![and food waste rate (FLWR) as an indicator to illustrate the situation, which repre-
sents the share of FLW to the total agriculture production.
G
As a highly industrialized country, there is little information for cereal losses during post-
harvest stages in the United States. It could be assumed to be low. For South Africa, the
FLWR at agricultural production, postharvest handling and storage, manufacturing, and
distribution stages are all higher than those in China. This indicates that as awareness
increases and the economy grows, China has adopted more advanced technologies and
efficient storage systems in agricultural production, and has largely used improved trans-
portation with large volumes (Liu et al., 2013). This also means it could be an efficient
way to reduce FLW by improving the technologies and infrastructure in developing coun-
tries such as South Africa.
G
With the development of the country and the increase of GDP, cereal waste at the con-
sumption stage also increases. The FLWR of cereals at this stage in the United States is
the highest (15.8%) among the three countries, which is around 2.5 and 14.4 times that in
China and South Africa, respectively. In China, with the rapid development of economy
and the improvement of living standards, the FLWR of cereals has increased to 6.4% in
recent years, which is higher than that of all the other stages. For the average developing
country, the FLWR of cereals at consumption stage is low in South Africa (1.1%). It
should be pointed out that different countries have different production and consumption
patterns of cereals, which may contribute to the differences among these countries.
1.4 Implications for future
The study suggests that FLW have attracted more attention, with more than 60% of
FLW data reported in recent years. Although they provide an overview of the scale
of FLW globally, for a few industrialized countries, and different food supply chain
stages such as household, there are still data gaps and deficiencies as to the magni-
tude of FLW in developing countries (e.g., China and India) that have undergone
rapid dietary transformation from starchy staples towards more diverse and fresh
food (Parfitt, 2013).
In this case, we list some directions for future study as follows (Fig. 1.14):
First, the systems and methodologies for FLW quantification should be harmo-
nized. It is important to consider these aspects: the definition of FLW [e.g., avoid-
able and unavoidable food waste (Östergren et al., 2013), food for human
consumption vs nonhuman consumption], food supply chain stages (e.g., different
segments at consumption), the classification and conversion factors of food com-
modities (e.g., procedure to convert cooked food items to different categories of
raw food products), the treatment of FLW (e.g., donation, incineration, feed produc-
tion, or landfill), the measurement units (e.g., physical weight, calories, or percen-
tages), and the measurement methods. This would help to compare the available
data among countries, food commodities, and stages in the food supply chain,
which will further enable exploration of driving factors and patterns of FLW gener-
ation. For example, the recent released global Food Loss and Food Waste Protocol
(World Resources Institute, 2016) in 2016 is an excellent first step, providing a
23
Introduction to global food losses and food waste](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/32592-250402133712-9edf0a06/85/Saving-Food-Production-Supply-Chain-Food-Waste-and-Food-Consumption-Galanakis-37-320.jpg)
![Lang et al., 2009; Perfecto et al., 2009; Stuart, 2009; Conway, 2012; Nestle, 2013;
Gomiero, 2015a, 2018a,b).
In this chapter, the relation between soil health, agricultural practices, and yield
loss is discussed. I review how unsustainable agricultural practices’ effect on soil
organic matter (SOM) and soil structure is revised in spite of soil fertility reduction.
The potential of agroecological agricultural practices to preserve soil health and
increase yields while reducing the use of agrochemicals, as well as their potential
limitations, are discussed. The concept of food security is then introduced, followed
by a discussion on how unsustainable agricultural practices can reduce yields.
Thereafter, soil conservation as an imperative to guarantee food security to the pres-
ent and future population is denoted. The next section analyzes how unsustainable
agricultural practices may impact on crop yield. Some agroecological practices that
may help protect soil health and increase yields while reducing the use of inputs are
also reviewed, prior to focusing on using crop genetic diversity as a means to
enhance crop protection and increase yield. The potential of some technological
approaches [namely precision farming and genetically modified (GM) crops] to pre-
serve soil, increase yield, and reduce the environmental impact of food production
is discussed, too. Finally, conclusions and other important issues impacting the sus-
tainability of food production (e.g., biofuels, power relations in the food system,
and the role of food choices) are presented.
2.2 Yield loss and food security
In the field, crop loss can happen at the time of harvest as edible crops are left in
field, ploughed into soil, eaten by birds or rodents, or because timing of harvest is
not optimal. Produce may also be damaged while harvesting due to poor harvesting
technique (Cassman et al., 2003; Deguine et al., 2009; Parfitt et al., 2010). Yield
loss can occur during crop growth due to the combined effect of weeds and pests
(insects, rodents, plant diseases caused by bacteria, fungi, or viruses), which reduce
yield in the field and may affect produce quality (pests may cause spoilage also dur-
ing the postharvest phase, i.e., during storage and transportation) (Cassman et al.,
2003; Deguine et al., 2009; FAO, 2011a). At the field level, harvest losses have
been estimated at around 26% 30% for sugar beet, barley, soya, wheat and cotton,
35% for maize, 39% for potatoes and 40% for rice, with high regional variability
(Deguine et al., 2009).
Further to that, yields can be heavily reduced by soil degradation (i.e., loss of
soil fertility) (Foley et al., 2005; Montgomery, 2007b; FAO, 2015; FAO and ITPS,
2015; Lal, 2015a; Gomiero, 2016). Panagos et al. (2018) noted that soil erosion, on
average, accounts for an 8% yield loss after 25 30 years cropping, notwithstanding
the increasing use of inputs to replace nutrient loss due to soil erosion.
Soil compaction is also an important form of soil degradation that greatly affects
yield and cost of production (Hamza and Anderson, 2005; USDA, 2008; FAO and
ITPS, 2015; Sivarajan et al., 2018). Machines and farm animals are the main cause
35
Soil and crop management to save food and enhance food security](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/32592-250402133712-9edf0a06/85/Saving-Food-Production-Supply-Chain-Food-Waste-and-Food-Consumption-Galanakis-48-320.jpg)
Saving Food : Production, Supply Chain, Food Waste, and Food Consumption Galanakis
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- 2. We believe these products will be a great fit for you. Click the link to download now, or visit ebookmass.com to discover even more! Sustainable Food Systems from Agriculture to Industry Improving Production and Processing Galanakis https://ebookmass.com/product/sustainable-food-systems-from- agriculture-to-industry-improving-production-and-processing-galanakis/ Food Waste Recovery: Processing Technologies, Industrial Techniques, and Applications 2nd Edition Charis M. Galanakis https://ebookmass.com/product/food-waste-recovery-processing- technologies-industrial-techniques-and-applications-2nd-edition- charis-m-galanakis/ Food Quality and Shelf Life Charis M. Galanakis https://ebookmass.com/product/food-quality-and-shelf-life-charis-m- galanakis/ Sustainable food waste-to-energy systems Babbitt https://ebookmass.com/product/sustainable-food-waste-to-energy- systems-babbitt/
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- 6. Saving Food
- 7. Saving Food Production, Supply Chain, Food Waste, and Food Consumption Edited by Charis M. Galanakis Galanakis Laboratories, Chania, Greece
- 8. Academic Press is an imprint of Elsevier 125 London Wall, London EC2Y 5AS, United Kingdom 525 B Street, Suite 1650, San Diego, CA 92101, United States 50 Hampshire Street, 5th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford OX5 1GB, United Kingdom Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Details on how to seek permission, further information about the Publisher’s permissions policies and our arrangements with organizations such as the Copyright Clearance Center and the Copyright Licensing Agency, can be found at our website: www.elsevier.com/permissions. This book and the individual contributions contained in it are protected under copyright by the Publisher (other than as may be noted herein). Notices Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly changing. As new research and experience broaden our understanding, changes in research methods, professional practices, or medical treatment may become necessary. Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described herein. In using such information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety and the safety of others, including parties for whom they have a professional responsibility. To the fullest extent of the law, neither the Publisher nor the authors, contributors, or editors, assume any liability for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions, or ideas contained in the material herein. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress ISBN: 978-0-12-815357-4 For Information on all Academic Press publications visit our website at https://www.elsevier.com/books-and-journals Publisher: Charlotte Cockle Acquisition Editor: Megan Ball Editorial Project Manager: Laura Okidi Production Project Manager: Nilesh Kumar Shah Cover Designer: Matthew Limbert Typeset by MPS Limited, Chennai, India
- 9. List of contributors Elisabete M.C. Alexandre QOPNA & LAQV-REQUIMTE, Department of Chemistry, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal; Center for Biotechnology and Fine Chemistry Associated Laboratory, School of Biotechnology, Catholic University of Portugal, Porto, Portugal Valérie L. Almli Sensory and Consumer Science Department, Nofima, Ås, Norway Graciela Alvarez Refrigeration Process Engineering Research Unit, IRSTEA, Antony, France Jessica Aschemann-Witzel MAPP Centre, Department of Management, Aarhus School of Business and Social Sciences, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark Carla Caldeira European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Ispra, Italy Sara Corrado European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Ispra, Italy Christine Costello Assistant Professor, Industrial & Manufacturing Systems Engineering, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, United States Ilona E. de Hooge Marketing and Consumer Behaviour group, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands Hans De Steur Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Biosciences Engineering, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium Manoj K. Dora College of Business, Arts & Social Sciences, Brunel Business School, Brunel University, London, United Kingdom Gabriel da Silva Filipini Federal University of Rio Grande, School of Chemistry and Food, Rio Grande, Brazil Xavier Gellynck Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Biosciences Engineering, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium Selale Glaue Efes Vocational School, Dokuz Eylul University, İzmir, Turkey
- 10. Nihan Gogus Efes Vocational School, Dokuz Eylul University, İzmir, Turkey Tiziano Gomiero Independent scholar, Treviso, Italy Gang Liu SDU Life Cycle Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, Biotechnology, and Environmental Technology, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark Lara Manzocco Department of Agricultural, Food, Environmental and Animal Sciences, University of Udine, Udine, Italy Paola Chaves Martins Federal University of Rio Grande, School of Chemistry and Food, Rio Grande, Brazil Vilásia Guimarães Martins Federal University of Rio Grande, School of Chemistry and Food, Rio Grande, Brazil Ultan McCarthy School of Science & Computing, Department of Science, Waterford Institute of Technology, Waterford, Ireland Samuel Mercier Department of Electrical Engineering, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, United States; Department of Chemical and Biotechnological Engineering, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC, Canada Martin Mondor Saint-Hyacinthe Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Saint-Hyacinthe, QC, Canada Sı́lvia A. Moreira QOPNA & LAQV-REQUIMTE, Department of Chemistry, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal; Center for Biotechnology and Fine Chemistry Associated Laboratory, School of Biotechnology, Catholic University of Portugal, Porto, Portugal Semih Otles Food Engineering Department, Ege University, İzmir, Turkey Aditya Parmar Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich, London, United Kingdom Darian Pearce Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Biosciences Engineering, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium Manuela Pintado Center for Biotechnology and Fine Chemistry Associated Laboratory, School of Biotechnology, Catholic University of Portugal, Porto, Portugal xii List of contributors
