Problem topic: Wasted foods in AGU’s cafeteria

Problem definition: AGU students who eat in the university’s dining hall are taking meals which they can’t finish all of them. Therefore ending up wasting food.

Survey results: A survey was conducted randomly for AGU students and it is founded that 92.3 % of survey participants have eaten their lunch in the cafeteria with a ratio of ½ of them eat five times a week. 80% of the respondents are not able to finish their foods.

38 % of the students waste food because they simply don’t like them. 37% think that the food is not cooked well. And the remaining students have mixed opinions like they think the portions are too big or they are spicy/salty or they are eating the food before they are hungry. We have also conducted this research to find out what are the most wasted foods. The most wasted meal is the main meal by 58% percent followed by rice (41%) and soup with 37% [1].

It is found out from the survey that even though participants are not satisfied with the dining hall’s service they prefer to eat in the cafeteria because there is no enough place to eat both cheap and delicious meals. Also, there is a bias about women eat less than men so it is believed women waste more food than men. Actually, according to the survey results, women choose vegetables and approximately 50.6% of them waste their main course. On the other hand, men choose meat and 70 % of them waste their main course. So unproven believe is not real at all, men have a higher carbon footprint comparing to women about food consumption.

Picture 1: Wasted bread and salad at the AGU’s cafeteria in a day

As it can be seen in picture 1 only the amount of waste bread and salad is around two buckets and this is not the only food that is wasted at the cafeteria.

Model Solutions:

Our bat group plans to decrease wasted foods by changing the food providers or changing menu so that people who eat in the cafeteria may like the foods more. Also, we are going to arrange the portions given in the cafeteria.  

In addition, we have an alternative plan to feed the animals in animal shelters with wasted foods.

 

1. The catering company will be changed, so the menu and also the taste of the food change. From the survey results, it is certain that most of the students are wasting their meals because they don’t like their tastes. Given the fact that Kayseri is a big city and there will probably be better food providers around the city, it shouldn’t be hard to find a provider that students actually like eating from. It will also help to refresh the mood around the university where for years eating the same types of food. Therefore, both students and the environment will get benefited from this solution. To change the food providers, the administration of AGU should find a food provider to provide lunch in the cafeteria. Also, we are going to need a catering company that contracts with the university. It is not going to cause a cost.

In contrast, maybe university’s dining hall will have a catering company that provides meals for a lower cost and has more delicious foods. But the process of finding a new food provider will take some time.

2. Just the menu alone can be changed by analyzing what students are wasting the most. How the plan is going to work with the help of the food serving crew. They are the ones who are washing the dishes, taking up the leftovers and unloading the wasted food so they will be aware of what is being wasted the most. Each week the crew will detect the most wasted food and next week that food type will be replaced with another type of food and the research will go on. It is expected that within a year we will be able to determine the exact food combination which minimizes the wasted food.

This method requires less work and resources than the first one but it will not bring the same amount of refreshment which comes with the first method. And also it requires a long time to determine the most wasted foods. There may be another issue: we are not sure about the new foods that are not going to be wasted. So during the period (we assume it is 1 year), the waste will run on.

3. The default portions will get smaller and bigger portions will be given to the ones who requested.  According to the survey we have conducted, while some people think that the given portions are not enough, some people think the opposite. None of them can be claimed to be wrong. It is about their desires and capabilities. Therefore, we designed this simple solution to leave the decision into students whether they want the previous “big” sized portions or the new small ones. Actually, the students can switch the portion to a smaller one by talking with the food serving crew. But in reality, most of the students are being timid to express themselves or they will not want to linger when some people wait in order to take the foods. For that, the crew can intentionally prepare small and big portions together to leave the decision to the students or an informing paper can be hanged somewhere in the dining hall to inform students that they can decide the size of the portions. 

For this solution crew and people who eat in the cafeteria will take the stage. When people decide about the size of portions, the crew is going to rearrange the portions. But there may be a disagreement about the sizes. So it is not going to be an exact solution for the waste.

