I have been a chef in the industry for 13 years, working at some of the most experienced kitchens in the country, including several Michelin-starred restaurants, as well as abroad in the Swiss Alps and the Caribbean. The most frustrating aspect of my job was witnessing avoidable food waste occurring in these kitchens simply due to a lack of creativity, concern, and knowledge of how to utilise it. The restaurant industry is painfully unsustainable with the latest prediction saying 1 in 15 restaurants will close within the next year. Witnessing this first-hand, I wanted to find a more sustainable solution to the problem so that I still have the job, and industry, I am so passionate about 20-30 years from now. This lead to looking at the sustainability of our whole food system. The bigger picture. And all signs pointed towards the unfathomable amount of food waste this planet creates.
50% of the habitable land on this planet is used for the production of food, in fact, that number is 70% in the UK. Yet 40% of all food produced is thrown away and wasted. For several reasons this is alarming, but a study in 2018 revealed that we are expected to hit a population of 10 billion by the year 2050, requiring an extra 56% more food production, 593 million hectares of land use (roughly twice the size of India), and 11 gigatons of Green House Gas (GHG) mitigation, which is more or less what China produces yearly. Our planet does not have those resources to spare.
My mission, now, is to advocate and educate others about the importance of reducing food waste, utilising what we can, and its overall impact on our planet and pockets. The general knowledge about food waste in this country is perversely small. Worse still is the knowledge made accessible to us to help prevent it and utilise it.
My Approach
Most of us follow a linear food system. This means we TAKE, MAKE, and WASTE. It’s an efficient, reliable, and quick way of creating food, but it’s also careless. It relies on the assumption that food is infinite. We have become reliant on supermarkets that have food readily available day in day out, all year around. Strawberries in December? We have become disconnected from where our food truly comes from. Disconnected from our food system. And with it, a lack of respect.
Nature follows a circular food system. It takes from the soil, uses what it needs, and then returns the byproducts back to the soil to start the cycle again. It TAKES, MAKES, and RECYCLES/REUSES/REPURPOSES. We should be learning from this and adapting our food system to create a more efficient, and sustainable food system that reduces waste and allows the potential for infinite food, which respects the food and those who produce it.