- 11. Carlos A. Pinto QOPNA & LAQV-REQUIMTE, Department of Chemistry, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal Stella Plazzotta Department of Agricultural, Food, Environmental and Animal Sciences, University of Udine, Udine, Italy Viviane Patrı́cia Romani Federal University of Rio Grande, School of Chemistry and Food, Rio Grande, Brazil Serenella Sala European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Ispra, Italy Jorge A. Saraiva QOPNA & LAQV-REQUIMTE, Department of Chemistry, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal Taija Sinkko European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Ispra, Italy Despoudi Stella Aston Business School, Aston University, Birmingham, United Kingdom Sebnem Tavman Food Engineering Department, Ege University, İzmir, Turkey Ismail Uysal Department of Electrical Engineering, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, United States Sebastien Villeneuve Saint-Hyacinthe Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Saint-Hyacinthe, QC, Canada Joshua Wesana Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Biosciences Engineering, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium; School of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Mountains of the Moon University, Fort Portal, Uganda Li Xue Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, P.R. China; SDU Life Cycle Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, Biotechnology, and Environmental Technology, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, P.R. China xiii List of contributors
- 12. Preface About one-third of the food produced in the world for human consumption gets lost or wasted every year. This quantity is shocking considering that it accounts approxi- mately for 1.3 billion tons of food. As it can be easily understood, the problem of food loss and waste is directly connected to hunger and global sustainability in the 21st century. However, the problem is even bigger than it seems, as food loss also accompanies a major squandering of resources such as water, land, energy, labor, and capital. In addition, it is connected to increased and unwanted greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming and climate change. The problem of food loss and food waste is so big that it cannot be solved with mere activities or simple suggestions. It can be eliminated only by facing challenges and providing continuous solutions, at all levels of food production and consumption for all the involved actors and stakeholders. Correcting the policy framework, optimizing agri- cultural practices, shaping food production, changing consumers’ and companies’ attitudes, motivating retailers, promoting packaging and process technologies, valo- rizing waste streams, and other actions should also be taken into account. Subsequently, a guide covering the latest developments in this particular direc- tion is required. This book fills these gaps by covering all the aspects of food-loss reduction at all relevant stages and in all possible ways. It provides details about introducing sustainable food production, adapting more sustainable methods for efficient crop cultivation and harvesting, optimizing utilization of resources, elimi- nating losses in the supply chain, adapting sustainable packaging solutions, appeal- ing enterprises to change consumer behavior, developing food waste valorization strategies, and raising people’s awareness of wasted food. The ultimate goal is to support the scientific community, policy makers, professionals, and enterprises, that aspire to set up actions and strategies, to reduce wastage of food. Thereby, the book targets all involved actors and aims to drive innovations, promote interdisciplinary dialogues, and spark debates to generate solutions across the entire value chain from field to fork. It consists of 13 chapters. Chapter 1 provides an introduction to global food loss and food waste using data for 84 countries and 52 individual years. Chapter 2 reviews soil and crop management practices that may reduce yield loss, or increase yields, while reducing the use of inputs and the environmental impact of agricultural activities. A number of food loss reduction measures (technical and behavioral) are available along the entire value chain, but the motivation to imple- ment them is the one that needs due consideration and action. Further optimization of agricultural practices to save food is described in Chapter 3.
- 13. During food production, transport, storage, and final consumption, the food prop- erties may get affected in several ways. To ensure safety and stability of foods and avoid their discharge, effective and economic food preservation methods should be selected. Chapter 4 deals with the conventional and emerging preservation techniques, such as pasteurization, sterilization, cooling, freezing, ohmic heating, microwave, and radio frequency, which are thermal preservation technologies. On the other hand, Chapter 5 deals with the application of nonthermal and eco-friendly emergent processing methodologies such as high pressure processing, pulsed elec- tric fields, and ultrasounds. These modern technologies assure products’ safety as well as maintain their original quality, thus contributing to food loss reduction dur- ing production. An efficient way to preserve food is using industrial processes, but it is also possible to use active packaging to extend the shelf life of food products. To this end, Chapter 6 discusses existing and innovative packaging solutions to minimize food waste. Chapter 7 reviews the main stages and technologies used for the preser- vation of perishable food products along the supply chain, and the amount of food lost or wasted along these stages for the main families of products. It also highlights the need for better refrigeration of food along the last stages of the cold chain (retail and consumer handling) and for better management along the commercial portion of the cold chain in developed countries. Chapter 8 aims to provide an overview on losses in the food industry. At first, food losses in the upstream and downstream supply chain are discussed prior to denoting the different ways to reduce food losses by optimizing supply chains. Solutions at the supply chain entity level as well as supply chain network level are provided. Chapter 9 presents mitigating approaches that could be initiated along food supply chains. This is conducted by discussing a case study of measuring food losses in the supply chain through value stream mapping in the dairy sector in Uganda. Food waste valorization includes different food waste management strategies, whose goal is to turn food waste into value-added derivatives to be used in food or other industrial sectors. These strategies present the advantage of exploiting an always-available and cheap source, such as food waste, for producing derivatives presenting a high potential market value. Chapter 10, discusses the basic definitions and principles at the basis of food waste valorization and presents relevant strate- gies, with particular emphasis on those in which the great potential of food waste is maximally exploited. In Chapter 11, the environmental impacts of food production and consumption of an average European citizen are assessed taking the food waste generated along the food supply chain into account. In addition, the impact of food waste reduction and adoption of different diets are estimated. Chapter 12 discusses food waste at the consumer retailer interface, the so-called “suboptimal food” (reduction of food losses and wastes is one of the agricultural research areas, that has received only limited resources and attention from the public and private sectors in comparison to increased yields per hectare). Finally, Chapter 13 provides an introduction to the concepts of Zero Waste and life-cycle assessment; an overview of the challenges presented by the United States agricultural system as it is today; and a discussion xvi Preface
- 14. on the food waste management options included in the Environmental Protection Agency’s Food Recovery Hierarchy. Conclusively, the book is a guide for food retailers, supply chain specialists, food scientists, food technologists, food engineers, professionals, agriculturalists, and food producers trying to minimize the food loss and adapt zero waste strategies. It provides critical information in this direction, so that the general public can be aware, the government can set relevant guidelines, and finally the food industry can optimize production lines. It provides an overview and description of the problem from different angles (e.g., environmental impacts, some social and many techno- logical issues) and covering different actors (consumers, producers, processors, industry, policy makers, etc.). This way it can help identify current research gaps and spur more in-depth investigations of certain topics described in the different chapters. It could be of particular interest to food industry stakeholders as it highlights strategies and technologies that could help mitigate food waste. Knowledge of best practices and advanced procedures for the balanced production of agricultural resources and foods, and their redistribution, transportation, and consumption would make it possible to achieve sustainable food systems. At this point, I would like to express my gratitude to all the authors of the book for their acceptance of my invitation and their participation in this collaborative book that brings together, for the first time, different scientific, technological, and managerial issues of saving food in one comprehensive text. They accepted and followed the editorial guidelines, the book’s concept, and the timeline with ultimate attention. All these actions conclude in a great honor for me and are highly appre- ciated. I consider myself fortunate to have had the opportunity to bring together so many experts from Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Italy, Ireland, Norway, Portugal, The Netherlands, Turkey, Uganda, the United Kingdom, and United States. I would like to thank the acquisition editor Megan Ball, the book manager Katerina Zaliva, and all Elsevier’s production staff for their help during the editing and publishing process. I would also like to thank the Food Waste Recovery Group (www.foodwastere- covery.group) of ISEKI Food Association and its pool of experts that provided us with valuable information about different ways of saving food. Last but not the least, a message for all the readers: Such collaborative projects of hundreds of thousands of words may contain a few errors and gaps. Any instruc- tive comments or even criticisms are and always will be welcome. Thus, never hesi- tate to contact me to discuss any issues with the book. Charis M. Galanakis1,2 1 Food Waste Recovery Group, ISEKI Food Association, Vienna, Austria, 2 Research & Innovation Department, Galanakis Laboratories, Chania, Greece xvii Preface
- 15. 1 Introduction to global food losses and food waste Li Xue1,2,3 and Gang Liu2 1 Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, P.R. China, 2 SDU Life Cycle Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, Biotechnology, and Environmental Technology, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark, 3 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, P.R. China Chapter Outline 1.1 Introduction 1 1.2 System definition 4 1.2.1 Food losses and food waste 4 1.2.2 Food supply chain 4 1.2.3 Food commodity groups 5 1.2.4 Geographical and temporal boundary 5 1.3 Food losses and food waste quantification 6 1.3.1 Bibliometric analysis of literature 6 1.3.2 Different methods used for food losses and food waste quantification 9 1.3.3 Food losses and food waste in general 16 1.4 Implications for future 23 1.5 Conclusions 26 References 26 1.1 Introduction Food losses and food waste (FLW) occur along the whole food supply chain. In recent years, FLW has become a global concern and poses considerable challenges to food security (The Economist Intelligence Unit, 2014), natural resources (FAO, 2013), environment (Katajajuuri et al., 2012), and human health (Pham et al., 2014), and is therefore considered as a key obstacle to sustainable development. Therefore, reducing FLW has been put on the political agenda at the global and national levels. For instance, the United Nations has set a target of halving per capi- ta global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reducing food losses along production and supply chains by 2030, in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Target 12.3 (United Nations, 2017). The European Union (European Commission Food Safety Home Page, 2017) has taken actions to work towards this Saving Food. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-815357-4.00001-8 © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