Another way to arrange the portions is self-service. In this way, everyone gets the amount of food that they are capable to finish. This solution also requires fewer people in the serving crew and by making the students decide and prepare their portions; therefore, making the students will be more pleased with the “IKEA effect”.

In this solution, students are the ones that arrange their portions. There will be no cost; on the contrary, the catering company will have fewer employees so they will pay less. But there are possible problems: there will be congestion to take the food.

Another problem is that there should be a crew to check if the students are taking more food than they should and it shouldn’t be ignored that there will be students who will try to break the limits. Therefore it will serve for the exact opposite purpose by increasing the waste.

4. The wasted food will be sent to feed the animals in an animal shelter.  Whatever we try, there will be always some waste. This method is the addition of all the methods above to make use of wasted food while taking care of the animals. For this solution, the administration of AGU and the municipality will be the stakeholders. Firs administration of AGU should concert with the animal shelter and also with the Kocasinan municipality to send a vehicle to take up the wasted foods daily. It will cause some costs (to fuel the vehicle). Also, it should be sustained for long times. But in the end, there will be not waste as much as before.

Also, this solution is easily applicable for instance the rector of Çankırı Karatekin University has instructed that leftovers from the University’s cafeteria are given for the animals in an animal shelter (Çankırı Belediyesi Sokak Hayvanları Bakım ve Rehabilitasyon Merkezi) in 2018 and it has been practicing for 2 years[2].

Picture 2: A photo from Çankırı Karatekin University about what have done with waste food [2].

References

1. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1dmyytbxtf2yFA89UxEFJUmf-dZqMO552rEjpSeH6yR0/edit#responses
2. https://basin.karatekin.edu.tr/caku%E2%80%99den-ornek-uygulama-16639-haberi-icerigi.karatekin

#week 4 / Onur ÇAKICI

As it was mentioned at the last week’s post, I’d like to give you a couple of tips too, which van help you to reduce your own carbon footprint.

Save water

Water is a precious resource that is becoming scarce in many countries such as Egypt, Mexico, and Australia. And even if you do not live in one of these arid countries, you may be wearing or using goods and consuming foods produced in those places, thus contributing to their water debt. One of the major impacts we can have personally is by moving towards a vegetarian diet, which requires about half the water to produce than a meat-based diet. It also makes sense to reduce your personal water consumption by practicing water conservation in your daily life:

• eat a mainly vegetarian diet
• only use the dishwasher when full and select the program with low water usage
• if you wash-up by hand, start with a half-empty bowl and rinse the dishes back into your washing-up water rather than down the plughole
• use filtered tap water for drinking rather than energy and water-intensive bottled water
• take a shower rather than a bath and shower less often in less time!
• turn off the taps when brushing your teeth or washing or shaving
• clean your clothes less often and only wash full loads
• use ‘grey’ water to water your garden and house-plants.

---

Shop wisely

Think before you buy! Do you actually need this? Can you find a better, greener alternative?

• use a shopping list to avoid those impulse purchases
• avoid products that use lots of packaging
• buy in bulk to save money and reduce packaging
• check the label – a long list of ingredients generally means a heavily processed item with a high carbon footprint
• frozen food has the highest carbon footprint, followed by canned, plastic, glass, then cardboard
• and please don’t buy bottled water.

---

Shop local

Think about where you do your shopping. Do you drive to the local shop when you need something – why not walk? Does your supermarket support green initiativesand offer local, organic foods? And think about where food comes from – if it is from the other side of the world, it will have a high transportation footprint.

A weekly food shop is a habit many of us follow…but is it an efficient use of time and resources? The average household throws away a third of the food that they buy as it is so easy to over-shop in those tempting supermarkets. After all, they are designed to sell us as much as possible, whether we need it or not.

---

Reuse and recycle

Think creatively about how you can reuse and recycle. Glass jars and plastic containers make great storage options. Take your own shopping bags and say no to plastic bags. Take reusable produce bags for your fruit and vegetables – if you use the ethylene-absorbing bags it prolongs shelf-life too. And when you can’t reuse, make sure you recycle whatever you can.

