conditions are ideal. From around 150 square metres, farmers produce about 5,000 punnets a week. Farms such as this one at Urban Green Sydney are part of a broader shift towards high-tech urban farming. In my research, we asked what these new forms of urban farming mean for cities. Do they make cities and their far-flung food supply chains more resilient to climate change – or do they consume energy without enough to show for it? Urban smart greenhouses work well for microgreens, herbs and several other crops. Vera Xia, CC BY-NC-ND Greenhouse – or laboratory? Greenhouses are a way of controlling the growing conditions for plants. The technology has deep historical roots, from early greenhouse experiments during the Roman Empire to progress in 15th century Korea and advances during the Victorian era such as the Wardian Case, which allowed live plants to survive long sea voyages. Traditional greenhouses act as climate-controlled enclosures for plants. These days, smart greenhouses use sensors and digital monitoring to optimise, and often automate, plant growth. Large-scale rural farms such as South Australia’s Sundrop Farms already demonstrate how smart greenhouses, renewable energy and desalination can power food production in harsh climates. Overseas, countries including Spain and China have rolled out smart greenhouses at scale in rural areas. But these technologies are being urbanised, appearing in commercial buildings, rooftops and even domestic kitchens. One of the best places to see what smart greenhouses look like is the Agritech Precinct at Western Sydney University. Here, researchers experiment with the “unprecedented control” of temperature, humidity and light the technologies permit on crops such as eggplants and lettuce. The greenhouses use drones to water crops, robotic arms to harvest them and smart lighting systems to manage growth. Visiting these facilities doesn’t give you the sense you’re in a farm. It feels more like a laboratory. Technologies like these are promoted in official plans for Greater Sydney, which call for “new opportunities for growing fresh food close to a growing population and freight export infrastructure associated with the Western Sydney Airport”, particularly in Sydney’s peri-urban areas. Australia is funding research on improving these technologies as a way to future-proof food production. Researchers are conducting similar experiments with smart greenhouses around the world, from the United States to the Netherlands. Which crops work best in cities? Smart greenhouses can’t do everything. Grain crops need much more space. Fruit trees don’t work well with space constraints. Some vegetable crops don’t lend themselves well to intense high-tech production. The cost of running LED lights and smart systems mean farmers have to focus on what’s profitable. Many hyped urban farming ventures have failed. These challenges don’t mean the approach is worthless. But it does mean farmers have to be selective about what they grow. To date, crops such as tomatoes, leafy greens, and herbs have proven the best performers. These crops can be grown relatively quickly in space-restricted, repurposed urban areas mostly hidden from public view and sold to restaurants or individual buyers. Smart greenhouses producing these type of crops have emerged in Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide. Urban farmers often draw on the promise of sustainability and low food miles in their branding. But the technologies raise questions around equity. Do these farms share environmental and social benefits fairly across the city or are they concentrated in a few rich areas? Smart greenhouses can optimise plant growing conditions – but come at an energy cost. Ann H/Pexels, CC BY-NC-ND Smart greenhouse technology – at home? The humble veggie patch is an Australian staple. But the shift to apartment living and larger building sizes risks crowding it out. At household scale, smart greenhouses and apps are making it possible for some people to begin producing larger volumes of food in kitchens, balconies and backyards as a DIY method of boosting food security and self-sufficiency. Compact growing appliances promise to automate production of fresh herbs and baby vegetables. Hydroponic grow tents can grow almost anything indoors (though they are commonly used for illicit crops). Maker communities are using open-source tools such as Hackster to automate watering, lighting and data collection. Using these technologies at home seems positive, acting to boost home-grown food supplies and increase resilience in the face of food supply chain issues. In fact, it’s perhaps the most uneven frontier. Rather than working to spread smart agriculture across a cityscape, these approaches resemble prepping – efforts to boost individual household resilience. Making best use of smart greenhouses in cities At their best, smart greenhouses dotted around cities work to create controlled environments where food can be produced close to where it is eaten. These high-tech, climate controlled environments are often hidden from view. They promise resilience against the disruption climate change is bringing to agriculture and shorter supply chains. But these food production technologies also risk deepening inequality if they’re mainly taken up by wealthy consumers. Whether these technologies ultimately benefit cities will depend on how they are integrated and positioned within our urban systems. For urban authorities, the challenge is to ensure these emerging methods of producing food in the heart of cities boosts resilience collectively rather than fragment it. It will take policy guidance to ensure the benefits of these smart farms are shared equally. Vera Xia does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Food
Technology
Climate

A second sighting of this invasive species has Oregon wildlife officials concerned

Wildlife officials worry people may illegally import these creatures for food, then release them into Oregon waters.