- 16. target; in 2015, the United States (United States Department of Agriculture, 2017) also announced its first-ever national goal to reduce food waste by 50% by 2030 to improve food security and protect natural resources; and the African Union also made a commitment to halve postharvest losses by 2025 in the 2014 Malabo Declaration (Lipinski et al., 2016). Over the past few decades, with growing concerns and attention on FLW from public and political sectors, more and more studies have quantified FLW across the food supply chain at national, regional, and global scales. For example, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, about one- third of food production was lost or wasted worldwide that was meant for human consumption (Gustavsson et al., 2011). This significant amount of FLW would mean 4.4 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent (FAO, 2015), 250 km3 of blue water foot- print (FAO, 2013), 28% of the total agriculture land globally during agriculture pro- duction, an economic cost of about USD 750 billion (equivalent to the gross domestic product (GDP) of Turkey) (FAO, 2013), and approximately 24% of all food produced when converted into calories (Gustavsson et al., 2011). Many other studies have also revealed a similar scale of FLW on the regional or country level and its significant impacts on environment, economic development, and food security. For example, it is reported that the EU-28 generate about 100 million tonnes of FLW each year, and the largest contribution is from households (45%) (FUSIONS, 2015). For the member states, households in the United Kingdom wasted approximately 7.2 million tonnes of food in 2012 (WRAP, 2014). The wasted food from households in Finland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden make up 30%, 23%, 20%, and 10% 20% of food purchased, respectively (Gjerris and Gaiani, 2013). In Switzerland, about one-third of food produced (calorie equivalent) is wasted and households contribute the most (Beretta et al., 2013). Some other developed countries also highlight a similar trend. For example, in the United States, the per capita FLW increased by about 50% between 1979 and 2003 (Hall et al., 2009). In Australia, more than 4.2 million tonnes of FLW goes to landfill per year (Verghese et al., 2013). In the past decades, some governmental organizations and national agencies have made great effort to quantify FLW. For example, the FAO has issued a num- ber of relevant reports on FLW at a global scale (Gustavsson et al., 2011; FAO, 2014). The United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service (USDA-ERS) developed the Loss-Adjusted Food Availability Data Series in 1997, which covers about 200 items for three stages (production to retail, retail, and con- sumer) of losses in terms of quantities, values, and calories (Buzby et al., 2009; Buzby and Guthrie, 2002). In the United Kingdom, the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) organization has been set up to reduce food waste, and has released a number of reports on FLW in the food supply chain since 2007 (WRAP, 2008, 2009). In recent years, relevant stakeholders from academia, industry, and governmental and nongovernmental organizations have participated in research projects and worked on the standardization of quantification and methods of FLW. For example, the project Food Use for Social Innovation by Optimizing Waste Prevention 2 Saving Food
- 17. Strategies (FUSIONS) (2012 16) funded by European Commission has been work- ing towards a more resource efficient Europe, and has issued a number of reports, covering the framework of FLW definition, measurement, and mitigation strategies (Östergen et al., 2014; FUSIONS, 2016). In 2015, the European Commission funded a further project called Resource Efficient Food and dRink for the Entire Supply cHain (REFRESH) (2015 19), which involves 26 partners from 12 European countries and China and focuses on the reduction of avoidable waste and improved valorization of food resources (Refresh Home Page, 2017). In 2016, World Resources Institute, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), World Business Council for Sustainable Development, FAO, and WRAP together as a partnership of major international organizations announced the first global stan- dard to quantify FLW (World Resources Institute, 2016). Though there are continuous efforts on quantifying FLW and some researchers have also stressed the data deficiency and inconsistency and raised concerns on the demand of better measurement of FLW (Parfitt, 2013; Liu, 2014; Shafiee-Jood and Cai, 2016), there are still major gaps in the existing global FLW data as follows: G The spatial coverage of existing studies is narrow. Most research is carried out in devel- oped countries. For instance, there are plenty of publications drawing out the situation of FLW in the United States (Thyberg et al., 2015; Buzby and Hyman, 2012; Kantor et al., 1997) and Sweden (Bräutigam et al., 2014; Filho and Kovaleva, 2015). In contrast, only a few studies quantified FLW in developing countries, such as Nepal (Choudhury, 2006) and the Philippines (Parfitt et al., 2010) and some countries experiencing a rapid develop- ment, such as China and India (Parfitt and Barthel, 2011). G There is an uneven focus on the different food supply stages. A great many studies have illustrated food waste at retailing and consumption stages (Davies and Konisky, 2000; Stenmarck et al., 2011; Parry et al., 2015), mainly conducted in developed countries, such as the United States. On the other hand, there are few studies revealing the situation of postharvest losses, which are mainly carried out in developing countries, such as India (Gangwar et al., 2014). G Some existing data are outdated but still in use. Some studies have to depend on the older data due to the lack of updated ones. For example, data on the postharvest losses of fresh fruits and vegetables from one study in the 1980s and 1990s were used in two recent stud- ies (Parfitt et al., 2010; Kader, 2005). G There is a lack of primary data and a great many studies have to cite data in the existing studies. For example, many researchers have repeatedly cited data from the FAO report issued in 2011 (Oelofse and Nahman, 2013; Lipinski et al., 2013; Nahman and de Lange, 2013). But it may not be representative in terms of time and countries for commodities (Liu, 2014). The data provided by the African Postharvest Loss Information System has been mostly used to address postharvest losses (Prusky, 2011; World Bank, 2011; Segrè et al., 2014). G The definition of FLW, methods used, and system boundaries are different in existing stud- ies. This makes it difficult to systematically compare and verify FLW data between coun- tries, commodities, and stages. Therefore, it is uncertain to do analysis on the relationship between FLW and social, economic, and environmental factors based on the existing data. It is particular of importance to clearly and comprehensively understand the existing global FLW data on their quality and availability. First, it is a prerequisite 3 Introduction to global food losses and food waste
- 18. for tracking the progress toward the SDG Target 12.3 and the national FLW reduc- tion goals, and evaluating the effect of relevant policies. Second, it will contribute to raising awareness, informing mitigation strategies, and giving priority to prevent and reduce FLW. Third, better data can been verified and compared among coun- tries, stages, and commodities, helping to distinguish patterns and drivers of FLW generated. Fourth, it can be an essential foundation for further analyzing the social, economic, and environmental impacts of FLW. In this chapter, a critical overview of all the available FLW data in 202 publica- tions is provided, which could provide a basic database for further analysis of envi- ronmental impacts and mitigation strategies of FLW. Bibliometric characteristics of existing literature and methods of measurement (advantages and disadvantages) are assessed, their patterns between countries, food supply chain stages, and food com- modities are discussed, and some implications for future work are denoted. 1.2 System definition 1.2.1 Food losses and food waste FLW occurs across the food supply chain. Some studies have made a difference between the definition of FLW, edible and inedible food waste, avoidable and unavoidable food waste. For example, according to the FAO (FAO, 2014), food loss refers to food that is lost due to quantity or quality reasons, and food waste refers to food that is left to spoil or expire due to carelessness of consumers, which is usually related to discarding deliberately or other use of food (e.g., animal feed). Because of the deficiency of consistencies in the literature reviewed, the distinc- tions were not considered and we do not differentiate between food loss and food waste in this study, so we define FLW as the combined amount of FLW. 1.2.2 Food supply chain As shown in Fig. 1.1, FLW involves six major processes. FLW could be further classified into three types: farm losses/waste (during agricultural production and harvesting), postharvest losses/waste (during postharvest handling and storage, manufacturing, distribution, and retailing), and consumer waste (both in household and out-of-home). Agricultural products losses/waste on the farm are mainly caused by insects, diseases, and severe weather. For livestock products, it relates to sick- ness and death during breeding stage for cattle, pig, and poultry meat, and discarded fish during fishing. Postharvest losses/waste refers to food spoilage and degradation during different stages. It includes postharvest handling and storage (when food is under threshing/shelling or icing and animals transported to slaughtering), manufacturing (when food is processed into various products), distribution (when food is transported, loaded, and uploaded), as well as retailing (includes wholesale, supermarket, and wet market). Consumer food waste occurs both in household and dining out away from home. 4 Saving Food
- 19. 1.2.3 Food commodity groups The commodities categories were defined based on the classification of FAO and by taking consideration of characteristics of data in the publications. As a result, 10 groups of food commodities were presented: 1. Cereal and cereal products (e.g., wheat, maize, and rice); 2. Roots and tubers (e.g., potatoes and cassava); 3. Oilseeds and pulses (e.g., peanuts and soybeans); 4. Fruits; 5. Vegetables; 6. Meat; 7. Fish and seafood; 8. Dairy products; 9. Eggs; 10. Others or not specified. 1.2.4 Geographical and temporal boundary The FLW data was collected from as early as possible to 2015 at the global, regional, and national levels. Based on per capita GDP and the classification princi- ples of FAO (Gustavsson et al., 2011), the countries are divided into medium/high- income countries and low-income countries (Table 1.1). Figure 1.1 Food supply chain for food losses and food waste. 5 Introduction to global food losses and food waste
- 20. 1.3 Food losses and food waste quantification 1.3.1 Bibliometric analysis of literature 1.3.1.1 Type of publications Web of Science and Google Scholar were the main source for the research, and reports issued by research institutions as well as governmental or nongovernmental organizations were also collected to ensure a wider coverage of available data. Finally, 202 publications were reviewed. They include five types: peer-reviewed journal articles (53.5%), reports (35.6%), PhD and master’s theses (5.9%), confer- ence proceedings (3.0%), and book chapters (2.0%). Journal articles were dominant (108) in the reviewed publications, which were published in 69 different journals and covered a wide range of subjects. In total, approximately 45% of them were published in the top 10 journals (Fig. 1.2). The majority of the publications outlets were Waste Management, Waste Management & Research, Resources, Conservation and Recycling, Food Policy, and Journal of Cleaner Production, representing 15.7%, 7.4%, 5.6%, 4.6%, and 2.8% of the total published articles, respectively. Table 1.1 Grouping of different development levels of countries Medium/high-income countries Low-income countries Armenia Lithuania Angola Malaysia Australia Luxembourg Argentina Mexico Austria Malta Bangladesh Myanmar Belarus Netherlands Benin Nepal Belgium New Zealand Bolivia Nigeria Bulgaria Norway Brazil Pakistan Canada Poland Cambodia Peru China Portugal Cameroon Philippines Cyprus Romania Chile Saudi Arabia Czech Republic Russia Colombia South Africa Denmark Singapore Costa Rica Sri Lanka Estonia Slovakia Egypt Swaziland Finland Slovenia Ethiopia Tanzania France South Korea Ghana Thailand Germany Spain India Togo Greece Sweden Indonesia Turkey Hungary Switzerland Iran Uganda Ireland United Kingdom Jamaica Venezuela Italy Ukraine Kenya Vietnam Japan United States Laos Zambia Latvia Madagascar Zimbabwe Malawi 6 Saving Food
