Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Page 7
Page 8
Page 9
Page 10
Page 11
Page 12
Page 13
Page 14
Page 15
Page 16
14 Wednesday March 2 2016 AGRICULTURE FOOD WASTE 6.8103 in x 6.3125 in By KIM RAPATI Im sticky all over. My hands hair and sleeves are all danger zones. The culprit more than 100 little bags of dierent types of salad dressing. We have been collecting the little packets that come in salad kits for a few months and I nally had time to cut and pour them out into a larger bucket but man its a messy job One of the Northern Farm Training In- stitutes NFTI goals is learning how com- munities can use local resources to support small farms and an important part of this is recognizing useful waste streams. Since Sep- tember we have been picking up distressed food from the Super A grocery store approx- imately 150 pounds per day over 27000 lbs in total. Distressed food is a grocery store term for food that they throw out at the end of each day bruised fruit salad thats gone a touch slimy bread with a dot of mould still edible but no one would buy it. I stood up and talked about this project at the Canadian Food and Drink Summit in Toronto this October during a session called Enacting a Better Solution to Eliminate Food Waste in Canada. It was met with lukewarm mmm-hmms and people noted that farm- ers in their area would not have the time to do what we are doing and it wouldnt be worth the eort. That is what we wanted to look into how much time does it take once we set up an ecient system and how much is it osetting our animal feed costs We will only know if we try. Well we have been trying for six months and rst of all I love doing it. Sorting food How NFTI will save 27000 lbs of food is a nice break from oce work and a real joy when I think about how much we are saving from Hay Rivers landll. And is it worth it Well one of the buckets I lled with those packets of dressing weighed 10 pounds. That is approximately 22000 calories and we have at least 100 lbs in total saved up. A 600 lb pig needs approximately 9000 cal- ories per day at the height of winter so the salad dressing alone has enough calories for one pig for 24 days The dressing is just a tiny bit of what we collect and it has been such an adventure for us to learn about what foods our animals really enjoy.Mushroomspotatoesbroccoliand onions have to be cooked in a stew in order for the pigs to eat them but once we mix in a bit of salad dressing oh that stew is their favourite. Fresh herbs veggies and oranges are beloved by the goats and sheep. The pigs are ecstatic whentheygetanyfruitbreadordairyproducts. One of our other exciting partnerships is with the new brewery in Yellowknife NWT Brewing Company. We nabbed a bit of the spent grains which is a mix of hops and bar- ley left over from their brewing process when we were there at the end of January. Now I cant walk casually into the sheeps pen with a bucket I have to put it up on top of my shoul- dersorIwillbecoveredinwarmwoollybodies in an instant They absolutely love the grain which is full of protein and nutrients. Theres a method of quickly sneaking in and strategi- callytossingthegraininmanydierentfeeder spots all over so you dont get trampled by their enthusiasm. The animals love the feed the brew pub doesnt have to pay to dispose of the material and now we have a great connec- tion that may lead to more opportunities like growing specialty hops for them. We need to transform our agricultural sys- tem. We need to learn how to support each others endeavours to strengthen our com- munities. When we embrace these symbiotic partnerships we truly will be able to feed ourselves and support thriving communi- ties. We want to deeply thank the Super A Grocery Store NWT Brewing Company and all the other individuals and businesses who have supported us so far. Together we can harvest all we need Pigs at the Northern Farm Training Institute can already smell the fresh apples and other produce they are about to feast on thanks to an agreement with a local grocery store that sees the teaching farm save tens of thousands of pounds of distressed food from entering the Hay River landll. CourtesyofKimRapatiNFTI