A Chinese mitten crab was discovered in the Willamette River near the Sellwood Bridge in late November, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife said. It’s at least the second sighting of the invasive species in Oregon this year. State officials are working with the federal government, Portland State University and other agencies to investigate whether more of the 3-inch crabs are living in the Willamette.Chinese mitten crabs, which live in freshwater, could impact Oregon’s fish and crayfish populations by eating local species or fish eggs and competing for food, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife says. Oregon’s native crabs live along the coast. The Chinese mitten crab lives its adult life in freshwater, while Oregon's native crabs live along the coast. Oregon Department of Fish and WildlifeThe agency previously warned that the crabs “caused significant infrastructure and ecological damage in and around San Francisco Bay when the population was at its height in the late 1990s.”They are illegal to have or to sell in Oregon. Latest environmental newsMitten crabs can be identified by several distinctive features: a notch between the eyes, four spines on each side of the carapace and hairy mitten-like claws. The crabs’ color varies from greenish-brown to brownish-orange, according to an agency news release.Anyone who catches a Chinese mitten crab is asked to report it with the location to 1-866-INVADER or through an online invasive species hotline. - Kjerstin Gabrielson contributed to this report.

Food
Water

The way Australia produces food is unique. Our updated dietary guidelines have to recognise this

Australia’s dietary guidelines will soon consider environmental impacts. We need locally relevant indicators to support more sustainable food production.

Mandy McKeesick/GettyYou might know Australia’s dietary guidelines from the famous infographics showing the types and quantities of foods we should eat to have a healthy diet. Last updated 12 years ago, the National Health and Medical Research Council is now revising them to consider not only how food affects our health but also how sustainable our foods are. At least 37 other countries have already added sustainability to their dietary guidelines. Many countries use global load indicators to assess the environmental impact of specific foods, based on the planetary boundaries within which humanity can safely operate. While useful to compare between countries, these indicators don’t match Australia’s environmental risks and priorities. Unlike many other countries, locally produced food represents around 90% of what Australians eat. The environmental footprint of these foods is shaped almost entirely by the country’s unique landscapes, climates and farming systems. Our recent research suggests forthcoming guidelines need to take local conditions into account. If global load indicators are the sole way to measure impact, the guidelines won’t capture Australia’s specific environmental challenges in producing food. Local indicators matter Global load indicators include greenhouse gas emissions, how much land is used per kilo of food, water use, land and water pollution and biodiversity loss. This is how we get common figures such as the statistic that it takes 1,670 litres of water to produce 1 kilogram of rice. While global measures are useful in comparing between countries and products, they don’t always match local environmental risks and priorities. For example, using 1,670L of water to produce a kilo of rice in the contested and controlled Murray Darling Basin will have a different impact compared to using the same volume in Western Australia’s Kununurra irrigation system, where water is more abundant and has fewer alternative uses. Growing a kilo of rice in Italy will differ again. If we want dietary guidelines to encourage real improvements on farm and in rural landscapes, environmental indicators must reflect the challenges rural stakeholders actually face. Consumer preferences have already shifted several food production systems. Rising demand for free-range eggs and grass-fed beef has changed how farmers operate. It’s important to get this right. One size does not fit all Australia’s agricultural lands are diverse. By area, more than 80% of our farmland falls in the rangelands. Here, cattle and sheep graze with minimal human intervention on vast tropical savannas, woodlands, shrublands and grasslands. Low rainfall and poor soils mean livestock are kept at low densities. Other food production options haven’t proved viable. If we used global load indicators, food from rangelands would be assessed as having a high environmental impact due to large land use, lots of potentially polluting nutrients (dung and urine) and use of rainfall to grow forage vegetation. But the main environmental issues for Australia’s rangelands are different, including methane emissions from livestock, land degradation, invasive weeds such as buffel grass and biodiversity loss. Australian food production systems are diverse. Rangelands and natural pasture account for the largest area, followed by mixed crop-livestock zones (in light blue and yellow). Author provided, CC BY-NC-ND Australia’s next largest area of agriculture is mixed crop and livestock, found in regions such as the Mallee in Victoria and Western Australia’s Wheatbelt. Most crops and 40% of livestock are produced in these areas, characterised by reliable rainfall patterns and low to medium rainfall of around 250–450 millimetres a year. Farming here can make soils more acid due to high levels of nitrogen from fertilisers, alongside issues such as dryland salinity, erosion, biodiversity loss and greenhouse gas emissions. These issues have degraded some land so much it can’t sustain farming. For these two types of agriculture, local indicators work better. By contrast, the intensive and productive irrigated farms of the Murray–Darling Basin have environmental impacts more aligned to global indicators. Environmental issues here include greenhouse gases, competition for land and water use, nutrient pollution (primarily fertilisers) and biodiversity loss. Good for your health – and the environment? While previous Australian studies have assessed the environmental footprint of different foods or focused on a narrow description of environmental impact derived from overseas studies, these haven’t accounted for local environmental priorities or trade-offs. Trade-offs are common. For instance, plant-based diets may result in lower greenhouse gas emissions but can increase pressure on soil health and biodiversity, as crops are commonly grown as monocultures with high fertiliser and pesticide use. Common Australian diets mixing plant and animal foods can have a lower impact on biodiversity and soil health but higher greenhouse gas emissions, as mixed diets entail a more diverse range of cultivated plants and animals but rely more on methane-producing livestock. Recognising and balancing these trade-offs will be essential if Australia’s updated dietary guidelines are to support healthy people and a healthy environment. What’s next? Ideally, Australia’s updated dietary guidelines will capture the unique pressures and challenges of producing food locally. This won’t be easy, given impacts will vary across different foods, regions and production systems. But the tools are already available. Farm software can track every aspect of the production in a local environmental context, making it possible to predict impacts on the natural capital of individual farms – if agreements to share and aggregate data can be negotiated. Gathering these data will allow local environmental indicators to be embedded in dietary guidelines. If this is done, it will become possible to link recommended diets to sustainability reporting. Farms, retailers and banks are increasingly required to report sustainability metrics, which can be linked to foods. That means Australians could see the environmental credentials of their food on the labels, based not on global averages – but on how the specific farm is doing. David Masters has previously received research funding from research and development corporations including Meat and Livestock Australia. He is a member of the National Health and Medical Research Council's Sustainability Working Group. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors alone and do not represent the views of NHMRC or the working group. David Lemon receives funding from the National Farmers' Federation. Dianne Mayberry has received funding from research and development corporations including Meat and Livestock Australia and the Grains Research and Development Corporation.Sonja Dominik works for CSIRO Agriculture and Food. She has previously received funding from the National Farmers' Federation and research and development corporations.

