You don't have to be an expert on the food industry to know that Americans waste a lot of food. As individuals we each waste around one pound of food each day, some studies have found. But the biggest food waste offender isn't people – it's grocery stores.
Food can go to waste at just about any point in the grocery store supply chain. Produce gets rejected. Prepared food gets tossed. Josh Krenz, CEO of Vivid Life Sciences, a local agriculture startup, estimates that American grocery stores waste around two tons of food per second.
"That's like a whole car's worth of food," Krenz told Minne Inno. "That shouldn't happen. It doesn't have to happen."
Vivid Life Sciences hopes to fight food waste with a new product called LifeForce, a fertilizer made from grocery store food waste. Krenz, a Minnesota farmer, explained that food is often discarded because it is bruised or rotting, but that doesn't mean it's useless.
"The nutrients are still there," he said. "So we thought to ourselves, 'What if we process that wasted food and reconvert it into new plants?'"
To create LifeForce, Vivid partnered with WISErg, a Washington State ag-tech startup. WISErg developed the tech behind the LifeForce liquid fertilizer, and claims that after it processes the food waste, the materials retain 90 percent of their nutrient value, which is more than traditional composting. These nutrients provide a full spectrum of minerals that promote higher quality crops, healthier soils and increased return on interest for growers.
By collaborating with Vivid, WISErg is able to bring its product to a new market: the Twin Cities. Currently, all the food waste used to create LifeForce fertilizer is collected in Washington, but Krenz said that once demand for the product is high enough, he hopes to start collecting food waste locally. He estimates that Vivid will be doing so within the next 18 months.
LifeForce is currently being sold on Amazon and through Vivid's site. Krenz said that the company is seeking retail partners in the Twin Cities.
In addition to LifeForce, Vivid offers a range of plant products to treat three main areas of plant physiology: seed treatment, enhanced nutrition and advanced biologicals. More simply put, Krenz said, Vivid makes organic, "really efficient plant food" without "any of the nasty stuff in it."
The agriculture industry is close to Krenz's heart. He lives and works in the small town of Princeton, Minnesota – where he's been a farmer for a number of years. Krenz also worked at Land O' Lakes for nearly a decade before joining Vivid Life Sciences as CEO in 2015.
"If every gardener used this product, or something like it, they would be playing a big part in preventing food waste," Krenz said. "We all have a responsibility to try and solve this huge social issue."
