Food comes full circle at FIU's new sustainable garden

Parents often demand “Finish the food on your plate” before letting their children get up from the table. That’s a common directive to get kids to eat, but there’s also an underlying concern about food waste, a real problem in the United States and around the world.

About one-third of food produced for human consumption, or about 1.3 billion tons, is wasted every year, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Now, FIU’s Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management, the College of Arts, Sciences and Education Earth and Environment Department and the FIU Facilities Department are coming together to find a solution through the FIU CASE Living Lab, a hands-on, sustainable garden and and so-call food circularity lab on the Biscayne Bay Campus.

“We need to reduce food waste and keep it out of landfills that generate greenhouse gases,” said John Buschman, a hospitality professor and co-director of the Chaplin School’s Global Sustainable Tourism Bachelor of Arts degree. 

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Buschman has been a leader for years in trying to combat food waste through food rescue at hotels and mega events like the Ultra Music Festival and at the Chaplin School’s very own South Beach Wine & Food Festival or SOBEWFF®. 

“We started the garden beds with compost made from food scraps collected by the SOBEWFF® Green Team,” he said. The Green Team, made up of more than 500 FIU students, is a yearly effort at the premiere wine and gourmet food festival to help make mega and large-scale events more sustainable. The Green Team works with a company called Renüable to turn food refuse into compost. “Our Green Team was able to divert from area landfills over 25,000 pounds of food scraps from SOBEWFF®, which in the future will [fertilize] fresh fruits and vegetables,” said Buschman.

The Living Lab will support food circularity initiatives at the BBC Campus.

The new garden collaboration is part of a “food circularity” initiative that turns food waste from Chaplin School events and activities at its Wine Spectator Restaurant Management Lab into compost that eventually helps grow other food to be used at future events and at the award-winning student-run restaurant.

During a ribbon cutting in early July, tomatoes, zucchini and green beans were planted.

Six raised compost stalls dedicated to growing fruits and vegetables.

The garden features six raised compost beds, the food circularity lab, a section for ornamental plants that will eventually be replanted for campus beautification and used for carbon capture and, eventually, a 'food forest,' where self-sustaining edible plants and trees will be available to faculty and staff.

“Thanks to our collaboration, we’re creating a circular system,” said Jesse Blanchard, director of the Living Lab and a CASE Earth and Environment professor. “We collect food waste and turn it into fertilizer for our gardens.” 

From Farm to Bar

Garnishes used at events hosted by student clubs or guilds within the Chaplin School’s Bacardi Center of Excellence also get composted or re-used to make the base for syrups called oleos that bartenders use in their mixology creations.

For the past year, the Bartender’s Guild has taken its food waste to MMC to compost and plant in an herb garden there. Now with the Living Lab at BBC, Buschman and the students save the journey between campuses and more students in the guilds can be involved in the garden. Already, the food circularity project has resulted in fresh sage, mint and basil being used as drink garnishes at hospitality events.

FIU Hospitality students will use herbs from the garden to garnish drinks and make syrup bases to serve at events.

A unique aspect of the sustainable garden is that faculty will include its operation into their courses. Students in Buschman’s social responsibility class and Blanchard’s earth and environment class will join those in a Chaplin School food production class to maintain the garden for future generations to come.

“We are not gardeners,” said Buschman. “We are just instigators who really wanted to make this happen for the benefit of our BBC students and community.”