jul-aug-2020

CULTIVATING SUSTAINABILITY Blue Diamond Applies Innovation to Tackle Food Loss Food loss and food waste occurs across the entire food value chain. Over the last few years, awareness has been around waste at the retail and consumer levels. But what about at the farm ? A new food loss study conducted by Santa Clara University found that about one-third of crops grown in Central and Northern California remain in the fields after harvest (of the crops in the study).¹ Why Does Food Loss Matter? Lost food leads to greenhouse gas emissions, profit losses for farmers, and a disconnect between food insecurity and food availability. Consumers are also becoming more conscious and aware of food loss. A 2016 survey found that 74 percent of the 6,700 adults polled reported that the issue of wasted food was important to them.² Consumers want to know where the food waste occurs in the supply chain for products that they purchase. The Natural Resource Defense Council’s Wasted report references 2015 data from ReFED, a nonprofit that uses data to solve our national food waste problem, that places 16 percent of food waste occurring at the farm level and two percent at the manufacturing level. This is compared to 43 percent of food loss occurring at the household level, 18 percent for restaurants, 13 percent for grocery and distribution, and eight percent for institutional and foodservice industries.² Although the percentage of food loss occurring at farms and throughout manufacturing is comparatively low, there is still great opportunity to reduce to volume of food lost across farms and manufacturing. Almond Growers Addressing Food Loss According to the Almond Board of California, almond growers are well on their way to achieving zero waste in orchards. Thanks to almond coproducts being valuable resources, there is a robust market for hulls and shells in livestock feed and bedding, and woody biomass is being reused in Blue Diamond orchards to increase soil health through whole orchard recycling. As markets for coproducts transform, the Almond Board of California is committed to finding innovative, high value uses for hulls, shells and trees.³ “Current research is exploring using almond hull and shell components as a growing medium for mushroom cultivation, producing feed sources for poultry and aquaculture, soil amendments for almonds and other crops, strengthening post-consumer recycled plastics, creating fuel—and even for brewing beer.” ( Almond Board of California ). Innovation Continues from the Orchards to the Facilities At our Blue Diamond processing facilities, the goal is to minimize waste and maximize the return to growers while delivering the benefits of almonds to the world. This is evident throughout the almond’s processing lifecycle where all parts of the nut are treated as valuable resources rather than waste. For example, we turn our byproducts into coproducts, such as fragments being used in our flour and beverage base lines. Reject almonds are diverted to oil production for the commercial beauty supply market. Even the dust and hull fragments are captured and utilized in animal feeds. Each Blue Diamond facility is continuously looking for efficiency opportunities that limit waste and improve yields across the entire process. Finding uses for these coproducts and byproducts results in positive environmental and financial impacts for the company, growers and planet. ¹ 2019 Santa Clara study. www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921344919301296 2 2017 NRDC Wasted report. file:///C:/Users/use1hxp/Desktop/wasted-2017-report.pdf 3 2020 Almond Board of California. “Using Everything The Orchard Grows.” www.almonds.com/why-almonds/growing-good/zero-waste 4 2019 Civil Eats article. civileats.com/2019/08/20/study-finds-farm-level-food-waste-is-much-worse-than-we-thought 1 8 A L M O N D F A C T S