- 21. 1.3.1.2 Temporal trend for year of publications and estimation Fig. 1.3A shows the number of publications during the 76-year period (1939 2015). In general, the number of publications increased throughout the whole period. It was small and remained stable before 2000. Afterwards, it has seen a gradual increase during 2001 10. In the last five years, the number of studies has grown substantially (137), accounting for 67.8% of the total publications. This means there is an increasing focus on FLW research around the world. Fig. 1.3B illustrates the time trend of the year of estimation. According to literature, the FLW data was discovered as early as 1933, and the number remained stable and low until 1995. Afterwards, the number has increased significantly by more than 60% over the past 10 years, 38.1% from 2006 to 2010 and 25.1% from 2011 to 2014. 1.3.1.3 Distribution of countries The 202 publications reported FLW data throughout the food supply chain covering 84 countries (reported 498 times) distributed all over the world. However, the focus on FLW was unbalanced in different regions. Most studies were conducted in the developed areas, such as North America, Northern and Western Europe, whereas little attention was paid to the developing countries, such as India. Fig. 1.4 shows spatial distribution and the top 10 countries have been studied. Most research was conducted in the United Kingdom (Langley et al., 2010; Mena et al., 2014; Vanham et al., 2015; Xu et al., 2015) and United States (Thyberg et al., 2015; Buzby and Hyman, 2012; Kantor et al., 1997), both of which made up more than 10% of the reported times, respectively. Then Sweden (Bräutigam et al., 2014; Filho and Kovaleva, 2015), Germany (Kranert et al., 2012; Jörissen et al., 2015), and Finland (Silvennoinen et al., 2012; Silvennoinen et al., 2015) accounted for 5.4%, 4.4%, and 3.2%, respectively. Figure 1.2 The top 10 journals that publishes food loss and food waste data. 7 Introduction to global food losses and food waste
- 22. 1.3.1.4 Food supply chain coverage According to the publications found, they covered different stages in the food sup- ply chain in terms of medium/high-income countries and low-income countries. Fig. 1.5 shows that most studies covered the retailing and consumption stages. In total, the largest number of studies were carried out in household, accounting for Figure 1.4 Geographical distribution of case countries. The numbers are the reported times of individual countries. Source: Adopted from Xue, L., Liu, G., Parfitt, J., Liu, X., Van Herpen, E., Stenmarck, Å., et al., 2017. Missing food, missing data? A critical review of global food losses and food waste data. Environ. Sci. Technol. 51 (12), 6618 6633. Figure 1.3 (A) Temporal trend of reviewed food losses and food waste (FLW) data in terms of year of publication. (B) Temporal trend of reviewed FLW data in terms of year of estimation. 8 Saving Food
- 23. 49% of all the publications, which was followed by the retailing stages (35%). However, only a small portion of studies included the stages between agricultural production and distribution. In detail, agricultural production, postharvest handling and storage, manufacturing, and distribution stages accounted for 26.7%, 18.8%, 28.7%, and 21.8%, respectively. In the case of region studied, the number of publications in medium/high-income countries was much higher than that in low-income countries along the food supply chain, apart from the postharvest handling and storage stage with the same number of publications for both. The majority of studies involving retailing and consump- tion stages were conducted in medium/high-income countries, occupying 31.2% and 42.6% of all the literature, respectively. On the other hand, low-income coun- tries were targeted mainly in the early and middle stages of the food supply chain, especially for the agricultural production and postharvest handling and storage stages. 1.3.2 Different methods used for food losses and food waste quantification 1.3.2.1 Overview of methods There were various methods used to measure the quantity of FLW along the food supply chain. Table 1.2 summarizes the methods used to quantify FLW. Two kinds of methodologies have been used to quantify FLW, which can be divided into two Figure 1.5 The number of publications in terms of different food supply stages and different development levels of countries. 9 Introduction to global food losses and food waste
- 24. Table 1.2 Description of different methods used for food losses and food waste quantification Method Symbol Example of case countries/regions Food supply chain References Direct measurement Weighing W Portugal P6b Dias-Ferreira et al. (2015) Garbage collection G Austria P6a Dahlén and Lagerkvist (2008) Surveys S United Kingdom P1, P2, P3, P5 Mena et al. (2014) Diaries D United Kingdom P6a Langley et al. (2010) Records R Sweden P5 Scholz et al. (2015) Observation O Italy P6b Saccares et al. (2014) Indirect measurement Modeling M United States P6 Hall et al. (2009) Food balance F Global P1, P2, P3, P4, P5, P6 Gustavsson et al. (2011) Use of proxy data P Singapore P6a Grandhi and Appaiah Singh (2016) Use of literature data L Denmark P1, P3, P4, P6 Halloran et al. (2014) Note: P6a 5 Household, P6b 5 Out-of-home.
- 25. groups: (1) direct measurement or approximation based on first-hand data, and (2) indirect measurement or calculation derived from secondary data. These methods could provide an insight of origins and specific stages in the whole food supply chain of FLW, or an overview of FLW at the regional or global level from a macro- perspective. Detailed information on the methods used is outlined as follows: Direct measurement involves a variety of methods to quantify or estimate the amount of FLW: G Weighing: It is usually used in restaurants, hospitals, and school via instrument or device to measure the weight of FLW. It may or may not involve weighing each part of FLW for the compositional analysis. G Garbage collection: This involves separation from other types of residual wastes collected to determine the weight or proportion of FLW. It may or may not involve compositional analysis of FLW. It can be collected from households (Gutiérrez-Barba and Ortega-Rubio, 2013). G Surveys: Questionnaires are used to collect information about perceptions and behaviors on FLW answered by a great many individuals, or by face-to-face interviews with major stakeholders in the field. This usually takes place in households, where people can directly estimate the quantity of food waste or the percentage of food purchased that goes to waste in their families (Stefan et al., 2013). G Diaries: It is often used in households and commercial kitchens by recording the quantity of FLW for a certain time, where weighing scales are sometimes used to quantify the amount of the food waste (Rathje and Murphy, 2001). G Records: It is usually used in the retailing and manufacturing stages, especially for super- markets and large-scale food companies, where regular collection of information (not ini- tially used for FLW record) can determine the quantity of FLW. G Observation: Visually estimating the amount of food left over by using scales with multi- ple points or assessing the volume of FLW by counting the number of goods. The other group includes methods based on the existing data from different sec- ondary sources: G Modeling: It uses mathematical models to obtain the amount of FLW on the basis of the factors that affect FLW generation. G Food balance: Using food balance sheet (e.g., FAOSTAT) based on inputs, outputs, and stocks in the food supply chain to calculate FLW, or human metabolism (e.g., the relation- ship between body weight and the amount of food eaten). G Use of proxy data: Using data from companies or statistical institutions (in an aggregated level) to estimate the amount of FLW. G Use of literature data: Using data from literature directly or estimating quantities of FLW according to the data in other literature. Fig. 1.6 shows the methods used in the 202 publications. It can be seen that most of the publications depended on the indirect measurement (red-yellow (dark gray in print version) colors in Fig. 1.6). More than 40% of them were only based on literature data, and about one-third used other types of methods with literature data, for instance, modeling (Khan and Burney, 1989; Liu et al., 2013) or proxy data (Gooch, 2012; An et al., 2014) (indirect measurement) or weighing or sur- veys (Papargyropoulou et al., 2014; Edjabou et al., 2015) (direct measurement). 11 Introduction to global food losses and food waste
- 26. Only a small fraction of the publications depended on the direct measurement. In addition, for the 138 publications using literature data, they often depended on each other and some publications have been highly cited. More than one- fourth of them referred to the data from the top 10 publications cited, and the number of citations has greatly increased since 2008 (Fig. 1.7). The high percent- age of using the secondary data may indicate that the available global FLW data- base has high uncertainties, especially when there is lack of original data for a certain country or a certain year but literature data that are not representative are used. 1.3.2.2 Advantages and disadvantages of methods Table 1.3 lists the advantages and disadvantages of different methods based on some criteria (e.g., time, cost, and accuracy). G Weighing and garbage collection can provide relatively detailed, objective, and accurate information of food discarded. These two methods may lead to full quantification of FLW and can produce more detailed data at the food types level. However, they can be Figure 1.6 An overview of the methods used in the reviewed 202 publications. Each circle indicates one publication, and the colors represent different methods used. Direct measurement includes: weighing (W), garbage collection (G), surveys (S), diaries (D), records (R), and observation (O). Surveys also contain questionnaires, interviews and experts’ estimation. Indirect measurement involves: use of literature data (L), use of proxy data (P), food balance (F), and modeling (M). Source: Adopted from Xue, L., Liu, G., Parfitt, J., Liu, X., Van Herpen, E., Stenmarck, Å., et al., 2017. Missing food, missing data? A critical review of global food losses and food waste data. Environ. Sci. Technol. 51 (12), 6618 6633. 12 Saving Food
- 27. performed only when space available for classifying food and with device to weigh, and they are also more time-consuming and expensive than other methods. For example, a study on food waste in restaurants was conducted in four Chinese case cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, and Lhasa) in 2015, which directly weighed food waste from 3557 tables in 195 restaurants of different categories, including lunch and dinner by individual items. It is estimated that food waste per capita in restaurants (approximately 11 kg/cap) is close to the average level of Western countries. This is a first approximation of the scales and patterns of restaurants food waste in Chinese cities, which can help inform the strategies on food waste reduction (Wang et al., 2017). In addition, the accuracy of waste composition analysis relies on the methods used, and it has identified various sources of error (Lebersorger and Schneider, 2011). G Surveys, diaries, records, and observation are other ways of direct measuring and approximating FLW data, which consumes less time and costs more than weighing. However, due to some factors such as personal views, the way of raw data collection, Figure 1.7 The citation network of the 138 publications that used literature data. Each dot indicates one publication. The size of the dot represents the number of citations, and the arrow represents the direction of citation. The dots in white on the right represent publications outside the citation network. The top 10 cited publications are: (1) Kantor et al. (1997); (2a) WRAP (2009); (2b) Gustavsson et al. (2011); (3a) WRAP (2008); (3b) Monier et al. (2010); (3c) Buzby and Hyman (2012); (4a) Kader (2005); (4b) Kranert et al. (2012); (5a) Buzby et al. (2009); (5b) Langley et al. (2010). Source: Adopted from Xue, L., Liu, G., Parfitt, J., Liu, X., Van Herpen, E., Stenmarck, Å., et al., 2017. Missing food, missing data? A critical review of global food losses and food waste data. Environ. Sci. Technol. 51 (12), 6618 6633. 13 Introduction to global food losses and food waste
- 28. Table 1.3 Advantages and disadvantages of different methods used for food losses and food waste quantification Method Symbol Time Cost Accuracy Objectivity Reliability Direct measurement Weighing W KKK KKK KKK KKK KKK Garbage collection G KKK KKK KKK KKK KKK Surveys S KK KK KK KK KK Diaries D KKK KK KK KK KK Records R K K KK KK KK Observation O K K K K K Indirect measurement Modeling M KK K K KK K Food balance F K K KK KKK KK Use of proxy data P K K KK KKK KK Use of literature data L K K KK KKK K
