Here’s a new initiative designed to demonstrate how food production byproducts can be repurposed directly into new food with a minimum of waste. The Circular Meal is a concept from the Provision Coalition which demonstrates how easy it is to take direct action on food waste…
Video: The making of the first Circular Meal
The specific initiative is dubbed rePURPOSE, designed to show how food products that are now routinely being wasted (like the ‘ugly’ Tomato, image at top of page) can be turned into ‘nutrients, ingredients, even new products’ just by learning to see them in different ways. According to the official rePURPOSE website:
“40% of everything we grow and produce gets thrown away. What if waste didn’t have to be wasted?
It doesn’t.
“Re(PURPOSE) creates circular food experiences, turning by-products into new food products and experiences – in stores, in restaurants and delivered to your home. Re(PURPOSE) collaborations showcase the passion and skills of local entrepreneurs, as well as national and international food companies who share a commitment to a healthy planet. It captures the community spirit of sustainable innovation, with a simple-enough vision: preventing food waste. At every stage in the journey from field to fork there are by-products: peels from potatoes, grains from brewing, pulp from juicing. And while some may see these peels and pulp as compost, we see opportunity: nutrients, ingredients, even new products.
“We create gourmet circular food experiences from unavoidable food waste.”
A model for a cooperative future
Senator Rob Black, who has been an active supporter of the project, said: “This is the first time that a meal has been created entirely from waste products – to the eight companies from Wellington County and surrounding region, I thank you for your part in this historic collaboration. I am confident that this represents the first step towards a new world where waste is not looked at as a problem to get rid of but instead of looked at as an opportunity to start something new”.
The world’s first Circular Meal was launched at 3 Guelph, Ontario, restaurants last week in conjunction with other observances marking World Food Day 2020. The particip[ants in preparation of the first Circular Meal were all local boutique food growers and processors brought together by Provision: Wellington Brewery, Oreka Solutions, Izumi Aquaculture, Smoyd Potato Farms, Escarpment Labs, Grain Revolution & The Neighbourhood Group.
This concept could be a great way to help ensure food security and diversity in a future that threatens to render traditional mass agriculture become unsustainable due to the resource footprint it requires and the effects of Global Warming.
My take
How do you ‘see’ the waste-ingredients circle? If you’re tuned in after seeing the video above, you’ve taken the first step toward helping build a sustainable food future with diverse food opportunities!
~ Maggie J.