The facts are each year 30 million tons of food waste are produced. 5% gets composted and the rest heads to landfills-and we all recognize that this is not a sensible solution the evidence is decaying waste contaminates the water resources and realeases methane emissions when released into the methane has 21 times the global warming effect of carbon dioxide.

The food waste contains a valuable resource energy. Adding value to waste can make good business sense. Paying to dispose of waste is loss of a valuable asset-like 20 ton truck dumping in a landfill, represents 9,000 kWh of potential energy. This fact alone gives an insight into the scale of the business opportunity available right now which could make a difference to success or failure in the near future.
Its not a technology problem the technology is not new it makes biogas.With biogas you generate electricity and heat or you make pipeline grade natural gas and this is one of the few routes available to make a sustainable vehicle fuel.Whats left is ferilzer.
So whats the problem–atitude-regulations-not technoloy.
So here the country has a non depleting energy that will contiue to be wasted. Does it make sense to grow food to make fuel when you can use food waste. Appreciate you letting me know.

There was rationing until I was seven in 1952 and food was certainly not plentiful. Any household food waste was then was so minimal, vegetable peelings etc, that it could not be used for anything other than to be put on the on compost heap.

I would agree 100% that most people today buy more food than needed and so waste it and the supermarket’s waste must be enormous, but the key word here is waste and that is where I personally have the problem.

Like you I find it hard to accept waste on any level and like you I do think that if we cut down on waste we would use the land we have for food production far more efficiently.

We may never have rationing again as I knew it, but already we are seeing, in the UK at least, rationing by price as the cost of some items (eggs and bread for example) increases.

As we are both aware, we have passed ‘Peak Food’ just as we have passed ‘Peak Oil’. Rationing by price will be just as effective as rationing by coupon was, because the public in general will then have to value the food they buy, as we had to in the late 40’s and early 50’s. Then what will happen to that plant in Vancouver when the amount of food we waste is cut to a minimal level?

Sadly cheap food was like cheap oil, never to be valued by the majority until too late.

I’m in complete agreement with all of your points, except one. There’s a difference between using crops or even agricultural land to create fuel and using food that will just be sent to the landfill.

We can certainly reduce the amount of food that’s wasted. Yet, we’re never going to be completely efficient with our edibles. People will always buy or order too much, items will go bad, etc. Why not capitalize on that inevitable food waste? It’s different than converting corn to ethanol.

If we throw away 25-30% of our food, we increase the price it costs, cause greenhouse gas pollution in the transportation and disposing of it and deny the Third World any benefit when they are starving while we consume produce from their countries.

This scheme sounds as though it gives the green light to wasting food, “it’s OK to waste food, it’s going to make fuel for our cars!” while in fact using (consuming) all the food that we buy rather than dumping it would reduce world food price inflation and increase the food supply.

We should be feeding people, NOT our cars.