[{"command":"openDialog","selector":"#drupal-modal","settings":null,"data":"\u003Cdiv id=\u0022republish_modal_form\u0022\u003E\u003Cform class=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form ecl-form\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 action=\u0022\/en\/article\/modal\/9052\u0022 method=\u0022post\u0022 id=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 accept-charset=\u0022UTF-8\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHorizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EYou must give appropriate credit. We ask you to do this by:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 1) Using the original journalist\u0027s byline\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 2) Linking back to our original story\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 3) Using the following text in the footer: This article was originally published in \u003Ca href=\u0027#\u0027\u003EHorizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003ESee our full republication guidelines \u003Ca href=\u0027\/horizon-magazine\/republish-our-stories\u0027\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EHTML for this article, including the attribution and page view counter, is below:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022js-form-item form-item js-form-type-textarea form-item-body-content js-form-item-body-content ecl-form-group ecl-form-group--text-area form-no-label ecl-u-mv-m\u0022\u003E\n \n\u003Cdiv\u003E\n \u003Ctextarea data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 id=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 name=\u0022body_content\u0022 rows=\u00225\u0022 cols=\u002260\u0022 class=\u0022form-textarea ecl-text-area\u0022\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EDigital technologies rescue food from landfill\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EAround 88 million tonnes of food are wasted in the EU every year \u2013 from food on the plate we don\u2019t eat, out-of-date products and crop leftovers. This is equivalent to 170 kilos per person.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EThe need to reduce food waste is becoming increasingly urgent. With world hunger on the rise, wasting food is an ethical issue since it exacerbates food insecurity by depriving the poor of resources they badly need. Through decomposition in landfills, discarded food also contributes to climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EAccording to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, food waste contributes to 8% of total global greenhouse gas emissions.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EThere\u2019s a way to solve the problem. Since a major portion of food waste happens at plate level, researchers are using digital technology to put sustainability back on the menu.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EA problem shared is a problem halved\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EWhile urbanisation with its high population density is a prime offender in the food waste arena, a city profile can be ideal for one solution \u2013 food sharing. One ambitious action, led by Professor Anna Davies of the Geography, Environment and Society department at Trinity College in Dublin, is opening up access to waste schemes in urban sprawls.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EProfessor Davies is behind \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cordis.europa.eu\/article\/id\/421652-european-research-council-awards-grantees-for-benefitting-the-public-with-their-research\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003ESHARECITY\u003C\/a\u003E,\u0026nbsp;an award-winning project that has examined city-based food sharing initiatives. Many of these initiatives have food waste reduction at their heart, whether that\u2019s through gleaning crop remnants, operating food redistribution hubs or running community kitchens using edible surplus. Examining ICT-mediated urban food sharing (apps, website and social media), it has explored what this high-tech response means for sustainable food transitions.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EThe research provides answers to questions about the impacts of urban food sharing and the barriers and challenges that sharing faces as well as where and how these initiatives can be made more effective. \u2018As the project focuses on food sharing organisations that use ICT, we could identify a digital trace of their activities from our desks and then use their public profiles to map and categorise activities,\u2019 she explained.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003ESince the start of the project in 2016, Professor Davies and her team have expanded their research from their home base in Dublin to cities across \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/sharecity.ie\/research\/city-profiles\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EEurope, Asia, Australia and North America\u003C\/a\u003E. What started as an idea to explore the role and impact of technology in city-based food sharing initiatives grew into an extensive open-access and interactive database that maps urban food sharing across six continents.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EAn online, free to use Impact Assessment toolkit was also developed called \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/shareit.sharecity.ie\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003ESHARE IT\u003C\/a\u003E for food sharing initiatives to measure and communicate their contributions to sustainability. The project then created future \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/sharecity.ie\/research\/food-sharing-futures\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Escenarios\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;and culminated with a \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/sharecity.ie\/research\/manifesto\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Emanifesto\u003C\/a\u003E for sustainable food sharing.