Assessing the Use of Food Waste Biochar as a Biodynamic Plant Fertilizer

Biochar is a charcoal-like substance produced from plant material such as food waste. Converting food waste into a useful product would mitigate environmental damage through reduced landfill inputs, reduced greenhouse gas production, and increased benefits to soils. I asked (1) if biochar improved plant growth and (2) if the effects of biochar varied among different samples of mixed food waste (batches) and between different biochar preparation times (treatments). Four independent batches of biochar were prepared with assorted, uncooked food waste collected from a university dining facility. Each batch was dried then placed in a covered ceramic pot at 260℃ for 3 or 6 hours under low oxygen (pyrolysis). Tomato plants (Solanum lycopersicum) were grown in soils with the eight batch-treatment biochar combinations or with no biochar (controls). Averaging over batches, the 3 and 6 hour treatments germinated significantly later than controls. Aboveground dry mass at 30 days did not differ significantly among the three treatments. Mean height growth rates (mm/day) were significantly higher in 3 and 6 hour treatments than in controls. Considering only biochar-treated plants, there was a significant interaction between pyrolysis time and batch for both germination time and height growth rate. Some batches germinated earlier when the biochar pyrolyzed for 3 hours was added, other batches when six hour biochar was added. Plants emerging later had faster growth rates, leading to no significant difference in size at 30 days. Both pyrolysis time and food waste source material had varying effects on plant growth. While biochar had no effect on mean dry mass at 30 days, complex effects on germination time and growth rate suggest that growing plants to maturity may lead to differences in plant size. Future studies should investigate effects of different food waste types on plant growth and assess nutrient content of source material

The Post-Anthropocene Diet: Navigating Future Diets for Sustainable Food Systems

This article examines how future diets could reduce the environmental impacts of food systems, and thus, enable movement into the post-Anthropocene. Such non-anthropocentric diets are proposed to address global food systems challenges inherent in the current geological epoch known as the Anthropocene—a period when human activity is the dominant cause of environmental change. Using non-anthropocentric indigenous worldviews and object-oriented ecosophy, the article discusses changes in ontologies around diets to consider choices made in the present for sustainable future food systems. This article conceptually addresses, how can pre-Anthropocene ontologies guide an exit of current approaches to diets? Considering temporality, what post-Anthropocene ontologies are possible in future diets for sustainable food systems? Through the ontological positions defining three distinct temporalities, considerations for guiding future diets in(to) the post-Anthropocene are proposed. Indigenous ontologies are presented as pre-Anthropocene examples that depict humans and non-humans in relational diets. Underlying Anthropocene ontologies define current unsustainable diets. These ontologies are described to present the context for the food systems challenges this article aims to address. A post-Anthropocene illustration then employs object-oriented ecosophy along with indigenous ontologies as theoretical foundations for shifting from the dominant neoliberal paradigm in current ontologies. Ontologically-based dietary guidelines for the post-Anthropocene diet present the ontological turns, consideration of temporality, and outline technological orientations proposed for sustainable future food systems. This is a novel attempt to integrate non-anthropocentric theories to suggest possible futures for human diets in order to exit the Anthropocene epoch. These non-anthropocentric ontologies demonstrate how temporal considerations and relational worldviews can be guidelines for transforming diets to address public health concerns, the environmental crisis, and socioeconomic challenges

Environmental and nutritional Life Cycle Assessment of novel foods in meals as transformative food for the future

Sustainable diets are key for mitigating further anthropogenic climate change and meeting future health and sustainability goals globally. Given that current diets need to change significantly, novel/future foods (e.g., insect meal, cultured meat, microalgae, mycoprotein) present options for protein alternatives in future diets with lower total environmental impacts than animal source foods. Comparisons at the more concrete meal level would help consumers better understand the scale of environmental impacts of single meals and substitutability of animal sourced foods with novel foods. Our aim was to compare the environmental impacts of meals including novel/future foods with those of vegan and omnivore meals. We compiled a database on environmental impacts and nutrient composition of novel/future foods and modeled the impacts of calorically similar meals. Additionally, we applied two nutritional Life Cycle Assessment (nLCA) methods to compare the meals in terms of nutritional content and environmental impacts in one index. All meals with novel/future foods had up to 88 % less Global Warming Potential, 83 % less land use, 87 % less scarcity-weighted water use, 95 % less freshwater eutrophication, 78 % less marine eutrophication, and 92 % less terrestrial acidification impacts than similar meals with animal source foods, while still offering the same nutritional value as vegan and omnivore meals. The nLCA indices of most novel/future food meals are similar to protein-rich plant-based alternative meals and show fewer environmental impacts in terms of nutrient richness than most animal source meals. Substituting animal source foods with certain novel/future foods may provide for nutritious meals with substantial environmental benefits for sustainably transforming future food systems.Peer reviewe