- 29. and subjectivity of observers, the accuracy of the data collected may be lower. Surveys that include questionnaires can be completed by email or by phone, or by face-to-face interviews and expert estimation. But biases may occur in FLW estimation because this method depends on the memory of people and they may provide answers that the soci- ety expects. For example, Naziri et al. (2014) conducted questionnaire surveys, focus group discussion, and key expert interviews on postharvest losses of cassava during July and October 2012 in four individual developing countries (Ghana, Nigeria, Thailand, and Vietnam) to investigate the amount of losses and explore mitigation strat- egies. Diaries can be a heavy task for participants, and cause gradual decline of partici- pants’ enthusiasm (Langley et al., 2010), as well as difficulties in recruitment and high dropout rates (Sharp et al., 2010). In addition, keeping diaries may have influences on changes in awareness and behavior, which will lead to uncertain accuracy of the diaries (Sharp et al., 2010). For example, to analyze the composition of food waste in the United Kingdom households, Langley et al. (2010) asked 13 households to keep a diary for 7 days, recording the information on the type, origin, and weight of food waste. Records often cost less and take little time to get FLW data. Observation is a relatively quick way to estimate FLW, but the accuracy and reliability are questioned. G Because of low cost and high feasibility, secondary data is widely used to measure the amount of FLW. But there is higher uncertainty among these methods. For modeling, the choice of model parameters and the relationship between these factors and the quantity of FLW would largely affect the results. For food balance method, the accuracy is deter- mined by the quality and comprehensiveness of the food balance sheet data. The most cost-effective and feasible way to obtain data is by using proxy data and literature data, however, their accuracy primarily relies on the quality and representativeness of the source data used. If the data are uncertain and inaccurate, the results would also not be reliable. In reality, no direct or indirect methods can be satisfactory. Despite the advan- tages, direct measurement usually involves a limited number of participants in a certain community or city and a certain stage of the food supply chain, which could lead to an unavoidable problem of deficiency of representativeness, especially for the large countries like the United States and China. On the other hand, indirect measurement can provide an overview of the entire country and various stages. A combination of direct and indirect measurement could be a better choice to illus- trate the FLW problem. For policy making and mitigation strategies, based on the statistical data at the national or regional level it could determine the severity of the problem. For the design of effective intervention steps, using first-hand data and exploring the driving and influencing factors could be a good approach. The choice of method has a significant impact on the FLW quantification, which could result in data disparity in the literature examined. For example, it was reported that the food manufacturing industry in Italy produced about 5.7 million tonnes of FLW in 2006 (Monier et al., 2010), while another study based on model- ing estimated about 1.9 million tonnes of FLW for this sector (Bräutigam et al., 2014). Such big difference exists between them because they used different data sources and assumptions. The former one included FLW and recycled or reused byproducts, whereas the latter one adopted the loss rate in the manufacturing sector and the method reported by FAO (Gustavsson et al., 2013). 15 Introduction to global food losses and food waste
- 30. 1.3.3 Food losses and food waste in general 1.3.3.1 Farm losses and waste At the agriculture production stage, the FLW in low-income countries is generally higher than that in medium/high-income countries, because there is more advanced technology and infrastructure for harvesting in rich countries. For example, it is reported that FLW at this stage accounts for the largest portion (26%) of the total FLW in South Africa (Spescha and Reutimann, 2013) whereas it makes up 13% of the overall FLW across the food supply chain in Canada (Nahman and de Lange, 2013). According to the existing data, there is little information on FLW of food com- modities in the agricultural production and harvesting stage. For different food cate- gories, on a per capita level, cereal loss is the largest with a median of roughly 16 kg/cap. For example, it is reported that about 5% 9% of cereal was lost at this stage in China, and a similar trend can be seen in Ghana (World Bank, 2011). Fruits and vegetables are the second largest wasted category at this stage with a value of 13 kg/cap. However, there is a significant difference of fruit and vegetable losses/waste between less developed and industrialized countries. For example, fruit and vegetable FLW made up about 20% 30% of the total produc- tion in China (Liu, 2014) while it accounted for only 6% 15% at this stage in Italy (Segrè et al., 2014). The reason for the big difference is that more advanced and newer technologies are used in developed countries. There is a small farm FLW of meat and fish, dairy products, and eggs at the production level (Fig. 1.8). 1.3.3.2 Postharvest losses and waste Postharvest FLW occurs during the postharvest handling and storage, manufactur- ing, distribution, and retailing stages, where distinctive characteristics can be seen Figure 1.8 Per capita farm food losses and food waste of different food commodities. 16 Saving Food
- 31. for different types of food. Fig. 1.9 shows postharvest FLW for different food com- modities based on the existing data. G As to cereals and cereal products, the postharvest FLW varies largely at different stages. Most FLW occurs at the postharvest handling and storage stage with a median value of over 18 kg/cap in developing countries. For instance, in South and Southeast Asia, cereals have the largest postharvest FLW in all food commodities. In particular, the postharvest FLW rate of rice, which is the staple food in Philippines, was 10% (FAO, 2014). Then the retailing stage is the second highest (over 10 kg/cap), followed by the manufacturing and distribution stages (5 kg/cap). G Fruits and vegetables have the largest postharvest FLW among all the food groups on a per capita level. For example, the fruits and vegetables FLW at the manufacturing stage was more than 33 kg/cap in South Africa (Nahman and de Lange, 2013), which was far higher than that of all other food types or stages. It should be noted that there is less FLW at the manufacturing stage in developed countries, for example, it is only about 5 kg/cap in Denmark (Smil, 1981). The FLW at the distribution stage is approximately 17 kg/cap. The FLW at the retailing stage is small with a median value of 3 kg/cap. G Meat and fish products have the least FLW during postharvest stages. There is little infor- mation for their postharvest handling and storage FLW. Based on the existing data, the FLW of meat and fish products at this stage is very small (about 0.3 kg/cap). FLW is similar for the manufacturing and retailing stages, both roughly with a median value of 1.3 kg/cap. For example, it is reported that the FLW rates of meat were 0.2%, 5%, and 0.5% for postharvest handling and storage, manufacturing, and distribution stages (Holm, 2013). G There are also few studies for the quantification of postharvest FLW of dairy products and eggs. For the four substages, the median FLW is at approximately 6, 3, 0.2, and 3.4 kg/cap, respectively. Due to the poor cooling systems, the FLW of milk in the manufacturing and distribution stages was 3% 15% and 8% 11% in Ukraine, respec- tively (Holm, 2013). It should be noted that the retailing FLW in the United States attracts a special attention in the literature. It is reported that roughly 2.4 million tonnes of food was lost at the retailing stage in 1995, but it rose to 19.5 million tonnes in 2010, accounting for 10% of the available food supply in the United States (WRAP, 2008). Fig. 1.10 shows that cereals and cereal products, vegetables, and fruits have the greatest contribution to the retailing FLW, with a median value of 10.5, 8, and 6 kg per capita, respectively. For example, some studies point out that the cereal products FLW at the retailing stage makes up 12% of the United States food supply (Buzby and Hyman, 2012). It is also estimated that the FLW of fresh fruits, vegetables, and meat and seafood in the supermarket were 11.4%, 9.7%, and 4.5% on average, respectively (Buzby et al., 2009) in 2005/2006, which is consistent with the estimates of the other developed countries. These data suggest that fresh products dominate in the retailing FLW because of factors like expired shelf dates, overstocking, product damage and quality problems, and inappropriate inventory rotation (Kantor et al., 1997). But FLW at the retailing stage in devel- oped countries, including the United States, mostly takes place in the supermar- kets rather than street markets and nonsupermarkets (often found in developing countries). 17 Introduction to global food losses and food waste
- 32. Figure 1.9 Per capita postharvest food losses and food waste at different stages of cereals and cereal products, fruits and vegetables, meat and fish, and dairy products and eggs.
- 33. 1.3.3.3 Consumer food waste G Household food waste Because of limited disposable household income, low-income countries normally waste little food in households. Food waste in households comprises the largest por- tion of the total FLW in medium/high-income countries, mainly due to poor pur- chase planning, excessive cooking, overstocking, or misunderstanding the “best before” and “use by” dates (Koivupuro et al., 2012). In the Europe Union, about 38 million tonnes or 42% of the total food was wasted in households, with an average of about 76 kg/cap (FUSIONS, 2015). In Canada, household food waste accounted for 51% of the total FLW along the food supply chain (Gooch et al., 2010). There was about 19% of food and drink bought into households in the United Kingdom, which also represented 70% of the total FLW at postharvest stages and consump- tion stage (WRAP, 2013). However, according to the existing studies, there is little first-hand data for households in emerging and developing countries. The FLW in households may be much larger than expected, especially in urban areas. Since there is lack of field research in these countries, generalization should be under- taken with caution. Fig. 1.11 shows a positive relationship between per capita GDP and per capita household food waste. When per capita GDP goes up, the per capita food waste gen- eration from households also sees the same trend. Some previous studies also indicate the same pattern (Holm, 2013). For example, it was estimated that in 2007, food waste produced in South African households was only 7.3 kg per capital (or 0.35 mil- lion tonnes in total) (Oelofse and Nahman, 2013) while households in the United Kingdom generated 109.3 kg/cap (or 6.7 million tonnes in total) (Lee et al., 2010). Figure 1.10 Per capita food losses and food waste of different food commodities at retailing stage in the United States. 19 Introduction to global food losses and food waste
- 34. However, interestingly, when per capita GDP reaches above a certain level (about USD 50,000), the per capita food waste generation tends to be stable. This might relate to the growing awareness of the public, food waste prevention initia- tives, and the impact of market mechanisms (e.g., increasing the price of food and disposal cost of food waste). For example, Australia (Thi et al., 2015) and the United Kingdom (Quested et al., 2011) have effectively taken some campaigns such as “Zero Waste” and “Love Food Hate Waste” against food waste. As a result, FLW from households has reduced by 21% between 2007 and 2012 in the United Kingdom. On the other hand, it may also involve more prepared food consumed and less cooking from scratch in rich countries, which may transfer food waste from household to food industry to some degree. G Out-of-home food waste Many researchers have studied the situation of food waste outside the home, that is, in the food service industry, including for example restaurants (Papargyropoulou et al., 2014), canteens (Halloran et al., 2014), schools (Okazaki et al., 2008), hospi- tals (Dias-Ferreira et al., 2015), care centers (Silvennoinen et al., 2015), military institutions (Davies and Konisky, 2000), and in-flight (Li et al., 2003), anywhere responsible for preparing or providing food away from home. Most research on out-of-home FLW is carried out in the industrialized countries. For example, it was reported that 0.92 million tonnes of food was wasted in this sector every year in the United Kingdom (Parry et al., 2015). In Germany, this sec- tor was the second largest source of food waste, accounting for 17% of the total FLW along the food supply chain (Kranert et al., 2012). In Finland, it was the third Figure 1.11 Relationship between per capita gross data product and per capita household food waste. Source: Adopted from Xue, L., Liu, G., Parfitt, J., Liu, X., Van Herpen, E., Stenmarck, Å., et al., 2017. Missing food, missing data? A critical review of global food losses and food waste data. Environ. Sci. Technol. 51 (12), 6618 6633. 20 Saving Food
