Compost Death Star

A few weeks ago, my housemates and I bought a tumbling compost ball. It's pretty much the most amazing thing ever and it looks like a Death Star, which makes it even more amazing (because I am a Star Wars geek and now I have my own dark side of the garden). Most composts don't get turned over often enough or don't get enough oxygen inside, including our last compost bin at the previous house. Having a compost ball that you can roll around helps with turnover and mixing. The design even has little holes for oxygen to breathe in.

Another common problem that people have is an imbalance between the nitrogen-heavy material (your food scraps and garden greens) and the carbon-heavy stuff (dry leaves, newspapers, straw). Too much of one or the other slows down the decomposing process and makes the compost bin really smelly. So far, the compost ball seems to be working - no funky smells. We've left it in the sun to help decompose faster and have made sure to put in lots of newspaper. It'll be a couple more weeks before we get stuff to use in the garden though, so I'll post later about that.

My only problem with it is that the cover is kinda hard to open! It does come with a "key" of sorts, but it takes a certain amount of strength to pry the cover open, and if bits of food gets stuck at the top, that doesn't help.

Now for the exciting photos of the making of our compost ball!



The different "layers" of the ball



The holes for oxygen



Putting things together



How the oxygen gets in



Putting the middle parts together



Pat really likes the ball...



The completed Death Star!

Biofuel from Food

This is something cool that I just came across. The Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB, Europe's largest applied research center, announced that it will begin turning old produce into bio-gas at a pilot site in Stuttgart, Germany. The facility will use microorganisms to transform food scraps into methane gas, which can power a car once compressed and emits less carbon dioxide during combustion than gasoline. Although the process only takes several days to convert food to fuel, the challenge lies in dealing with the inconsistency of the raw materials—the acidity of a mound of food scraps can vary wildly. For example, oranges and other citric foods are acidic, but leafy greens aren't, so the pH of the system must be adjusted for the microorganisms.

This is a great way to make our waste production (of food, at least) more closed. When the waste can be reused for various purposes (compost to return nutrients to soil or conversion to biofuel), the system becomes more self sustaining. And we're all about sustainability nowadays!

How far are you willing to go for local food?

Another long break between posts! I'm in Auckland, New Zealand at the moment, staying with my housemate's family while I organize my student visa. The landscape is beautiful here and I've greatly enjoyed the hikes and walks around the Waitatere ranges.

Last weekend, we went out grocery shopping. There's a deal at New Worlds supermarket where you spend $200+ and get a 30 cent discount on gas. They managed to spend $235. Then, we head to this farmers' market in the city and bought some more eggs, cupcakes (which were quite yummy), and veggies. I figure okay, this is a good amount of food. But we're not done! 2 more stops at another farmers' market and a wholesake bakery (to get a week's worth of dessert it seems), back home to unload everything, and then to a farmers' market 40 min drive away to get veggies picked that day. There was SO much food and it was just for the 4 of us.

After having been here for a week and half, I've definitely noticed that they buy WAY WAY more food than they could ever possibly eat in a week. A good amount goes to waste or as they put it, if it's not good, just chuck it out and grab the next one because we have so many. As much as I think their intentions for environmentalism are sincere, I think they go about it in the wrong way. There's nothing wrong with stocking up, but one must take into account how much one can actually eat so that food doesn't go to waste. It'd save a lot of money as well, since they would actually just buy what's necessary instead of overcompensating.

The dilemma of local food versus how far you're willing to get said food is also highlighted here. Obviously driving out 40 min each way to buy groceries is not something you want to be doing each day. But eating freshly picked vegetables, picked THAT morning in fact, is appealing, and there are numerous other benefits to farmers' markets (getting to know your farmers, social interaction). The family is recognized by all the farmers and they exchange pleasant conversation at every stop. Weighing the pros and cons of such decisions ultimately pins different aspects of sustainability against each other - carbon footprint and time management of driving long distances, eating locally, farmer community. I don't think there's necessarily one right answer, but it helps to look at every angle and decide what each factor is worth to you.

Reducing food waste

A recent NY Times article came out about the war against food waste. The statistics about the amount of food that's thrown out uneaten is astounding - quoting from the article

According to the most recent available statistics, more than 30 million tons of food was dumped in landfills in 2009, making food by far the most abundant material there by weight, the federal Environmental Protection Agency says. (That calculation excludes industrial, construction and hazardous waste.) This amounts roughly to 200 pounds a year for every man, woman and child in the United States.

What people don't realize is that much more than just food is wasted when food's thrown away. There are an enormous amount of resources that go into getting the food "from paddock to plate", including picking, processing, storage, transportation, and refrigeration. It's estimated that for every 1 ton of food wasted, 3.8 tons of CO2 equivalent emissions are generated. Reducing the amount of food wasted is an easy way to reduce the carbon footprint.

Supermarkets are a big culprit in generating this food waste. Perfectly good food gets thrown out because of food labeling changes, excess stock, marginally damaged products, slight label inaccuracies, outdated packaging, discontinued products, and expired shelf life. Some people have taken to the "freegan" movement and go dumpster diving for the still-good food thrown out by supermarkets. Before the reader gets too disgusted by this idea, freegan divers take precautions such as wearing rubber gloves, choosing well lit sites, taking items that are packaged, and thoroughly washing fruit and vegetables. I have never personally been dumpster diving, but it has definite appeal, from waste reduction to free food with a tinge of adventure.

Another (slightly less disgusting) way to make the most of food left out is to go foraging for fruit on vacant property. The NY Times article describes several fruit foraging organizations and leaders, who scout out vacant or foreclosed lots with fruit trees to pick the ripened fruit for themselves or charity. One forager, Anna Chan of Clayton, California, is known as the Lemon Lady. Three years ago, she started collecting fruit and donating them to food banks, local farms and grocery store produce departments - since then, she and other volunteers have delivered up over 250 tons of food to the hungry. It's a great way to make the most of what's available, I think. Despite the legal grey area of who owns the property, I think it makes more sense for people to pick the fruit when it's ripening and give it to those who need it than the bank to claim the land and then let everything go to waste.

What wasted food boils down to the end is that people need to be more conscious about what's wasted. It's not just the food itself, but the time and resources needed to produce that food. When food is thrown out, it's contributing a lot of extra, unnecessary CO2 and it's diverting resources away from people who need it. With so many complicated environmental problems out there, this is one that can be easily resolved, so why not start now?