Agroecological Symbiosis

Food systems present a nexus of challenges and potential solutions to the unsustainable global crises of the Anthropocene. Most of humanity interacts with multiple food systems as a result of being involved in our highly globalized, extractivist, and productivist paradigm. This chapter explores Agroecological Symbiosis as a situated example of a food-system (re)design aimed at fostering sustainable interactions from environmental, economic, and sociocultural perspectives. This chapter contributes to our understanding of sustainability through the many emergent and interconnected elements of food systems. We ground the theoretical enquiry in lived experience by drawing parallels to the real world case example of Agroecological Symbiosis. In light of the complexity and interconnectedness of food systems, careful contextualization is needed to enact meaningful sustainable transitions in food systems. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to food systems (re)design, and a variety of actions along the whole food system are required.Peer reviewe

An Approach for Integrating and Analyzing Sustainability in Food-Based Dietary Guidelines

International organizations, governments, researchers, and activists have proposed the need for deeper integration of sustainability considerations in national food-based dietary guidelines (FBDGs). Yet, as recent scholarship advances the conversation, questions remain around how to effectively frame and address the interconnectedness of multiple sustainability domains. Little systematic analysis has evaluated how current FBDGs have integrated complex messages about socially, environmentally, and economically sustainable consumption practices with nutrition and health messages. This study had two nested objectives: (i) to examine the validity of an existing sustainable diets framework by assessing how sustainability concepts have been framed and included in national FBDGs available from 2011 to 2019 and (ii) to describe a novel analysis approach that augments an existing framework which integrates sustainability domains and can be adapted for use by future FBDGs. A qualitative content analysis was used to examine sustainability concepts found in 12 FBDGs and supporting documents available in English that were developed for use in 16 countries across Europe, North and South America, and Asia as of 2019-from a global review of those published prior to 2016 and gray literature review of publications between 2016 and 2019. Health domains were the primary frame found across the FBDGs examined, but documents also commonly incorporated agricultural, sociocultural, and economic sustainability principles. Analyzed documents were used to adapt an existing policy analysis framework into a "Sustainability in FBDGs Framework." This proposed framework contributes a novel analysis approach and has five core domains that are interconnected: health and nutrition, food security and agriculture, markets and value chains, sociocultural and political, and environment and ecosystems. This study adds to the growing body of literature related to sustainable food systems and dietary guidelines by presenting how sustainability framing in FBDGs can be used to further develop a comprehensive framework for integrating sustainability domains. While this project helps to validate previous work, further analyses of FBDGs which have emerged since this study and those not available in English are needed to improve the guidance approach described here and for assessing the incorporation of sustainability domains in future FBDGs. This work is useful in informing processes for policy developers to integrate sustainability considerations into their national FBDGs.Peer reviewe

Unwrapping school lunch: Examining the social dynamics and caring relationships that play out during school lunch

Students are important stakeholders in school food programs. Yet children’s daily experiences and voices are often overlooked in advocacy around school food. In Canada, where the federal government recently expressed interest in creating a National School Food Program, nearly no research has documented the first-hand experiences of children during lunch. This ethnographic study draws on data collected during 36 lunchtimes in three Canadian schools during a transitional period in a school district’s lunch program. The findings unwrap the powerful role of students’ perceptions of and relationships to food in shaping their social interactions, and their sense of care, connection, and identity. Classroom observations coupled with photos of school lunches demonstrate the wide diversity of foods eaten at school and the nuanced, complex, and sometimes divergent meanings children give to food, school lunch and the people involved in preparing, serving, supervising, and sharing lunchtime experiences. Students demonstrated in-depth knowledge of the food choices and attitudes of their peers and actively marked out their identities vis-à-vis food. Students frequently talked about food as a site of care and support, and both the social relationships and care work that played out were a major part of school lunch experiences. Understanding the intricacies of children’s school lunch experiences, including the relationships, meanings, and values that shape school lunch, will be critical for creating robust school food programs and policies in Canada that better serve the needs of children and reduce rather than reproduce existing health and social inequalities.Peer reviewe

Incorporation of novel foods in European diets can reduce global warming potential, water use and land use by over 80%

