• Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts – noting
that 2017 was one of the three warmest on record and was 1.1
C above the
pre-industrial period. Analysis by the World Meteorological Organization (2018)
shows that the 5-year average global temperature from 2013 to 2017 was also the
highest on record.
• Goal 15: Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems,
sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss – about one fifth of the Earth’s land surface
covered by vegetation showed persistent and declining trends in productivity
from 1999 to 2013, threatening the livelihoods of over one billion people. Up to
24 million square kilometres of land were affected, including 19% of cropland.
An estimated AU$20 billion is lost to the Australian economy through food waste
annually, and the total cost of agricultural food losses to farmers is estimated to be
AU$2.84 billion (Australian Government 2017b). Whilst major retails do impose
cosmetic controls on produce, these controls are based on consumer expectations
and perceptions of quality and product freshness being directly correlated to visual
appearance. The agricultural sector has an established history of managing its waste
streams effectively, ranging from innovative value-added products on-farm to combat food waste to organics and nutrient recycling and also bioenergy production.
Farmers in no way deliberately overproduce to create waste – waste is a cost in
any manufacturing or ‘growers’ system and represents an inefficient use of
resources. Farm production systems are carefully controlled operations that have
been primed to deliver products in line with retailer contracts and consumer expectations. However, there still are situations where on-farm food/produce waste is
unavoidable. Queensland farmers are leading the sector by driving supply chain
innovation to find a market for these ‘waste’ products and, by doing so, adding
significant value-added opportunities. These farmers are using produce normally
rejected by consumer standards to create products that reimagine and work within
the model of current consumer demand and will easily adapt to future digital (such as
online grocery sales) and consumer trends including new ways of purchasing food.
Notable examples of Queensland farmers embracing innovative opportunities in
reducing waste include vegetable producers using waste carrot product and
processing them into pre-cut bagged shredded carrot, circles and sticks. The solution
took the previous ‘ugly veg’ problem and turned it into a successful value-added
opportunity. In Far North Queensland, there has been the development of new
products that turned ‘banana seconds’ into a range of gluten-free green banana
flour products through a ‘Natural Evolution’ range. And in Bundaberg, one farm
has addressed the issue of having avocado seconds by developing the first range of
cold-pressed avocado products, a novel solution to an issue affecting blemished and
bruised avocados, turning unwanted products into a convenient, dependable and
‘ready-to-use’ product that fulfilled customer demand. Many farmers and agricultural processors also have a long history of reincorporating organic waste streams
such as straw and trash into the soils to beneficially incorporate soil carbon through
bioenergy production. However, there are new ‘biofuture’ opportunities arising for
8 Sustaining Queensland’s Agricultural Sector: Challenges and. . .
135
that 2017 was one of the three warmest on record and was 1.1
C above the
pre-industrial period. Analysis by the World Meteorological Organization (2018)
shows that the 5-year average global temperature from 2013 to 2017 was also the
highest on record.
• Goal 15: Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems,
sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss – about one fifth of the Earth’s land surface
covered by vegetation showed persistent and declining trends in productivity
from 1999 to 2013, threatening the livelihoods of over one billion people. Up to
24 million square kilometres of land were affected, including 19% of cropland.
An estimated AU$20 billion is lost to the Australian economy through food waste
annually, and the total cost of agricultural food losses to farmers is estimated to be
AU$2.84 billion (Australian Government 2017b). Whilst major retails do impose
cosmetic controls on produce, these controls are based on consumer expectations
and perceptions of quality and product freshness being directly correlated to visual
appearance. The agricultural sector has an established history of managing its waste
streams effectively, ranging from innovative value-added products on-farm to combat food waste to organics and nutrient recycling and also bioenergy production.
Farmers in no way deliberately overproduce to create waste – waste is a cost in
any manufacturing or ‘growers’ system and represents an inefficient use of
resources. Farm production systems are carefully controlled operations that have
been primed to deliver products in line with retailer contracts and consumer expectations. However, there still are situations where on-farm food/produce waste is
unavoidable. Queensland farmers are leading the sector by driving supply chain
innovation to find a market for these ‘waste’ products and, by doing so, adding
significant value-added opportunities. These farmers are using produce normally
rejected by consumer standards to create products that reimagine and work within
the model of current consumer demand and will easily adapt to future digital (such as
online grocery sales) and consumer trends including new ways of purchasing food.
Notable examples of Queensland farmers embracing innovative opportunities in
reducing waste include vegetable producers using waste carrot product and
processing them into pre-cut bagged shredded carrot, circles and sticks. The solution
took the previous ‘ugly veg’ problem and turned it into a successful value-added
opportunity. In Far North Queensland, there has been the development of new
products that turned ‘banana seconds’ into a range of gluten-free green banana
flour products through a ‘Natural Evolution’ range. And in Bundaberg, one farm
has addressed the issue of having avocado seconds by developing the first range of
cold-pressed avocado products, a novel solution to an issue affecting blemished and
bruised avocados, turning unwanted products into a convenient, dependable and
‘ready-to-use’ product that fulfilled customer demand. Many farmers and agricultural processors also have a long history of reincorporating organic waste streams
such as straw and trash into the soils to beneficially incorporate soil carbon through
bioenergy production. However, there are new ‘biofuture’ opportunities arising for
8 Sustaining Queensland’s Agricultural Sector: Challenges and. . .
135