Waste not: How a farm uses food waste to combat climate change

As climate change continues to disrupt food availability in Canada, one program has found a way to convert food waste into healthy soil. 

Jocelyn Molyneux has an army of around a million red wiggler worms at her Caledon, Ont.-based Wastenot farms, diverting the organic waste of Toronto-area companies from methane-producing landfills and instead transforming it into nutrient-rich manure.

“We’re starting to see how important soil is in our fight against the climate crisis,” Molyneux told CTV News Channel on Sunday. 

“Healthy soil grows healthier food, and it makes us more resilient to the changes in climate we’re seeing. Healthy soils are able to resist these changes and continue to grow healthier food.” 

Molyneux also discussed how healthy soil can compensate for extra carbon in the air. 

A 2017 study estimated that, with better management, croplands could store as much carbon as the global transportation sector emits annually. 

Some scientists also believe that healthy soils could continue to store carbon for 20 to 40 years before they become saturated. 

Two organizations concerned with sustainable agriculture, the Greenbelt Foundation and Équiterre, released a report in March that provided evidence that healthy soil could boost long-term farm profits, improve water quality and biodiversity, and contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation. 

Soil health is good for business and for the environment, they concluded. 

At Wastenot Farms, the wiggler worms produce 50 pounds of warm manure every week from bins of food waste that Molyneux collects from a growing roster of clients in the Toronto area, including such companies as CIBC and Farm Fresh. 

Molyneux hopes that regenerative agriculture becomes a national strategy to solve food waste in Canada, and that healthy soil today will ensure healthy food for generations to come. 

“I'm actually really excited because there's a bill in Parliament already, called Bill C 290. And it's essentially getting set up to meet soil health, a really important topic, a national strategy to address the soil that we have here in the country,” she said. 

According to the federal government, landfills account for about 20 per cent of Canada’s methane emissions – the equivalent of about 30 megatonnes of carbon dioxide in 2015. 

In Ontario, the amount of greenhouse gases produced by landfills in the province increased by 25 per cent between 1990 and 2012.

Composting by organizations like Wastenot Farms would prove to be cost-effective and environmentally sound for many Toronto companies.

“Better practices would reduce chemical inputs, and instead rely on Mother Nature,” said Molyneux.