Global food systems face the challenge of providing healthy and adequate nutrition through sustainable means, which is exacerbated by climate change and increasing protein demand by the world's growing population. Recent advances in novel food production technologies demonstrate potential solutions for improving the sustainability of food systems. Yet, diet-level comparisons are lacking and are needed to fully understand the environmental impacts of incorporating novel foods in diets. Here we estimate the possible reductions in global warming potential, water use and land use by replacing animal-source foods with novel or plant-based foods in European diets. Using a linear programming model, we optimized omnivore, vegan and novel food diets for minimum environmental impacts with nutrition and feasible consumption constraints. Replacing animal-source foods in current diets with novel foods reduced all environmental impacts by over 80% and still met nutrition and feasible consumption constraints. The environmental impacts of more sustainable diets vary across regions. Using linear optimization, this study compares the reductions of global warming potential, water use and land use associated with the replacement of animal-sourced foods with novel or plant-based foods in European diets. Three diet types were considered to meet nutritional adequacy and consumption constraints.Peer reviewe

The Potential of Cellular Agriculture to Reduce Environmental Impacts of Food Systems

Peer reviewe

Appetite for Change : Incorporating novel and future foods in sustainable diets and food-based dietary guidelines

The exorbitant environmental and detrimental health impacts of current food systems have prompted the need for changes which expeditiously and concurrently meet multiple sustainability aims. Dietary consumption changes are posited as one facet of food systems transformation which could be an efficacious means to meet multiple sustainability ends simultaneously. Such sustainable shifts, resulting in transitions away from relatively recent unsustainability in consumption, would mean future diets which are lower in environmental impacts and negative health implications. Options for diet changes range from reductions in overconsumption of excess calories to incorporating novel foods or plant-based alternatives to disproportionately high-impact food items. Novel and future foods (NFFs) are defined as those which are novel to current diets and are rapidly being developed to meet demands for alternative proteins through new production technologies, new market opportunities, and/or out of concern for climate crisis mitigation. Plant- based protein-rich (PBPR) alternatives are also posited as options for swapping high-environmental impact animal-source foods (ASFs) with lower impact, extant foods. Given the imperative for change and their nascency as potentially promising options, the heretofore unexamined prospects and pathways for including NFFs in sustainable diets compels urgent investigation. The aim of this thesis was to assess the nutritional prospects and environmental impact reduction potential of incorporating NFFs in sustainable diets. In addition, this thesis explores the ontological shifts required for incorporating NFFs in future sustainable diets and dietary guidelines. To meet these aims, this thesis designed sample daily menus partially based on the results of diet optimization in combination with nutritional Life Cycle Assessment of sample meals. Diets were optimized with key nutrient and feasible consumption constraints for lowest environmental impact across three impacts—global warming potential, land use, and water use—with additional impacts added to the daily menu assessment—freshwater eutrophication, marine eutrophication, and terrestrial acidification. For the nutritional Life Cycle Assessment, environmental impacts of sample meals were normalized with a nutrient rich food functional unit—an index of 24 desirous and 4 unfavorable nutrients. Three daily menus were designed to meet daily recommended nutrient intakes, and environmental impacts were compared across menus with NFFs, PBPR alternatives, or ASFs. This thesis also employs a novel conceptual approach to exiting the anthropocentric ontologies of current unsustainable diets. The ontological worldviews, considerations of temporality in dietary choices, and the technological pathways of possible ‘post-Anthropocene’ diets are outlined. Lastly, this thesis applies qualitative content analysis with an existing sustainability framework to examine international food-based dietary guidelines which consider sustainability. This thesis showed how daily menus with NFFs and PBPR alternatives (vegan) can be constructed from optimized diets and sample meals. The NFFs and vegan menus were as nutritious as ASF menus but had 30-33% less global warming potential and 24-28% less land use. The NFFs and vegan menus had 10% and 6% more water use than the ASF menu. The vegan menu had 19%, 27%, and 56% less marine eutrophication, freshwater eutrophication, and terrestrial acidification than the ASF menu. The NFF menu had 21% less terrestrial acidification, but 16% and 5% more freshwater and marine eutrophication compared to the ASF menu. Informed by the results of these daily menus, visions of the transformations in diets and underlying worldviews required for incorporating NFFs in diets are concretized in descriptions of high-tech and low-tech pathways to sustainable diets. Nutrition and health framing was the most common sustainability domain in current dietary recommendations. Sustainability framing in guidelines could be expanded to more comprehensively include considerations of the environment and ecosystems, food security and agriculture, sociocultural and political, and markets and value