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-text-blue tw-font-bold tw-text-2xl lg:tw-w-1\/2 tw-border-2 tw-border-blue tw-p-12 tw-my-8 lg:tw-m-12 lg:tw--ml-16 tw-float-left\u0022\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-text-5xl tw-rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp class=\u0022tw-font-serif tw-italic\u0022\u003ESix years of work has culminated in the European Research Council award-winning SHARECITY100 database mapping more than 4,000 initiatives being viewed thousands of times by people from 93 countries\r\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cfooter\u003E\n \u003Ccite class=\u0022tw-not-italic tw-font-normal tw-text-sm tw-text-black\u0022\u003EProfessor Anna Davies of the Geography, Environment and Society department at Trinity College, Dublin\u003C\/cite\u003E\n \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EAccording to Professor Davies, the project\u2019s social and online media strategy was important because food sharing initiatives are often invisible. Having crowdsourced to look for new initiatives, she said: \u2018We really needed to know from the grass roots what was going on. Revolutionising the food system needs to be tailored to the local context.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003ESchemes promoted on the online database range from sharing traditional knowledge on leafy vegetables in Kenya to platforms to catalyse new approaches. One example is City Labs in Budapest which brings together policymakers, researchers, educators to work on their visions of the EU\u2019s FOOD 2030, which aims to guarantee Europe\u2019s future food systems through research and innovation.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Six years of work has culminated in the European Research Council \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cordis.europa.eu\/article\/id\/421652-european-research-council-awards-grantees-for-benefitting-the-public-with-their-research\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Eaward-winning\u003C\/a\u003E project \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/sharecity.ie\/\u0022\u003ESHARECITY\u003C\/a\u003E producing not only the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/sharecity.ie\/research\/sharecity100-database\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003ESHARECITY100 database\u003C\/a\u003E mapping more than 4,000 initiatives and being viewed thousands of times by people from 93 countries, but also a bespoke toolkit to identify the sustainability impacts of those initiatives \u2013 the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/shareit.sharecity.ie\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003ESHARE IT platform\u003C\/a\u003E and a \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/sharecity.ie\/research\/manifesto\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Emanifesto\u003C\/a\u003E for sustainable food sharing\u2019, said Professor Davies.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWaste streams recover their value\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EShifting from the city to the farm, digital-savvy researchers are also planting the seed of technological innovation to increase the value of waste in the agri-food industry. The potential of recovery of material from the waste could be as high as 60%, according to Dr Tamara Fernandez of CEIT Technology Centre in Spain.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EAs coordinator of the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cordis.europa.eu\/project\/id\/887191\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EMODEL2BIO\u003C\/a\u003E project, Dr Fernandez is working on a massive simulation of the production chains within the sector.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EFor instance, liquid lost when milk is separated to produce butter and cheese contains valuable ingredients for recovery. Staying with dairy, only at the supermarket, cheese trimmings can end up on the floor as machines slice cheese.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u2018The entire value chain will be simulated providing recommendations from a holistic perspective, including technical, economic, environmental and social factors,\u2019 explained Dr Fernandez.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003ECurrent waste management practices, which include putting in a landfill as the worst option, have to be improved to meet \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/info\/research-and-innovation\/research-area\/environment\/bioeconomy\/food-systems\/food-2030_en#:~:text=Food%202030%20is%20the%20EU%27s%20research%20and%20innovation,food%20system%20that%20is%20fit%20for%20the%20future.\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EEU targets\u003C\/a\u003E. The idea behind MODEL2BIO is to overhaul the processing of agricultural products and use the normal waste products, waste streams, in another industry.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u2018There are agri-food companies that treat and manage their residual streams as waste, without knowing that these may be raw materials for another industry close to their facilities.\u2019 In addition to this, companies often manage their streams routinely, ignoring the possible value of their by-products.