Food
Sustainable
Animals

11 Foods Experts Say Can Boost Your Brain Health And Help Ward Off Dementia

“Proper nutrition is the foundation upon which our mental acuity and vitality rest."

Chris Stein via Getty ImagesBroccoli contains sulforaphane, which has been linked to reduced inflammation and improved brain health.Most people know which foods to avoid for a healthy heart. Yet, do you often think about the foods you eat and how they affect the brain? It’s been scientifically proven that diet can influence brain health. “The brain represents about 2% of our body weight, but it consumes about 20% of all of our calories,” said Dr. Robert Melillo, a brain researcher, clinician, autism expert, and founder of The Melillo Center in Long Island, New York. “The brain uses more calories than any other organ in our body; what we eat can have a big impact on our brain.”Diet and nutrition are essential to keep the brain healthy. “Proper nutrition is the foundation upon which our mental acuity and vitality rest,” said Dr. Brett Osborn, a board-certified neurosurgeon and the chief of neurosurgery at St. Mary’s Medical Center in Jupiter, Florida. “Just as we care for our bodies through exercise and a balanced diet, nurturing our brains through the right foods is essential for a vibrant and youthful mind.”Although scientists still don’t know what causes Alzheimer’s disease, a type of dementia, many think diet and environmental factors play a role. One study in the journal Neurology, published in November 2022, showed that increasing foods high in flavonoids showed it lowered the chances of developing dementia. “The two major groups of factors driving Alzheimer’s are reduced energetics —blood flow, oxygen saturation, mitochondrial function and ketones — and increased inflammation from various pathogens, toxins and metabolic disease,” explained Dr. Dale Bredesen, a neuroscience researcher and neurodegenerative disease expert. “Diet and environmental factors impact both energetics and inflammation, by multiple mechanisms, and therefore play key roles in both Alzheimer’s and treating cognitive decline.”According to Dr. Philip Gold, the chief of neuroendocrine research and senior investigator at the National Institute of Mental Health, “The key positive environmental influences include exercise, which is extremely important, level of education, and cognitive ‘exercise’ throughout life.” Getting sufficient sleep is also key. “Adequate sleep is also critical because, in part, it is during sleep that the brain repairs itself,” he said. Regularly eating foods that are not good for you can have negative consequences on both the body and the brain. “An unhealthy diet may negatively impact gut microbiota, leading to inflammation and potentially influencing the brain,” Osborn said. “Obese people ― most of whom have an unhealthy gut microbiome ― are at a marked risk for the development of Alzheimer’s dementia,” he added.So which foods are the most beneficial for brain health? The experts break it down below.Claudia Totir via Getty ImagesGood news for fans of avocado toast (and eggs!).AvocadoLove eating guacamole, mashing avocado on toast or dicing it into a salad or rice bowl? Avocados have healthy monounsaturated fats, and according to Bredesen, “These help to reduce vascular disease, and provide excellent energy for the brain, without the problems associated with simple carbs or saturated fats.”BroccoliWhether you like broccoli steamed with melted cheese on top, in stir-fries or as a veggie you sneak into your smoothie, you may want to find more ways to enjoy this crunchy vegetable. “Broccoli is a cruciferous vegetable that contains compounds like sulforaphane, which have been linked to reduced inflammation and improved brain health,” Osborn said. A 2019 study published in the journal Brain Circulation shows sulforaphane is an important antioxidant, and has anti-inflammatory properties that shows potential to protect the nervous system and reduce the burden of pervasive diseases on the body. BlueberriesIf you like to add blueberries to your morning bowl of yogurt, your brain will thank you. “Blueberries contain flavonoids, which are neuroprotective and have been shown to increase neuroplasticity and cerebral blood flow,” said Lynn A. Schaefer, Ph.D, a board-certified clinical neuropsychologist in Long Island. A randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled study published in Nutritional Neuroscience