Food waste handling presents itself as either a generator of deadly greenhouse gases — or a tool for immediate decarbonization of the food cycle, and an increase in the adoption of regenerative agriculture practices. Finding a positive solution to this challenge is the reason we started the movement to reframe the way the US food production, delivery and disposal process works. Vanguard Renewables, an ABC member, has worked with US farmers to scale a solution for recycling organic waste and producing carbon-negative fuel. As is commonplace in Europe, anaerobic digestion facilities on farms throughout the US take nutrients from unusable food and deliver it back to the soil; while the anaerobic digester sequesters the greenhouse gas that would otherwise have been emitted if the food waste was sent to a landfill. This process, called co-digestion, combines food waste and cow manure in a large sealed tank (much like an enormous cow’s stomach) for roughly one month, and lets the natural process of anaerobic digestion break down the waste into biogas and liquid digestate. More >>
