{"id":19548,"date":"2020-04-02T11:27:18","date_gmt":"2020-04-02T15:27:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/?page_id=19548"},"modified":"2022-09-23T11:58:04","modified_gmt":"2022-09-23T15:58:04","slug":"helping-maine-businesses-find-food-waste-solutions","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/helping-maine-businesses-find-food-waste-solutions\/","title":{"rendered":"Helping Maine businesses find food waste solutions"},"content":{"rendered":"

April 2020<\/p>\n

\"FoodOn November 18, 2019, the Maine Food Production Leadership Council held its first work session, led by faculty and students involved in the Mitchell Center project, \u201cFood Waste Management: Empowering Maine Businesses Toward Sustainability.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

This project builds on work begun in 2015 by the Mitchell Center\u2019s Materials Management Team<\/a>, which brought together a large, diverse group of stakeholders including solid waste management professionals, farmers and food producers, hunger relief organizations, regulatory agencies, schools, hospitals, legislators, and environmental organizations from across the state. The group explored how to help Maine meet its solid waste management and recycling goals and create a more sustainable system.<\/p>\n

Through many iterations of discussion and input, stakeholders identified the reduction of food waste and the diversion of organic wastes from landfills as the highest priorities. They also raised concerns about links between food waste and food insecurity. Across the country roughly one-third of food produced for human consumption is wasted, according to the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic. At the same time, data from the United States Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service show that Maine has the highest level of food insecurity in New England. Food insecurity is defined as \u201cbeing without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food.\u201d In many cases, \u201cwasted\u201d food\u2014from excess production, losses within a system, and food that is nutritious and valuable but not aesthetically perfect\u2014can be routed to feed people in need.<\/p>\n

Susanne Lee<\/strong><\/a>, Executive-in-Residence at the Maine Business School at UMaine, leads the current project, advising several UMaine undergraduate students and collaborating with other members of the Materials Management Team. They\u2019ve worked with food manufacturers, retailers, distributors, the hospitality industry, farmers, schools, hospitals, hunger relief organizations, solid waste management professionals, and public policy makers to create the Maine Food Production Leadership Council. With more than thirty members, the Council includes leaders from across Maine\u2019s food system.<\/p>\n

Lee notes, \u201cMaine is an exciting place to find solutions for global food system challenges like food waste. We have a nationally recognized food scene and yet our relatively small size and resourceful Maine culture means that our food system leaders are more able and willing to work together to find and implement best practice solutions to increase profits, strengthen communities and sustain our natural resources. We truly believe that Maine can be the \u2018lab\u2019 to successfully develop these winning triple-bottom-line solutions and then share with others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the fall meeting, the students involved with the project have researched potential solutions for reducing food waste in Maine, keeping organics out of landfills, and addressing food insecurity. The next step in the process is for the students to present these potential solutions to the Council and garner feedback on how they might work in Maine. Although an upcoming meeting of the Council was recently cancelled due to the coronavirus crisis, the team is currently reviewing various options for Council members to provide feedback.<\/p>\n

We talked with Lee and the students midway through the current project about their progress, what they\u2019re learning, and their focus for the future.<\/p>\n

People, Planet, Profits, Students<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Stephanie Ayotte<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Stephanie Ayotte<\/strong><\/a> is a senior studying environmental engineering who joined the Mitchell Center team in fall 2019 as a research assistant with Dr. Jean MacRae, associate professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Mitchell Center faculty fellow. Ayotte says, \u201cI have found the ability to reach out and get to know businesses across Maine to be a rewarding process. The project has allowed the team to develop potential solutions that both meet the desires of Maine companies and help to feed those in need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ayotte\u2019s engineering background gives her a more technical approach to the issue of food waste, as well as a strong focus on finding practical solutions. She notes that the students seek solutions to food waste in Maine that are informed by what\u2019s worked\u2014and hasn\u2019t worked\u2014in other New England states. \u201cI ultimately hope that our team\u2019s efforts will help bring Maine one step closer to removing food waste from landfills,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Katie Tims<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For Katie Tims<\/strong><\/a>, a third-year biology major with a minor in sustainable food systems and a pre-med concentration, an Honors College tutorial course on Maine\u2019s agricultural industry fostered an interest in food systems and oriented her to a career in \u201csustainability in environmental and human health.\u201d Born and raised in Maine, she knows how important food security can be here and was drawn to the food waste project as an \u201copportunity to better understand and help solve the problems our culture faces in relation to food waste.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tims notes that each member of the team brings \u201ca strong drive to gather as much information as we can and generate outcomes that have potentially far-reaching impacts for the state.\u201d She says that participation in this project has provided valuable experiences in understanding complex problems such as food waste, as well as how to engage in efforts to help solve them.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Peter O’Brien<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Peter O\u2019Brien<\/strong><\/a> first became interested in food waste while working summers as a cook in Maine restaurants and seeing how much food was thrown out. \u201cI realized that our existing attitudes and approaches to food waste management are not sustainable,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The interdisciplinary approach of the food waste project, a hallmark of the Mitchell Center\u2019s work, is a big draw for O\u2019Brien. \u201cAn issue as complex as food waste cannot be solved by any one person or even one field of research,\u201d he notes.<\/p>\n

His major in economics brings a valuable perspective to the team and helps him to understand the needs and concerns of the project\u2019s business stakeholders, while his minor in sustainable food systems fosters a focus on the \u201ctriple bottom line\u201d of sustainability\u2014people, planet, and profits.<\/p>\n

\u201cFeeding the world over the next century will require large-scale cooperation, and there\u2019s no better way to spur this change than by starting at the local level,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

April 2020 On November 18, 2019, the Maine Food Production Leadership Council held its first work session, led by faculty and students involved in the Mitchell Center project, \u201cFood Waste Management: Empowering Maine Businesses Toward Sustainability.\u201d This project builds on work begun in 2015 by the Mitchell Center\u2019s Materials Management Team, which brought together a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1818,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"Mitchell Center for Sustainbility Solutions students and faculty are working with stakholders to help Maine find solutions to food waste and food insecurity. %","_seopress_robots_index":"","_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-19548","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"taxonomy_info":[],"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"","author_link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/author\/"},"comment_info":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1818"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19548"}],"version-history":[{"count":38,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27253,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19548\/revisions\/27253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}