- 35. largest contributor of FLW (20%) with 0.075 0.085 million tonnes of food wasted, following household (35%) and food industry (27%) (Silvennoinen et al., 2012). It should be noted that China, as the largest emerging economy in the world, was also facing a high level of food waste in the catering industry, making up about 11% 17% of all food ordered (Liu, 2014). For example, it was reported the total quantity of Horeca (hotels, restaurants, and cafés) food waste in Lhasa (western China, with lower income compared with Western countries) has reached a high level of FLW. However, due to strict regulations issued recently (e.g., the public expense for official extravagance and governmental reception meals), on a per capita level, Horeca food waste generation in Lhasa has decreased from 128 to 98 g/cap/meal during 2011 and 2015 (Wang et al., 2018). Another pilot study focused on the situation of plate waste in school lunch programs in Beijing; it was reported that the average amount of food waste generated by students in Beijing was 130 g/cap/meal in 2014, making up 21% of the total food served. Food supply models, the quality of canteen service, eating habits, and students’ knowledge of agricultural production were the main driving factors that influence plate waste (Liu et al., 2016). In general, food waste per capita out-of-home is lower than that in households (Fig. 1.12). Assuming that as the per capita GDP and living standards increase, peo- ple would consume more food out-of-home, it may bring greater food waste for a variety of reasons, such as oversized dishes and taste. However, the relationship between per capita GDP and per capita food waste outside households seems not that significant. The reason can be explained by the fact that the food service sector Figure 1.12 Relationship between per capita gross data product and per capita out-of-home food waste. It differentiates restaurants (empty circles) and other food service sectors (e.g., canteens; filled circles), and the circles with a cross enclosed are for restaurants in Japan. Source: Adopted from Xue, L., Liu, G., Parfitt, J., Liu, X., Van Herpen, E., Stenmarck, Å., et al., 2017. Missing food, missing data? A critical review of global food losses and food waste data. Environ. Sci. Technol. 51 (12), 6618 6633. 21 Introduction to global food losses and food waste
- 36. is diverse, including the “for profit” (e.g., restaurant) and “cost” (e.g., care center) parts, which results in a mixed pattern generation of food waste. It is interesting to point out that food waste in restaurants in Japan shows a downward trend in these years. This may partly relate to the implementation of the Food Recycling Law in Japan in May 2001, which set specific targets for industry sectors to reduce food waste generation. As a result, food waste out-of-home reduced from 3.1 million tonnes in 2007 to 1.92 million tonnes in 2012 (Parry et al., 2015). 1.3.3.4 Comparison of food losses and food waste for different development levels of countries In Fig. 1.13, we take cereal as an example to show the evolution of food waste at different stages in the supply chain and economies with different development levels, using the United States, China, and South Africa as representative of indus- trialized, emerging, and average developing countries. Here we take food losses Figure 1.13 FLWR of cereals throughout the food supply chain in the United States, China, and South Africa. The vertical chart on the left represents per capita gross data product in current USD in 2015 for these three countries (according to the World Bank). P1 5 agricultural production and harvesting, P2 5 postharvest handling and storage, P3 5 manufacturing, P4 5 distribution, P5 5 retailing, P6 5 consumption. N.A. means not available. The reference flow is assumed to be a fictive output of 100% of the amount produced. Source: Adopted from Xue, L., Liu, G., Parfitt, J., Liu, X., Van Herpen, E., Stenmarck, Å., et al., 2017. Missing food, missing data? A critical review of global food losses and food waste data. Environ. Sci. Technol. 51 (12), 6618 6633. 22 Saving Food
- 37. and food waste rate (FLWR) as an indicator to illustrate the situation, which repre- sents the share of FLW to the total agriculture production. G As a highly industrialized country, there is little information for cereal losses during post- harvest stages in the United States. It could be assumed to be low. For South Africa, the FLWR at agricultural production, postharvest handling and storage, manufacturing, and distribution stages are all higher than those in China. This indicates that as awareness increases and the economy grows, China has adopted more advanced technologies and efficient storage systems in agricultural production, and has largely used improved trans- portation with large volumes (Liu et al., 2013). This also means it could be an efficient way to reduce FLW by improving the technologies and infrastructure in developing coun- tries such as South Africa. G With the development of the country and the increase of GDP, cereal waste at the con- sumption stage also increases. The FLWR of cereals at this stage in the United States is the highest (15.8%) among the three countries, which is around 2.5 and 14.4 times that in China and South Africa, respectively. In China, with the rapid development of economy and the improvement of living standards, the FLWR of cereals has increased to 6.4% in recent years, which is higher than that of all the other stages. For the average developing country, the FLWR of cereals at consumption stage is low in South Africa (1.1%). It should be pointed out that different countries have different production and consumption patterns of cereals, which may contribute to the differences among these countries. 1.4 Implications for future The study suggests that FLW have attracted more attention, with more than 60% of FLW data reported in recent years. Although they provide an overview of the scale of FLW globally, for a few industrialized countries, and different food supply chain stages such as household, there are still data gaps and deficiencies as to the magni- tude of FLW in developing countries (e.g., China and India) that have undergone rapid dietary transformation from starchy staples towards more diverse and fresh food (Parfitt, 2013). In this case, we list some directions for future study as follows (Fig. 1.14): First, the systems and methodologies for FLW quantification should be harmo- nized. It is important to consider these aspects: the definition of FLW [e.g., avoid- able and unavoidable food waste (Östergren et al., 2013), food for human consumption vs nonhuman consumption], food supply chain stages (e.g., different segments at consumption), the classification and conversion factors of food com- modities (e.g., procedure to convert cooked food items to different categories of raw food products), the treatment of FLW (e.g., donation, incineration, feed produc- tion, or landfill), the measurement units (e.g., physical weight, calories, or percen- tages), and the measurement methods. This would help to compare the available data among countries, food commodities, and stages in the food supply chain, which will further enable exploration of driving factors and patterns of FLW gener- ation. For example, the recent released global Food Loss and Food Waste Protocol (World Resources Institute, 2016) in 2016 is an excellent first step, providing a 23 Introduction to global food losses and food waste
- 38. Figure 1.14 Gaps and way forward of the existing global food losses and food waste database.
- 39. standard that can be used by any entity and should be promoted more largely. More efforts are needed to further refine and implement these kinds of harmonized methodologies. Second, there is an urgent need for more data based on first-hand sources. The results show that only about 20% of the existing publications relied on first-hand data. Depending on the unrepresentative data from literature largely may result in high uncertainties. Although the time, labor, and economic cost are high, more field work and collection of first-hand data should be encouraged, which could help ver- ify the existing data, improve the accuracy and reliability of the data, and fill in the gaps where data are not available. Third, it should focus on the regions that are experiencing rapid development and emerging economies, such as the BRICs, that is, Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, other than the current hotspot areas (e.g., United States and Europe). There is less information on the quantification of FLW in those develop- ing countries, but the situation may be serious; for example, a report shows that food waste at the consumer level in China is higher than that of the total in EU27 (Liu, 2014). Those countries are also undergoing rapid changes in diet structure, urbanization, and growing household income, which might bring a higher FLW in the future. Relying on the outdated data may result in overestimating FLW at agri- cultural production stage and underestimating food waste at consumption stage in developing countries (Liu, 2014; Shafiee-Jood and Cai, 2016). In addition, when more data are available for specific countries or cultures, it is better to consider social and cultural background in the FLW quantification and mitigation. Fourth, deeper analyses should be conducted on FLW at different stages in the food supply chain. The results show that about half of the existing studies focused on the household food waste mainly in developed countries. More attention should be paid to the stages that have less data and are poorly understood, for example, FLW out-of-home (e.g., canteens and restaurants) and postharvest stages in less developed countries. It would help to identify the drivers of FLW at different stages with a more detailed quantification. Fifth, research should build and maintain consistent databases under a common reporting framework on FLW, and then make the data available to the public through joint efforts from all stakeholders in the whole food supply chain. Those databases would contribute to track the progress towards achieving SDG Target 12.3 and national targets on FLW, as they would provide a benchmark for tracking the progress of FLW reduction. The governmental and nongovernmental organiza- tions such as the UNEP and FAO, as well as national statistical agencies, should play a strong leadership in this area. For example, the data series reported by USDA-ERS and WRAP are good models. It should encourage all related industry or industry associations to report their FLW regularly. In the long term, it is appli- cable to track FLW reduction by using the “measurable, reportable, and verifiable (MRV)” principle. Last but not least, quantifying FLW is the foundation for further analysis. Better data measurement would help better understanding of the social, economic, and environmental impacts of FLW, determine hotspots that should be given priority 25 Introduction to global food losses and food waste
- 40. actions, build long-term scenarios to inform the effective policy making and strate- gies in achieving reduction of FLW, and contribute to improve the efficiency and sustainability of the food system. It should carry out research focusing on these topics at the same time. 1.5 Conclusions FLW has become a global concern in recent years and has also become a priority in the global and national political agenda. There has been a growing body of literature on FLW quantification in the past decade. However, there are still major gaps, such as various definitions of system boundaries and quantification methods, data deficien- cies, narrow geography, and unbalanced food supply chain coverage. Most existing studies are carried out for a few developed countries (e.g., the United Kingdom and United States) and concentrate on the retailing and consumption stages (e.g., house- hold), and more than half of them are based only on secondary data, which signals high uncertainties. The existing data indicates that at farm level, FLW in developing countries is higher than that in developed countries. Per capita fruit and vegetable FLW dominates at postharvest stages. With the increase of per capita GDP, per capita food waste from household also goes up. More standardized systems and methodology, more data based on direct measurement, more in-depth analysis of FLW at different stages, a common reporting framework, and more attention to the emerging economies, are urgently needed to properly inform relevant policy on the reduction of FLW and mitigation strategies on environmental impacts. References An, Y., Li, G., Wu, W., Huang, J., He, W., Zhu, H., 2014. Generation, collection and trans- portation, disposal and recycling of kitchen waste: a case study in Shanghai. Waste Manage. Res. 32 (3), 245 248. Beretta, C., Stoessel, F., Baier, U., Hellweg, S., 2013. Quantifying food losses and the poten- tial for reduction in Switzerland. Waste Manage. 33 (3), 764 773. Bräutigam, K.-R., Jörissen, J., Priefer, C., 2014. The extent of food waste generation across EU-27: different calculation methods and the reliability of their results. Waste Manage. Res. 32 (8), 683 694. Buzby, J.C., Guthrie, J.F., 2002. Plate Waste in School Nutrition Programs: Final Report to Congress. Economic Research Service E FAN-02-009, United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC. Buzby, J.C., Hyman, J., 2012. Total and per capita value of food loss in the United States. Food Policy 37 (5), 561 570. Buzby, J.C., Wells, H.F., Axtman, B., Mickey, J., 2009. Supermarket Loss Estimates for Fresh Fruit, Vegetables, Meat, Poultry, and Seafood and Their Use in the ERS Loss- Adjusted Food Availability Data; Economic Information Bulletin Number 44. Economic Research Service, United States Deparment of Agriculture, Washington, DC. 26 Saving Food