chains. Based on these results, this thesis also proposes novel designs of a ‘plate-model’ for food-based dietary guidelines which incorporate NFFs and sustainability framing. Going against the grain of current diets, the proposed daily menus, high- tech and low-tech pathways, and dietary guidelines can inform future consumption, practices, and policies for sustainable diet transitions. We are well past the expiration date on our unsustainable diets. Our collective appetite for sustainable change must be greater than that for the status quo in order to concoct future diets for sustainable food systems.Nykyisten ruokajärjestelmien kohtuuttomat ja haitalliset vaikutukset ympäristölle ja terveydelle ovat tuoneet tarpeen muutokselle, joka mahdollistaisi useiden eri kestävyystavoitteiden pikaisen toteutumisen. Muutokset ruokavalioissa ja kulutuksessa esitetään usein osana ruokajärjestelmäsiirtymää, minkä avulla voidaan saavuttaa useita kestävyystavoitteita samanaikaisesti. Kestävät ruokavaliomuutokset merkitsevät siirtymää pois ruokajärjestelmien kestämättömästä kehityksestä ja sellaisten uusien ruokavalioiden nousua, joiden ympäristövaikutukset ja kielteiset terveysvaikutukset ovat vähäisempiä. Ruokavalioiden muutosvaihtoehdot vaihtelevat ylimääräisten kalorien ylikulutuksen vähentämisestä uusien elintarvikkeiden tai kasvipohjaisten vaihtoehtojen sisällyttämiseen, mitkä korvaisivat suhteettoman suurivaikutteisia elintarvikkeita. Uuselintarvikkeilla/tulevaisuuden elintarvikkeilla (”novel and future foods”, NFF) tarkoitetaan ruokia, jotka ovat uusia nykyisissä ruokavalioissa ja, joita kehitetään nopeasti uusien tuotantotekniikoiden avulla vastaamaan vaihtoehtoisten proteiinien tarpeeseen ja ilmastokriisin lieventämiseksi. Näiden lisäksi proteiinipitoiset kasvipohjaiset vaihtoehdot esitetään keinona siirtyä ympäristöä kuormittavista eläinperäisistä ruuista vähävaikutteisempiin ja säilyviin elintarvikkeisiin. Ruokavaliomuutosten välttämättömyys ja uuselintarvikkeiden potentiaali lupaavina vaihtoehtoina tuovat esiin kiireellisen tarpeen tarkastella eri keinoja ja mahdollisuuksia sisällyttää uusia/tulevaisuuden elintarvikkeita kestäviin ruokavalioihin, mikä on tähän asti jäänyt tutkimuksen ulkopuolelle. Tämän väitöskirjatutkimuksen tavoitteena on laajentaa ymmärrystä uusien/tulevaisuuden ruokien ravitsemuksellisista ja ympäristöllisistä vaikutuksista päivittäisissä kestävissä ruokavalioissa. Lisäksi, tämä tutkimus tarkastelee niitä tarvittavia ontologisia muutoksia ja uusia kehystyksiä, joiden myötä uuselintarvikkeet voitaisiin sisällyttää kestäviin ruokavalioihin ja ravitsemussuosituksiin. Edellä mainittujen tutkimustavoitteiden saavuttamiseksi tämä tutkimus sisältää suunnitelman päivittäisistä näyteruokavalioista, jotka perustuvat ruokavalion optimointiin sekä näyteaterioiden ravitsemukselliseen elinkaariarviointiin. Ruokavalioiden optimointiin sisällytettiin kolme eri ympäristövaikutusta – maapallon lämpenemispotentiaali, maankäyttö sekä vedenkäyttö – joita analysoitiin yhdessä ravintoainesaannin ja mahdollisten kulutusrajoitusten kanssa. Näiden tekijöiden lisäksi ruokavalio-arvioinneissa tarkasteltiin myös vaikutuksia makean veden ja merten rehevöitymiseen sekä maan happamoitumiseen. Suunniteltujen näyteaterioiden ravitsemuksellista elinkaariarviointia varten näyteaterioiden ympäristövaikutukset normalisoitiin runsaan ravintoaineen funktionaalisella yksiköllä—indeksillä, joka sisältää 24 toivottua ja 4 epäsuotuisaa ravintoainetta. Tämän pohjalta suunniteltiin kolme päivittäistä ruokalistaa, jotka noudattavat suositeltuja päivittäisi ravintomääriä ja joiden ympäristövaikutuksia verrattiin uusien/tulevaisuuden elintarvikkeiden, kasviperäisten proteiinipitoisten vaihtoehtojen ja eläinperäisten ruokien kesken. Tämä tutkimus osoittaa, että optimoiduista ruokalistoista ja näyteaterioista voidaan rakentaa päivittäinen ruokavalio uusilla/tulevaisuuden elintarvikkeilla ja kasvipohjaisilla (vegaanisilla) proteiinipitoisilla vaihtoehdoilla. Ruokavaliot, jotka sisältävät uusia/tulevaisuuden ruokia ja kasviperäisiä proteiinipitoisia ruokia olivat yhtä ravitsevia kuin eläinperäiset ruokavaliot, ja niillä oli 30-33% pienempi vaikutus ilmaston lämpenemiseen ja 24-28% pienempi vaikutus maankäyttöön. Uudet/tulevaisuuden ruoat ja kasviperäiset proteiinipitoiset vaihtoehtoiset ruokavaliot käyttävät kuitenkin 10 ja 6% enemmän vettä kuin eläinperäinen ruokavalio. Kasviperäisen ruokavalion vaikutus oli lisäksi 19%, 27% ja 56% pienempi merten rehevöitymisen, makean veden rehevöitymisen ja maan happamoitumisen kohdalla verrattuna eläinperäiseen ruokavalioon. Uuselintarvike-pohjaisella ruokavaliolla oli 21% pienempi vaikutus maan happamoitumiseen, mutta 16% ja 5% suurempi vaikutus makean veden ja merten rehevöitymiseen, verrattuna eläinperäiseen ruokavalioon. Pohjaten näihin tuloksiin päivittäisistä ruokavalioista, tutkimuksessa tarkastellut visiot ruokavalion muutoksista ja taustalla vaikuttavista maailmankatsomuksista konkretisoituvat erilaisissa ruokateknologisissa mahdollisuuksissa, joita tarvitaan uusien/tulevaisuuden elintarvikkeiden sisällyttämiseen ruokavalioon. Tässä väitöstutkimuksessa ehdotetaan myös uusia ravitsemussuosituksia noudattavia ”lautasmalleja”, jotka sisältävät uusia/tulevaisuuden elintarvikkeita ja mukailevat kestävän kehityksen tavoitteita. Tutkimuksessa esitetyt päivittäiset ruokavaliot, ruokateknologiset vaihtoehdot ja ravitsemusohjeet antavat arvokasta tietoa kulutuksen muutoksista, ruokakäytännöistä ja politiikasta kestävän ruokavaliomuutoksen kontekstissa. On selvää, että nykyisten kestämättömien ruokavalioiden viimeinen käyttöpäivä on mennyt. Kestävään muutokseen pohjaavan yhteisen ruokahalumme on oltava suurempi kuin halu pitäytyä tutussa, jotta voimme suunnitella ja toteuttaa tulevaisuuden ruokavalioita kestäville ruokajärjestelmille

