A RECIPE for Changing the Food System
The food system is as simple鈥攁nd as complex鈥攁s a can of tomatoes.
Fifteen-ounces of vine-ripened tomatoes are peeled, diced, seasoned, sealed, and shipped to the local market where they鈥檙e purchased and placed in the kitchen pantry. 鈥淏ut,鈥 environmental science professor Sauleh Siddiqui said, 鈥渨hen you open that can, you have zero idea where those tomatoes came from, where the aluminum came from, how many places it traveled to get to the shelf in your grocery store, or how many people have touched it.
鈥淭he food system is essential to our daily lives, and it cuts across so many aspects of our society鈥攁nd yet, we know relatively little about it.鈥
As principal investigator of a new, five-year, $15 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF)鈥攖he largest externally funded award in AU history鈥擲iddiqui is leading a nationwide team of researchers that will reimagine a more sustainable, equitable, and resilient food system. The project鈥擬ultiscale Resilient, Equitable, and Circular Innovations with Partnership and Education Synergies (RECIPES) for Sustainable Food Systems鈥攚ill focus on wasted food.
It鈥檚 a pervasive problem, and the gulf between supply and demand, exacerbated by the pandemic, is only widening. Forty percent of food in the US goes uneaten鈥攅ven while more 麻豆果冻传媒s go hungry. According to Feeding America, an estimated 42 million people, including 13 million children, will experience food insecurity in 2021鈥攁n increase of 20 percent since COVID-19 hit.聽
The environmental and economic impacts, too, are widespread. Each year wasted food results in the misuse or loss of about 4.2 trillion gallons of irrigation water, 1.8 billion pounds of nitrogen fertilizer, 780 million pounds of pesticides, and 30 million acres of cropland. Amid mounting climate crises, they are resources we simply can鈥檛 afford to waste.
The researchers aim to transform the food system from a linear model, 鈥渨here we plug gaps of waste in a straight line to a circular system where we can reduce, reuse, and valorize all of the food that gets wasted,鈥 Siddiqui said. The team鈥攚hich includes 40 faculty from 14 institutions, including seven other AU professors鈥攚ill synthesize existing research and gather new data, conduct interviews with community members and frontline workers, craft educational materials for elementary schoolers, and develop strategies to minimize household-level food waste.
鈥淲e have assembled a network of researchers that are incredibly committed to the work and who are [eager] to create a new common language around this,鈥 said Siddiqui, associate director of AU鈥檚 new Center for Environment, Community, and Equity. 鈥淲e鈥檙e coming to this challenge with a diversity of perspectives. Often in science that鈥檚 a problem, but here, it is the ultimate strength.鈥
Learn more about Multiscale RECIPES聽at聽.