---

Grow your own food

A great way to save money and to have an organic diet, get fit and reduce your carbon footprint is to grow your own fruit and vegetables. If you have a garden or backyard, then it is a fun way to make sure your family has access to affordable, healthy, pesticide-free food. And even if you live in an apartment, what about using your balcony or even the communal outside areas? Failing that, there is a growing movement (ha!) in Australia and The States to set up community gardens.

Resource: http://www.greeneatz.com/

#week 3 / Onur ÇAKICI

Today I want to share the information about how we can decrease our carbon footprint by explaining in 4 different tips.

Eat vegetarian

Livestock farming produces from 20% to 50% of all man-made greenhouse gas emissions.

Shrink That Footprint’s chart shows that a meat lover has the highest carbon footprint at 3.3 tons of greenhouse gas emissions. A vegan diet has the lowest carbon footprint at just 1.5 tons CO2e (Carbon Dioxide Equivalent). You can reduce your foodprint by a quarter just by cutting down on red meats such as beef and lamb.

The carbon footprint of a vegetarian diet is about half that of a meat-lover’s diet.

It’s good for the animals too!  Most animals are raised in factory farms where they live in horrific conditions. The factory workers also suffer from poor wages and dangerous working practices. Factory farms are heavy polluters of the air and ground. The meat they produce is also polluted with superbugs. Over 3.5 million people get sick from eating ‘dirty’ meat every year in the US.

It’s good for you too!  Vegetarians live longer than meat-eaters. Vegetarians are slimmer than meat-eaters. Vegetarians have a lower risk of getting heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and cancer.

• use proteins such as beans, lentils, tofu, tempeh and quorn to replace meat, cheese and eggs
• make sure you are getting enough iron and zinc by including lots of wholegrains, beans and a variety of vegetables
• invest in some vegetarian or vegan cookery books and have fun experimenting
• don’t rely on vegetarian processed foods.

---

Bring back home-cooking

Take control of the food you eat and base your meals on natural foods such as vegetables, fruits, whole-grains, beans and lentils with a little meat and fish:

• discover the simple pleasures of preparing and eating your own meals
• check out Vegetarian Recipes for lots of tasty ideas
• improve the health of you and your family – see more at Vegetarian Nutrition
• plan your meals ahead to reduce wastage
• save your leftovers and create a new meal with them
• if you can, make your own compost with uncooked vegetable scraps.

---

Cooking smartly

Did you know that a gas oven only uses 6% of its energy to cook? And an electric oven is not much better at 12%. If you use the oven on a warm day, you will also heat up the room and need to turn on a fan or air-conditioning. In fact, the most efficient cooking method is simmering on the stove-top.

• eat more raw foods that do not need cooking
• use the stove-top whenever possible
• next best is the microwave as it uses 50% less energy than an oven
• use the oven sparingly and smartly…reduce preheating, cook multiple foods, turn off early
• use electric kettles to boil water for cooking or drinking.

---

Eat Organic

Organic farming methods for both crops and animals have a much lower impact on the environment than conventional methods. Organic-certified farms must use natural methods for soil fertilisation, weed prevention and pest control. Antibiotics and growth hormones cannot be used to raise food animals, and there are standards of care which prevent cruelty to livestock. Genetically-modified and irradiated foods cannot be labelled organic and its better to avoid these processes which are not proven to be safe for us or the food chain.

Organic food is better for you too! Crops are grown in fertile soils that are full of nutrients – and these end up in your food and then in you. Livestock are able to roam the fields and eat their natural food – grass – rather than being force-fed corn. And this leads to a much less fatty meat that keeps your heart healthier.

In the next week, I will give you more tips to reduce our carbon footprint. Looking forward to see you next sunday.

Resource: http://www.greeneatz.com/

#week 2 / Onur ÇAKICI

Today, I want to point out the importance of carbon footprint especially caused by food consumption.

According to the reports, in the US, each household produces 48 tons of greenhouse gases. Transport, housing and food have the three largest carbon footprints. Food produces about 8 tons of emissions per household, or about 17% of the total. Worldwide, new reports suggest that livestock agriculture produces around a half of all man-made emissions.

