1. Food at UCI – Why worry about it?
By: Aziz Husain
Why food? The obvious fact is that we need food and water to survive. However, have you
thought about where the food comes from, use of pesticides, carbon emissions from
transportation and where it ends up when it is wasted? These are the questions that hardly come
up anywhere except for major organizations and colleges and universities. For example, UCI is
proactive in the realm of food sustainability and portrays it in a variety of ways.
Let’s consider where the food originates. Usually, we think of massive trucks transporting fruits
and vegetables from one side of the U.S. to the other or even international trade. However, at
UCI, farms from regions within 250 miles of the campus are utilized to bring in fresh and local
groceries for the hungry students. This sustainable method also diminishes the effect of the
carbon footprint by reducing the amount of greenhouse gas emissions from massive truck load
transport and also buying organic products instead of genetically modified ones. Now, we have
the food ready to eat – but what is next? All the food in an imperfect world is never 100%
consumed. In other words, food waste is a critical issue we face in many areas of the world,
especially the developed countries that are consuming products rapidly.
At UCI, food isn’t just thrown away without any further analysis. That’s right, the food waste is
first weighed at the three primary dining halls. By doing this, numbers can be generated which
can further be dissected in terms of how much the average person consumed and equivalencies to
typical areas of concern such as greenhouse gas emissions and energy use. The figure below
depicts the average amount of food wasted per person during three separate time periods. As you
can see, the number is less than 2 oz. per person which is fairly high considering that UCI has
many undergraduates of which 6,000 to 7,000 are freshmen who primarily feast in these three
locations. As startling as this may seem, matters get worse when we think about the potential
waste of food in colleges all over the U.S. Nevertheless, it is important to keep in mind how
much we are wasting when there are about 1.1 billion people hungry worldwide. All this waste
can
effectively be composted, given to landfills, or recycled. Utensils, plates, and cups are also
recyclable here which helps promote the idea of “zero-waste and sustainable operations.”
Greenhouse gas emissions are what we are most terrified of and these have been calculated from
the data collected from waste-reduction activities. By composting, the amount of reduced

2. emissions in 2012 was equivalent to 17 vehicles, energy emissions from energy consumption
from 4 households, 3,408 propane cylinders for home barbeques, 30 tons of waste recycled, and
9,171 gallons of gasoline. Organics were the only products that were successfully composted.
Another interesting fact is that composting has increased by 20% in just a year. Now, suppose
there is a surplus of food from the dining halls. Instead of going straight into the trash, the food is
donated to help support needy families. By doing this, UCI is in a win-win situation that helps
promote both sustainable action as well as encourage charity.
Now, let’s apply this knowledge to a national level. Think about all the food that is wasted in
your household and imagine this for the entire population of the U.S. According to the Society of
St. Andrew, over 12 billion pounds of food has been wasted since the start of 2014. This comes
to an estimate of about 40% of all food purchased. Next, think about how much land and water is
required to grow all this wasted food. Our precious resources, specifically about 80% water, are
being wasted to essentially produce more waste. There are also environmental consequences,
which cost up to a billion dollars just to get rid of all the food waste. The role of the Society of
St. Andrew is important because it prevents food from being wasted by doing just what UCI does
when there is a surplus, but at a larger scale. That’s right, donations are made to feed the
homeless and other impoverished citizens which strengthens the relationship between the
different statuses.
We have taken a look at many aspects of food waste. The simplest solution is to not waste, but
that appears to be difficult as we do not worry much because we believe there are infinite
resources to satiate us. However, that is far from the truth – there is no escape from food waste.
When food is wasted, we must think of its past and where it came from, the massive amounts of
resources devoted to growing the food, and finally transporting the finished products we see at
the grocery store. It is amazing how we just collect food in a matter of minutes at the grocery
store while the actual time to process all that food is much more time consuming. I think it is
time we think about food as a precious resource as well. Globally, the U.S. is lucky to be one of
countries with a steady food supply; on the other hand, with climate variability and air/water
pollution, we might need to think again and modify our behaviors accordingly. The path much of
the developed world is following is mass consumption while the global south is rapidly growing.
This is clearly unsustainable and inaction will lead to even more enormous problems.

3. Looking back at UCI, it is one of many universities participating in effectively combating food
waste. Large organizations and businesses as well as households need to contribute in manners
that both promote charity as well as environmental friendly behavior such as composting and
recycling the billions of tons of food waste that are just piling up in places we do not physically
see. Hopefully, this mindset is adopted globally in the near future because the time to act is now
and not later when resources diminish and food waste intensifies and just poses a larger threat.
References:
"Welcome to CampusDish at the University of California Irvine!" Welcome to CampusDish at
the University of California Irvine! N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Feb. 2014.
http://www.campusdish.com/en-
US/CSW/UnivCaliforniaIrvine/Sustainability/SustainabilityatUCI.htm.
http://www.campusdish.com/NR/rdonlyres/857F5A41-4136-436A-8886-
19F3F509B821/0/ClimateProfile2012o.jpg
"SoSA | Food Waste in America." SoSA | Food Waste in America. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Feb. 2014.
http://endhunger.org/food_waste.htm.