Latest News

Latest News

Vegan steak, food upcycling and mushroom microbes: what we learned at the Super Bowl of healthy snacking

If you want to know what healthy snacks you'll be eating in the next few years, Anaheim Convention Center was the place to be last week, for Expo West, officially Natural Products Expo West.

Known as the Cannes Film Festival of natural nibbles, the SXSW of organic snacks, the Super Bowl of conscious Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG), Expo West is where global business gets done and the future of food is decided.

Walmart pilot looks to reduce produce losses

Walmart is currently working alongside an agritech startup to pilot a creative solution to food waste, which will help bring better, fresher products to the customer while giving the retailer the ability to source fresh produce from totally new countries of origin. All this serves a greater goal: augmenting the supply chain and creating more sustainable alternatives for customers.

States Struggle to Curb Food Waste Despite Policies

The United States generates more food waste than all but two countries. To address this, the federal government set a goal to cut food waste in half by 2030 compared to 2016 levels, to about 164 pounds per person annually. But a new study published in Nature Food and led by University of California, Davis, reveals that current state policies are falling short. Since 2016, per capita food waste has increased instead of decreasing.

Food Waste Rap Video

UC Davis student Emma Vazquez created a “food waste diss track” to call out food waste and highlight solutions for a more sustainable future. The music video was part of a course she took on urban food and society. 

 

Grape Seeds, Stems and Skins in Feed Can Reduce Dairy Cattle Emissions

California’s wine industry could play a role in reducing methane emissions from dairy cattle.

Researchers at University of California, Davis, added fresh grape pomace left over from winemaking operations to alfalfa-based feed for dairy cows and found that methane emissions were reduced by 10% to 11%. 

The preliminary findings could offer a low-cost sustainable pathway for vineyards to reduce waste while helping dairy operations maintain quality while cutting back on emissions of methane, which is a powerful greenhouse gas.

Eco-tip: Pilot programs preview potential progress for recycling food waste

Breakthrough technologies and innovative programs often start as pilot projects. When the project serves a public purpose, public agencies sometimes provide incentives.

Two upcoming events, coordinated by the Ventura County Recycling Market Development Zone, provide examples and show public agency support on the city, county, state and federal levels.

Crump aims to improve food in rural markets

 

People in rural regions like mountainous Nepal produce plenty of food. But before it can get to local markets and into people’s homes, much of it spoils. What’s left often has lost much of its nutritional value. Now, Amanda Crump and team are working on a way to get more nutritious food into the homes of Nepalese people

Using Yeast to Convert Almond Hulls to Animal Feed

Yeast grown on almond hulls could be a new, sustainable route to produce high-protein animal feed from an agricultural waste product, according to research from UC Davis published Nov. 15 in PLOS One.

Raising animals for meat requires livestock feed that is high in protein, especially essential amino acids that animals need to grow. That makes feed the most expensive input in meat production.

Farms to Fungi to Food: Growing the Next Generation of Alternative Protein

A solution to world hunger might start with boba and caviar.

Using an innovative process, engineers at UC Davis are growing “myco-foods” — small balls of edible fungi that can be processed into products like boba and lab-grown caviar with a wide range of textures, colors and flavors. These myco-foods, grown from the nutrients of agricultural byproducts like coffee grounds and almond hulls, provide an important new source of protein to feed the world.

 

Ned Spang featured in AP story on SB1383, CA Composting Law

FST Associate Professor Ned Spang is featured in the story (and embedded video) "California pushes composting to lower food waste emissions", by Kathleen Ronayne/AP News on December 9, 2021, speaking about the impact of California's SB1383, the bill passed in 2016 that becomes effective in January 2022.  The bill is designed to reduce methane emission from food waste that ends up in landfills, with the goal - by 2025 - of compost

Ned Spang Featured in Podcast on Food Waste

Nov. 15, 2021: FST Associate Professor Ned Spang was featured in the first Red To Green podcast of Season 4, which focuses on Food Waste.