in 2022 showed older adults who consumed wild blueberries had an increase in processing speed, suggesting blueberries may slow down cognitive decline.And these small berries are full of antioxidants, including anthocyanins. Osborn says anthocyanins can “help protect the brain from oxidative stress and inflammation.” He eats blueberries daily, either in a smoothie or on top of a salad.EggsEggs are known for being a good protein option, especially for those who are vegetarian or follow a plant-based diet. And there’s another reason to celebrate eggs: the yolk contains choline. Choline is an essential nutrient and important to produce acetylcholine. “Acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter that is very important for the parasympathetic nervous system, and important for memory,” Melillo explained. Choline is found in different foods, but the highest concentration is in egg yolks. According to Gold, “Critical to normal cognition, acetylcholine neurotransmission is pronouncedly decreased in Alzheimer’s disease.”Claudia Totir via Getty ImagesSalmon is a fatty fish that's high in omega-3 fatty acids.Fatty fishSalmon, sardines and mackerel are examples of fatty fish that contain omega-3 fatty acid. “These essential fats are crucial for maintaining brain health and have been linked to improved memory, mood regulation, and reduced risk of cognitive decline,” Osborn said. Omega-3 fatty acids are also important for creating new nerve cells and protecting brain cells from damage, according to Gold. Leafy greensDoctors and nutritionists encourage patients to eat more leafy greens because they are packed with nutrients. “Leafy greens such as spinach and kale are packed with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants,” Osborn said. “They promote healthy brain function by reducing inflammation and improving cognitive performance.” Magnesium is an important mineral in leafy greens — Melillo says it helps relax the body, lowering blood pressure and the effects of stress. TunaTuna is a low-fat fish and contains the amino acid tyrosine, an important component for producing neurotransmitters in the brain. “Tyrosine is used for making dopamine and norepinephrine, two of the main neurotransmitters in the brain,” Melillo explained. “Dopamine is more of a left brain neurotransmitter and norepinephrine is more of a right brain neurotransmitter.” Tuna also contains high concentrations of creatine. “Creatine facilitates the entry of water into brain and muscle cells to prevent their dehydration,” Gold said. TurmericSpices provide plenty of flavor and as a bonus can have important compounds that the body needs. Turmeric is a common ingredient that is grated or chopped fresh, or used as a powder in curries. “Turmeric, which contains curcumin, is remarkable in that it has anti-inflammatory effects, and also binds to both the amyloid and tau associated with Alzheimer’s disease, so it has multiple mechanisms to support brain health,” Bredesen said.A study published in the journal Molecules in February 2023 showed curcumin to be antimicrobial and neuroprotective in a variety of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease. GingerAnother spice used in both fresh and powdered form is ginger. “Ginger is a potent anti-inflammatory agent that has been shown to enhance cognitive function,” Osborn said. “The antioxidant effects are also thought to protect neurons against oxidative stress that underpin neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.”Ginkgo bilobaGinkgo biloba is known to enhance memory and cognitive function. “It is believed to improve blood flow to the brain and protect brain cells from oxidative damage,” Dr. Osborn. “Some research supports its potential benefits in age-related cognitive decline.”Fermented foodsFermented foods, such as kimchi, kefir, kombucha, sauerkraut and yogurt may also be beneficial for the brain. “Research has established that the brain and gut communicate through the nervous system as well as through the immune system,” Schaefer said. “Therefore, changing the bacteria in the gut with probiotics and prebiotics, and not overdoing antibiotics, may play a role in improving brain functioning.”According to Osborn, “Foods that cultivate a healthy microbiome will likely serve as ‘medicines’ to remedy or slow the onset of all age-related diseases, including those affecting the brain.”

Food
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