Browsing by Subject "Food waste"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    CREATING VALUE CHAINS FOR SOIL HEALTH AND RESILIENT FOOD SYSTEMS IN WARREN COUNTY
    (2021-04-30) Hessenius, Angela; Howard, Elizabeth; Martinez, Catarina; Karanikolas, Cleopatra
    This Master’s Project aims to support Working Landscapes, a rural development nonprofit based in Warren County, NC, in developing a food waste recovery enterprise to handle food scraps from their food processing operation called ByWay Foods. Our project has two main objectives: 1) identify the best model for processing ByWay Foods’ vegetable waste stream to maximize economic, environmental, and social benefits in Warren County and 2) develop a business plan to guide the creation of this food waste recovery enterprise. To achieve these goals, we researched various alternative food waste recovery strategies including composting, vermicomposting, and biochar through literature review and interviews with experts and practitioners. Based on our client’s values and priorities, we selected a mixed-model compost and vermicompost operation as the optimal strategy for our client to create value from ByWay Foods’ food scraps. The result of our project is a business plan that guides Working Landscapes in the implementation of this new social enterprise that will enhance environmental, economic, and social value in the communities they serve.
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    Farm to Fork to Farm: Biochar, Compost, Working Landscapes, and a Circular Economy in Warren Co., NC
    (2023-04-28) Fast, Clara; Bowers, Madeline; Carter, Eliza; Taragittigul, Karina
    Working Landscapes, a non-profit organization located in Warren County, NC, aims to create new value from their natural and cultural assets and share them in more equitable ways. This project explores the market opportunity, community interest, and externalities of installing and operating a biochar unit in and around Warren County. Biochar, a carbon-rich, solid by-product that results from the pyrolysis of discarded woody material sourced from the community, combined with compost generated by Working Landscapes’ food scraps, can increase soil health and contribute to the creation of a circular supply chain. Beyond the economic benefit of waste reduction is the environmental benefit of keeping natural materials from producing greenhouse gasses in landfills. We conducted a market and cash-flow analysis, a geospatial analysis of the soil types, and analyzed results from an electronic survey for community input. To demonstrate a tangible example of a circular supply chain in Warren County and make use of otherwise wasted materials, we recommend that our client invest in biochar production along with scaling up their compost generation. Working Landscapes will gain a new customer touchpoint, reduce its waste, and increase circularity within its supply chain.
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    Identifying Strategies for Reducing Food Waste in NC Fresh Produce Supply Chains
    (2015-04-24) Chappell, Eric
    In recent years, food waste has received an increasing amount of attention from academia, the media and private industry. Realizing that this waste is also destroying value, producers, grocers and other large generators of food waste are searching for alternate disposal strategies which can save them money while also reducing their environmental footprint. In this light, the US Environmental Protection Agency developed the Food Recovery Hierarchy, a tool which helps provide context and suggestions for waste diversion. This project specifically looks at shipments of fresh produce that have been rejected by the market. These rejections arise when there is an over supply of produce or a buyer rejects a shipment because of quality concerns. By scoping the issue within the framework of North Carolina, the issues, solutions and recommendations for additional diversion opportunities are more specific and can exist within a real world application. Through a series of qualitative interviews linked together within a framework that borrows from the grounded theory tradition, a number of success stories emerge. Through a mixture of vertical integration, economies of scale and economies, businesses within North Carolina are finding ways to increase the amount of waste they divert while still keeping their sight on their own bottom lines. More importantly, these interviews identify barriers to increasing diversion beyond current levels. Small- and medium-sized companies lack the time and capabilities to craft complex waste diversion strategies. Increasing transportation costs mean that producers of food waste are less incentivized to ship waste through diversion streams that are more poorly distributed. This leads many of those who do divert waste to use composting as a default diversion tactic, as it requires less time and expense to use a single diversion stream. State and local governments act as important players in increasing diversion activities. In North Carolina, the NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources works to promote diversion activities in the state. Through programs such as NC Waste Trader, the state can provide visibility for diversion activities and help reduce some of the information barriers that come from a lack of scale.
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    Kenya Market Analysis-An Evaluation for Emerging Food Technology Companies
    (2017-04-18) Ares, Natalya
    The reduction of waste along the food production chain will help increase sustainability of the agricultural sector and help improve the quality of the environment overall. The use of active packaging technology (AP) has been found to reduce waste and help more products successfully reach the market by increasing shelf life of fresh produce. Businesses are now turning to developing countries for expansion opportunities where AP technology would have a significant impact. The following analyses should help determine whether Kenya is one such country. Although Kenya has a variety of laws in place that should protect foreign investors and intellectual property rights, it is unclear whether governmental organizations have the capacity to truly enforce these regulations. Furthermore, concerns exist over the physical state of infrastructure and political stability that could negatively impact the success of a new business. However, Kenya is a country whose population, particularly women in rural communities, is deeply reliant on the success of agriculture. Additionally, the Kenyan economy has grown tremendously in recent years and shows few signs of stopping, having already attracted a wide variety of investors. Therefore, Kenya presents a strong case for investment. Although issues persist at the federal and infrastructural level, investment in this case could not only mean profit, but could also have positive social and environmental benefits that would help not only Kenyans, but the global community as well.