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- 46. 2 Soil and crop management to save food and enhance food security Tiziano Gomiero Independent scholar, Treviso, Italy Chapter Outline 2.1 Introduction: enhancing food security by reducing yield loss 33 2.2 Yield loss and food security 35 2.3 Preserving soil health: an imperative if we want to feed the future 38 2.3.1 Land availability and soil quality: undertaking a precautionary approach 39 2.3.2 The role of soil organic matter in preventing soil degradation and maintaining yields 41 2.4 Unsustainable agricultural practices and their effect on yield loss 43 2.4.1 “Soil fatigue” and yield decline 43 2.4.2 The effect of synthetic fertilizers on pests and soil health 45 2.5 Agricultural practices for a more sustainable agriculture 46 2.5.1 Conservation agriculture 47 2.5.2 The agroecological approach 54 2.6 Cropping biodiversity to reduce losses and increase yields 63 2.6.1 The potential benefits of varietal mixture to cope with pest and increase yields 63 2.6.2 Cropping perennial crops 65 2.7 Technological approaches 67 2.7.1 Precision agriculture 67 2.7.2 Genetically modified crops 68 2.8 Conclusion 70 Acknowledgments 71 References 71 2.1 Introduction: enhancing food security by reducing yield loss The coming decades will present a major challenge for the human population. Managing water, energy, and food procurement to feed the present and future population will call for our utmost ingenuity and wisdom. Although the overall population growth rate is decreasing, the population is still growing, especially in Asia and Africa. The present population of 7.5 billion (of which about 900 million are still undernourished) is expected to reach 8.5 billion in 2030 and 10 billion in 2050 (Alexandratos and Bruinsma, 2012; UN, 2017). Increasing food consumption per capita, and particularly meat intake (Smil, 2013; Godfray et al., 2018), will pose further pressure on natural resources (i.e., water, soil, energy) and exacerbate Saving Food. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-815357-4.00002-X © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
- 47. human impact on the environment (i.e., agrochemicals, greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), biodiversity loss) (Pretty, 2008; Godfray et al., 2010, 2018; FAO, 2011a,b; Foley et al., 2011; Gomiero et al., 2011a; Alexandratos and Bruinsma, 2012; Gomiero, 2016; Campbell et al., 2017). It has been argued that, to meet food demand, in 2050 global agricultural production may have to increase by 70% 110% (Bruinsma, 2003, 2011; Tilman et al., 2011; Alexandratos and Bruinsma, 2012). Although in the last decades yields have increased dramatically, food loss and waste are still extremely high. Food losses refer to the decrease in edible food mass throughout the part of the supply chain that specifically leads to edible food for human consumption (Parfitt et al., 2010; FAO, 2011a). FAO (2014a) defined food loss also as “the decrease in quantity or quality of food reflected in nutritional value, economic value or food safety of all food produced for human consumption but not eaten by humans” (bold added by the author). Therefore, in addition to yield, expressed in biomass harvested per ha, the nutritional content of produce has also to be addressed. The term food waste refers to food losses occurring at the end of the food chain (retail and final consumption), and relates to retailers’ and consumers’ behavior (Stuart, 2009; Parfitt et al., 2010; FAO, 2011a). Parfitt et al. (2010) stated that addressing moral and economic dimensions of food may lead the following to be included as food loss: crops diverted into feeding livestock, biofuels (see also Gomiero, 2015a), or biomaterials production. It has been estimated that 30% 40% of all food harvested is lost or wasted each year (Stuart, 2009; Parfitt et al., 2010; FAO, 2011a; Royte, 2016); these estimates may vary greatly depending on the specific crops, locations, and situations involved (Parfitt et al., 2010). The figures are nevertheless indicative of a very significant issue, and reducing food losses is a key step to saving food. Crop yields lower than potentially achievable can also be considered as food loss. Crops can perform poorly for a number of reasons, for example, weather extremes, pests, and poor agricultural practices. Poor agricultural practices such as monoculture, failing to implement proper crop rotations, intensive use of inputs, and poor water management eventually lead to soil degradation (i.e., reduced fertil- ity and soil erosion), accumulation of toxic compounds in the soil, reduced nutri- tional content of produce, and a weakening of plant defenses, which in turn facilitates pest attack. Therefore, to sustain food production in the long run, it is necessary to adopt agricultural practices that preserve soil and crop health. This also in view of the potential effect of climate change, which may dramatically impact on the perfor- mance of agriculture systems (affecting both produce yield and quality), as recent work seems to indicate (Medek et al., 2017; Myers et al., 2017; Scheelbeek et al., 2018; Tigchelaar et al., 2018; Zhu et al., 2018). Of course, reducing food losses and improving the sustainability of the food system require a rethinking of the function- ing of the whole food system, including the impact of food choices, the alternative use of food such as the production of biofuels, power relations along the food chain, and the impact of the globalization process (Smil, 2000, 2013; Pretty, 2008; 34 Saving Food
- 48. Lang et al., 2009; Perfecto et al., 2009; Stuart, 2009; Conway, 2012; Nestle, 2013; Gomiero, 2015a, 2018a,b). In this chapter, the relation between soil health, agricultural practices, and yield loss is discussed. I review how unsustainable agricultural practices’ effect on soil organic matter (SOM) and soil structure is revised in spite of soil fertility reduction. The potential of agroecological agricultural practices to preserve soil health and increase yields while reducing the use of agrochemicals, as well as their potential limitations, are discussed. The concept of food security is then introduced, followed by a discussion on how unsustainable agricultural practices can reduce yields. Thereafter, soil conservation as an imperative to guarantee food security to the pres- ent and future population is denoted. The next section analyzes how unsustainable agricultural practices may impact on crop yield. Some agroecological practices that may help protect soil health and increase yields while reducing the use of inputs are also reviewed, prior to focusing on using crop genetic diversity as a means to enhance crop protection and increase yield. The potential of some technological approaches [namely precision farming and genetically modified (GM) crops] to pre- serve soil, increase yield, and reduce the environmental impact of food production is discussed, too. Finally, conclusions and other important issues impacting the sus- tainability of food production (e.g., biofuels, power relations in the food system, and the role of food choices) are presented. 2.2 Yield loss and food security In the field, crop loss can happen at the time of harvest as edible crops are left in field, ploughed into soil, eaten by birds or rodents, or because timing of harvest is not optimal. Produce may also be damaged while harvesting due to poor harvesting technique (Cassman et al., 2003; Deguine et al., 2009; Parfitt et al., 2010). Yield loss can occur during crop growth due to the combined effect of weeds and pests (insects, rodents, plant diseases caused by bacteria, fungi, or viruses), which reduce yield in the field and may affect produce quality (pests may cause spoilage also dur- ing the postharvest phase, i.e., during storage and transportation) (Cassman et al., 2003; Deguine et al., 2009; FAO, 2011a). At the field level, harvest losses have been estimated at around 26% 30% for sugar beet, barley, soya, wheat and cotton, 35% for maize, 39% for potatoes and 40% for rice, with high regional variability (Deguine et al., 2009). Further to that, yields can be heavily reduced by soil degradation (i.e., loss of soil fertility) (Foley et al., 2005; Montgomery, 2007b; FAO, 2015; FAO and ITPS, 2015; Lal, 2015a; Gomiero, 2016). Panagos et al. (2018) noted that soil erosion, on average, accounts for an 8% yield loss after 25 30 years cropping, notwithstanding the increasing use of inputs to replace nutrient loss due to soil erosion. Soil compaction is also an important form of soil degradation that greatly affects yield and cost of production (Hamza and Anderson, 2005; USDA, 2008; FAO and ITPS, 2015; Sivarajan et al., 2018). Machines and farm animals are the main cause 35 Soil and crop management to save food and enhance food security
- 49. of soil compaction. Working the soil at the wrong soil water content exacerbates the compaction process. Compaction increases bulk density, and that affects plant health and yield. The more compact the soil (the higher the bulk density), the more energy plants have to spend to root in the soil and to access nutrients and water. Soil compaction is a very serious issue. Once soils undergo compaction it may be difficult to repristinate their previous structure, as such process depends on soil bio- logical activity, which is greatly affected by the compaction process itself. Deguine et al. (2009) argued that despite the increasing use of pesticides, harvest losses caused by pests have increased from 4% to 10% for wheat, barley, rice, and potatoes, and have remained stable or decreased slightly for maize, soya, cotton, and coffee. It has been estimated that, in the absence of any crop protection mea- sures, about 80% of the world rice harvest, 70% of the potato harvest, and 50% of the wheat harvest might be lost (Deguine et al., 2009). Nevertheless, den Biggelaar et al. (2004) stated that loss of productivity varies greatly, depending on crop, geographic area and soil type, and that productivity declines may not relate directly to the amount of soil loss but concern a number of erosion- induced changes in the physical, chemical, and biological qualities of soil that influence production (i.e., SOM, water-holding capacity, nutrient contents, bulk density). Nevertheless, inappropriate agricultural practices, while potentially helping to boost yields in the short term, may expose soil to heavy erosion and put productiv- ity at risk in the long term (under extreme weather, bare soils, low in SOM, may lose several centimeters over a very short space of time) (Morgan, 2005; Montgomery, 2007a,b; Quinton et al., 2010; Gomiero, 2016). As yield reduction tends to be compensated by using an increasing amount of inputs (i.e., fertilizers, pesticides, water), it also leads to increasing the cost of produce, and reducing farm- ers’ profits (Fig. 2.1). Guaranteeing food security to the world is a major challenge. FAO (2011a) defined food security as a state when “all people, at all times, have physical and Yield Cost Time Profit Figure 2.1 Yield loss due to unsustainable agricultural practices drives production costs up and reduces farmers’ profits. Source: Figure by T. Gomiero. 36 Saving Food
- 50. Other documents randomly have different content
- 51. paths started off southward, and sank into a swamp. In summer, this swamp was as purple as a ripe plum with flower-de-luce, and those who loved nature well enough to search for her treasures could find there also an occasional cardinalflower, a pink arethusa, or a pitcherblossom full to the brim with the last shower, or the last dew- fall. The second path ran northward to the bank of the Cocheco River, and broke off on the top of a cliff. If you should have nerve enough to scramble down the face of this cliff, you would find there the most romantic little cave imaginable, moss-lined, and furnished with moss cushions to its rock divans. A wild cherry-tree had in some way managed to find footing just below the cave, and at this season it would push up a spray of bloom, in emulation of the watery spray beneath. Fine green vines threaded all the moss; and, if one of them were lifted, it would show a line of honey-sweet bell-flowers strung under its round leaves. The third path kept on westward to a dusky tract of pine-woods about two miles from the town. No newly-sprouting verdure was visible amid this sombre foliage; but there was a glistening through it all like the smile on a dark face, and the neighboring air was embalmed with its fine resinous perfume. Out from this wood came sounds of laughter and many voices, some shrill and childish, others deeper voices of men, or softer voices of women. Occasionally might be heard a fitful song that broke off and began again, only to break and begin once more, as though the singer’s hands were busy. Yet so dense was the border of the wood with thick, low-growing branches that, had you gone even so near as to step on their shadows, and slip on the smooth hollows full of cones and needles they had let fall, not a person would you have seen. A girlish voice burst out singing: “‘The year’s at the spring, And day’s at the morn; Morning’s at seven; The hillside’s dew-pearled. The lark’s on the wing,