Examining sustainability in food-based dietary guidelines : an international comparison and systems thinking framework for sustainable dietary guideline development

International appeals from the United Nations and a growing group of nutrition, policy, and environmental science experts have called for integration of sustainability into national food policies. As of 2018, at least fifteen countries had sustainability considerations in their food-based dietary guidelines (FBDG) or supporting documentation, yet little scholarship has examined sustainability framing within these guidelines. This study therefore examined sustainability inclusion and framing in international FBDG. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze FBDG distinguished by the UN as having considered sustainability. The aim of this study was to explore the sustainability inclusion process within international FBDG and to identify common elements regarding sustainability inclusion. Eleven documents used by 15 countries were analyzed. This content analysis revealed five main themes about the framing and inclusion of sustainability in international FBDG: i) explicit sustainability documents were recently published, and the process for inclusion varied with country context; ii) multiple sectors and myriad stakeholders contributed to guidelines, instilling broad interests and a wide conceptual framing; iii) sustainability was primarily framed through health and nutrition, yet other sustainability domains also emerged as salient; iv) the most explicit sustainability considerations were found in documents that are focused more on the context of eating, with less explicit focus on specific nutrients; and v) consistent main messages were revealed across explicit sustainability documents. Based on these analyses, a proposed framework was developed to examine how sustainability has been included in dietary guidelines. The analysis of FBDG documents informed the development of a framework adapted from existing literature on food policy. The resulting framework to assess the interconnected inclusion of sustainability concepts in FBDG has five core domains: health and nutrition, food security and agriculture, markets and value chains, environment and ecosystems, and sociocultural and political. The framework developed can be used in future studies to compare and examine how sustainability considerations are integrated into emerging FBDG.Land and Food Systems, Faculty ofGraduat