Changing the foods that you eat can have a big impact on your carbon footprint. And reduce pollution, preserve the environment and slow global warming. Many of these changes will also save you money, improve your health and even keep you fit! Have a browse of How You Can Fight Climate Change for more ideas on taking action to save our beautiful planet.

---

Carbon Footprint Ranking of Food

The following table shows the greenhouse gas emissions produced by one kilo of each food. It includes all the emissions produced on the farm, in the factory, on the road, in the shop and in your home. It also shows how many miles you need to drive to produce that many greenhouse gases. For example, you need to drive 63 miles to produce the same emissions as eating one kilogram of beef.

Meat, cheese and eggs have the highest carbon footprint. Fruit, vegetables, beans and nuts have much lower carbon footprints. If you move towards a mainly vegetarian diet, you can have a large impact on your personal carbon footprint. You can be change your diet by looking this table and comparing which kind of foods are causing more carbon emission.

Rank	Food	CO2 Kilos Equivalent	Car Miles Equivalent
1	Lamb	39.2	91
2	Beef	27.0	63
3	Cheese	13.5	31
4	Pork	12.1	28
5	Turkey	10.9	25
6	Chicken	6.9	16
7	Tuna	6.1	14
8	Eggs	4.8	11
9	Potatoes	2.9	7
10	Rice	2.7	6
11	Nuts	2.3	5
12	Beans/tofu	2.0	4.5
13	Vegetables	2.0	4.5
14	Milk	1.9	4
15	Fruit	1.1	2.5
16	Lentils	0.9	2

Figures from the Environmental Working Group’s Meat Eater’s Guide and the EPA’s Guide to Passenger Vehicle Emissions.

---

Resoruce: http://www.greeneatz.com/

#week 1 / Onur ÇAKICI

At the cafeteria of Abdullah Gul University, there are two different types of food is eaten by the students and the instructors. One of them is made of meat such as chicken and the other of them is made of vegetables such as peas, potatoes. During this week which is the first week of the module 3 of Global Issues course, I’ve noticed that a huge population prefers the meal which includes meat in it instead of vegetables one and actually most of these people don’t eat them all and put their food back to the trash because of variety of reasons such as not liking it or having lunch before getting hungry. This situation is causing a huge consumption in the school base but if it is thought in the long run, the world’s wealth is consuming for nothing. Something has to be done for this problem!

#week 1 / Onur ÇAKICI

After calculating my carbon footprint, I’ve been thinking that how I can reduce it and I find two easy things that can be changed in my daily life routine, which will reduce my carbon footprint. Firstly I’ve decided to not buy water from outside instead I bring my water in a glass bottle everyday to school.

If we think that I drink around 1-liter water in school everyday, I’ve saved at least 2 Turkish liras and reduced my plastic waste. Secondly, during the whole week at the school cafeteria, I didn’t have lunch that includes meat in it to reduce carbon footprint. These two changes in my daily life can be seen as a really small change but if everyone comprehends the purpose of under these changes and do them in their life too, they’ll save their money and have a healthy diet while reducing their carbon footprint. Would you consider to join apply them to your own routine?

#week 1 / Onur ÇAKICI

Sweden’s supermarkets campaign to reduce meat consumption

Two of the largest supermarkets in Sweden have launched campaigns aimed at creating increased consumer awareness around the environmental impact of meat, encouraging consumers to lower their intake of meat and promoting plant-based alternatives.

The supermarket chain Coop has published a video called “Dear piece of meat – we need to talk” where they describe meat’s high climate and environmental impacts and promote reduced meat consumption. The message of the video is that they want to help create new attitudes towards vegetarian food and encourge people shift to a more plant-based every-day food.

The other supermarket chain ICA, has created a series of youtube films featuring interviews with Swedish people about their food preferences and attitudes to vegetables. Also brought a top chef to prepare vegetarian meals and portrayed the consumer’s reactions. They mention the main reasons to eat vegetarian food such as animal welfare, health, and private economy.

Source: Food Climate Research Network