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhen linear bends to become circular \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EAfter a year of information gathering, the second year will be dedicated to collecting information from other countries for comparison. \u2018It\u2019s all about selecting the wastes with the greatest potential,\u2019 Dr Fernandez told us, \u2018to make more profit for the agri-food companies and to reduce impact on the environment.\u2019 said Dr Fernandez.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EProjections for the MODEL2BIO system\u2019s impact are optimistic: agri-food residues destined for landfills decreased by 10% and overall carbon footprint reduced by 20%. Plus, a third of the waste could end up as resources for other bio-industries.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u2018We want to develop a tool that allows all members of the agri-food value chain to go from a linear economy that throws away its waste to a circular economy where it\u2019s recycled,\u2019 said Dr Fernandez.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EAgri-food waste is a potential substitute for fossil-based resources such as compost and it has important added value if used as feedstock for bio-based industries. However, the mix of molecules and variety from batch to batch make it difficult to evaluate and use.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-text-blue tw-font-bold tw-text-2xl lg:tw-w-1\/2 tw-border-2 tw-border-blue tw-p-12 tw-my-8 lg:tw-m-12 lg:tw--ml-16 tw-float-left\u0022\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-text-5xl tw-rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp class=\u0022tw-font-serif tw-italic\u0022\u003EWe want to develop a tool that allows all members of the agri-food value chain to go from a linear economy that throws away its waste to a circular economy where it\u2019s recycled.\r\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cfooter\u003E\n \u003Ccite class=\u0022tw-not-italic tw-font-normal tw-text-sm tw-text-black\u0022\u003EDr Tamara Fernandez of CEIT Technology Centre in Spain\u003C\/cite\u003E\n \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EAgain, the job in hand has all the hallmarks of a task ideal for big data processing and model simulation. Analysis of types of microbes in residual agri-food streams reveals their interference in beer fermentation, for example.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Even when we limited the number of crops to meat, vegetable, dairy and alcoholic beverages, there are so many variables as to make it impossible to make sustainable decisions on using their waste products without the help of digital intervention,\u2019 Dr Fernandez concluded.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EThe research in this article was funded by the EU. If you liked this article, please consider sharing it on social media.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-bg-bluelightest tw-p-12 tw-my-12 tw--mx-16\u0022\u003E\n \u003Ch3 class=\u0022tw-font-sans tw-font-bold tw-text-blue tw-uppercase tw-text-lg tw-mb-8\u0022\u003EFast facts\u003C\/h3\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-inline-block tw-w-1\/6 tw-h-1 tw-bg-blue tw-mb-8\u0022\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EGlobally, approximately\u0026nbsp;a third of all food produced\u0026nbsp;for human consumption is lost or wasted (\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.fao.org\/3\/a-i2697e.pdf\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EFAO, 2011\u003C\/a\u003E).\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAccording to the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.unep.org\/resources\/report\/unep-food-waste-index-report-2021\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EUNEP Food Waste Index 2021\u003C\/a\u003E, around\u0026nbsp;931 million tonnes\u0026nbsp;of food waste were generated in 2019 \u2013 61% of which came from households, 26% from food service and 13% from retail. Similarly, in the EU, households generate more than half of the total food waste in the EU (47 million tonnes) with 70% of food waste arising at household, food service and retail (\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.eu-fusions.org\/phocadownload\/Publications\/Estimates%20of%20European%20food%20waste%20levels.pdf\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EFUSIONS, 2016\u003C\/a\u003E).\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EWasting food is not only an ethical and economic issue but it also depletes the environment of limited natural resources. The EU is committed to meeting the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/sdgs.un.org\/goals\/goal12\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003ESustainable Development Goal Target 12.3\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;to halve per capita food waste at the retail and consumer level by 2030, and reduce food losses along the food production and supply chains.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003C\/textarea\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n\n \u003Cdiv id=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 class=\u0022ecl-help-block description\u0022\u003E\n Please copy the above code and embed it onto your website to republish.\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003Cinput autocomplete=\u0022off\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022form-z8li9eow1qjk2ddhkeuejzzeuxqsuucg3ckxnvcqcz4\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_build_id\u0022 value=\u0022form-z8lI9eOw1QJK2dDHKEuEjZZEUXQSuUCG3CKXNvCQCZ4\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003Cinput data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_id\u0022 value=\u0022modal_form_example_modal_form\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003C\/form\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E","dialogOptions":{"width":"800","modal":true,"title":"Republish this content"}}]