- 52. The snail’s on the thorn; God’s in his heaven— All’s right with the world!’ Only day is not at the morn,” the voice added correctingly; “for it is near sunset. But,” singing again, “‘The year’s at the spring; The lark’s on the wing; God’s in his heaven— And all’s right with the world!’ —which may be called making a posy out of a poem.” A young man’s voice spoke: “All will soon be wrong in a part of the world, Pippa, if I do not call the sheep to fold.” And immediately a loud bugle-call sounded through the forest, and died away in receding echoes. Presently a Maying-party came trooping forth into sight. First, stooping low under the boughs, a score of boys and girls appeared, their cheeks bright with exercise and pure air, their silken hair dishevelled. After them followed, more sedately, a group of youths and maidens, “Pippa,” otherwise Lily Carthusen, and the bugler, among them. All these young people were decked with wreaths of ground pine around their hats, waists, and arms, and they carried hands full of Mayflowers. Lastly, two gentlemen, one at either hand, held back the branches, and Miss Honora Pembroke stepped from under the dark- green arch. If you are a literal sort of person, and make a point of calling things by their everyday names, you would have described her as a noble-looking young woman, dressed in a graceful brown gown, belted at the waist, after a Grecian fashion, and some sort of cloudy blue drapery that was slipping from her head to her shoulders. You would have said that her hair was a yellowish brown that looked bright in the sun, her eyes about the same color, her features very good, but not so classical in shape as her robe. You might have
- 53. added that there was an expression that, really—well, you did not know just how to name it, but you should judge that the young woman was romantic, though not without sense. If you should have guessed her age to be twenty-eight, you would have been right. If, on the other hand, you are poetically Christian, ever crowning with the golden thorns of sacrifice whatever is most beautiful on earth, you would have liked to take the Mayflower wreath from this womanly maiden’s hand, place the palm-branch in its stead, and so send her to heaven by the way of the lions. Her face need hardly have changed to go that road, so lofty and delicate was the joy that shone under her quiet exterior, so full of light the eyes that, looking straight before her into space, seemed to behold all the glory of the skies. The girl who came next was very different, not at all likely to suggest poetical fancies, though when you looked closely you could see much fineness of outline in the features and form. But she was spoilt in the coloring—a sallow skin, “sandy” hair, and light eyes giving a dingy look to her face. She was spoilt still more by the expression, which was superficial, and by being overdressed for her size and the occasion, and a little ragged from the bushes. This is Miss, or, as she likes to be called, Mademoiselle, Annette Ferrier. If at some moment, unawares, you should take the liberty to call her Niñon, with an emphatic nasal, she would forgive you beamingly, and consider you a very charming person. Mademoiselle, who, like three generations of her ancestors, was born in America, and who had spent but three months of her life in France, had no greater ambition than to be taken for a French lady. But do not set her down as a simpleton. Her follies are not malicious, and may wear off. Have you never seen the young birds, when they are learning to fly, how clumsily they tumble about? yet afterward they cleave the air like arrows with their strong pointed wings. And have you not seen some bud, pushing out at first in a dull, rude sheath that mars the beauty of the plant, open at last to disclose petals of such rare beauty that the sole glory of the plant was in upbearing it? Some souls have to
- 54. work off a good deal of clinging foolishness before they come to themselves. Therefore, let us not classify Miss Ferrier just yet. She had scarcely appeared, when one branch was released with a discourteous haste that sent it against her dress, and a gentleman quickly followed her, and, with a somewhat impatient air, took his place at her side. Mr. Lawrence Gerald had that style of beauty which suggests the pedestal—an opaque whiteness of tint as pure as the petal of a camellia, clustering locks of dark hair, and an exquisite perfection of form and feature. He and Miss Ferrier were engaged to be married, which was some excuse for the profuse smiles and blushes she expended on him, and which he received with the utmost composure. The second branch swung softly back from the hand that carefully released it, and Mr. Max Schöninger came into sight, brushing the brown pine-scales from his gloves. He was the last in order, but not least in consequence, of the party, as more than one backward glance that watched for his appearance testified. This was a tall, fair-haired German, with powerful shoulders, and strong arms that sloped to the finest of sensitive hands. He had a grave countenance, which sometimes lit up beautifully with animated expression, and sometimes also veiled itself in a singular manner. Let anything be said that excited his instinct of reserve or self-defence, and he could at once banish all expression from his face. The broad lids would droop over those changeful eyes of his, and one saw only a blank where the moment before had shone a cordial and vivid soul. When we say that Mr. Schöninger was a Jew who had all his life been associated more with Christians than with his own people, this guarded manner will not seem unnatural. He glanced over the company, and was hesitatingly about to join Miss Pembroke, when one of the children left her playmates, and ran to take his hand. Mr. Schöninger was never on his guard with children, and those he petted were devotedly fond of him. He smiled in the upturned face of this little girl, held the small hand closely, and led her on.
- 55. The order of march changed as the party advanced. Those who had been last to leave the wood were made to take precedence; the youths and maidens dropped behind them, and, as both walked slowly forward, the younger ones played about them, now here, now there. It was like an air with variations. The elders of the company were very quiet, Miss Carthusen a little annoyed. She need not have wasted her eloquence in persuading Mr. Schöninger to come with them, if he was going to devote himself to that baby. Miss Carthusen was clever, and rather pretty, and she liked to talk. What was the use of having ideas and fancies, if one was not to express them? Why should one go into company, if one was to remain silent? She considered Mr. Schöninger too superb by half. The sun was setting, and it flooded all the scene with a light so rich as to seem tangible. Whatever it fell upon was not merely illuminated, it was gilded. The sky was hazy with that radiance, the many windows on the twin hills of Crichton blazed like beacons, and the short green turf glistened with a yellow lustre. Those level rays threw the long shadows of the flower-bearers before them as they walked, dazzled the faces turned sidewise to speak, turned the green wreaths on their heads into golden wreaths, and sparkled in their hair. When Miss Pembroke put her hand up to shade her eyes in looking backward, the ungloved fingers shone as if transparent. She had been drinking in the beauty of the evening till it was all ready to burst from her lips, and there seemed to be no one who perceived that beauty but herself. She would have liked to be alone, with no human witness, and to give vent to the delight that was tingling in her veins. A strong impulse was working in her to lift a fold of her dress at either side, slide out that pretty foot of hers now hidden under the hem, and go floating round in a dance, advancing as she turned, like a planet in its path. It would have been a relief could she have sung at the very top of her voice. She had looked backward involuntarily at Mr. Schöninger, expecting some sympathy from him; but, seeing him engrossed in his little charge, had
- 56. dropped her hand, and walked on, feeling rather disappointed. “I supposed he believed in the creation, at least,” she thought. Miss Pembroke was usually a very dignified and quiet young woman, who said what she meant, who never effervesced on small occasions, and sometimes found herself unmoved on occasions which many considered great ones. But when, now and then, the real afflatus came, it was hard to have her lips sealed and her limbs shackled. As she dropped her hand, faintly and fairylike in the distance she heard all the bells of Crichton ringing for sunset. Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus, she sang softly, clasping her hands, still walking forward; and so went on with the rest of the hymn, not minding where the others of the party were, or if there were any others, till she felt a little pull at her dress, and became aware that Mr. Schöninger’s young friend had urged him forward to hear the singing, and was holding up her hand to the singer. But the Jew’s visor was down. Miss Pembroke took the child’s hand, which thus formed a link between the two, and continued her singing: Benedictus qui venit in nomini Domini. She felt almost as if the man, thus linked to her by that transparent, innocent nature of the little girl between them, were spiritually joining her in the Hosanna. How deep or bitter his prejudices might be she knew not. Their acquaintance had been short, and they had never spoken of their theological differences. That his unbelief could be profound, yet gentle and tolerant toward her belief, had never occurred to her mind. She would have been scarcely more shocked than astonished could she have known the thought that almost escaped his lips. “She is too noble to be a worshipper of strange gods,” he thought. “When will this miserable delusion be swept away!” A slim, light hand stole into Miss Pembroke’s arm on the other side, and Miss Carthusen’s cheek pressed close to her shoulder. Miss Carthusen was a foundling, and had been adopted by a wealthy and childless couple. Nothing whatever was known of her parentage.
- 57. “Lady Honora,” she whispered, “this scene reminds me of something. I am like Mignon, with my recollections gathering fast into a picture; only my past is further away than hers was. I almost know who I am, and where I came from. It flashes back now. We were dancing on the green, a ring of us. It was not in this land. The air was warm, the sward like rose-leaves; there were palms and temples not far away. I had this hand stretched forward to one who held it, and the other backward to one who held it, and so we danced, and there were wreaths on our heads, vine-leaves tangled in our hair. Suddenly something swept over and through us, like a cold wind, or a sharp cry, or both, and we all became fixed in a breath, the smile, the wreath, the tiptoe foot, and we hardened and grew less, and the air inside the ring died with our breaths in it, and the joy froze out of us, and the recollection of all we were faded. We were like flames that have gone out. There was nothing left but an antique vase with Bacchantes dancing round it in a petrified circle. Have you ever seen such a vase, with one figure missing?” “Silly child!” said Honora, smiling, but shrinking a little. This girl was too clinging, her imagination too pagan. “It is said that, at the birth of Christ, that wail was heard through all the hosts of pagan demons. ‘Pan is dead!’ they cried, and fled like dry leaves before a November wind. Pan is dead, Lily Carthusen; and if you would kindle his altars again, you must go down into the depths of perdition for the spark.” She spoke with seriousness, even with energy, and a light blush fluttered into her cheeks, and faded out again. Miss Carthusen, still clinging to the arm she had clasped, leaned forward to cast a laughing glance into the face beyond. “To Mr. Schöninger,” she said, “we are both talking mythology.” Miss Pembroke freed her arm decidedly, and stepped backward, so as to bring herself between Miss Ferrier and Lawrence Gerald. She took an arm of each, and held them a moment as if she were afraid. “Annette, Lily Carthusen must not help us to trim the altar,” she said. “It is not fitting. We will do it ourselves, with Mother Chevreuse.”
- 58. “But Lily has such taste,” was the reluctant answer. “And she may be displeased if we do not ask her.” “Our Lady thinks more of devotion than of taste, Annette,” Miss Pembroke said earnestly. “It seems to me that every flower ought to be placed there by the hand of faith and love.” The other yielded. People always did yield when Miss Pembroke urged. And Miss Carthusen, fortunately, saved them the embarrassment of declining her assistance by walking on, engrossed in a gay conversation with the German. When she recollected, they were already far apart. She and her companion were close to the town, and the others had stopped where the three paths met. The children gathered about Miss Ferrier, and began piling their Mayflowers and green wreaths into her arms; for the flowers were all to decorate the altar of Mary in the beautiful church of S. John the Evangelist. These children were not half of them Catholic; but that made no difference in Crichton, where the people prided themselves on being liberal. Moreover, Miss Ferrier was a person of influence, and could reward those who obliged her. Then they scattered, dropping into different roads, one by one, and two by two, till only three, heavily laden with their fragrant spoil, were left walking slowly up South Avenue, into which the unfinished road expanded when it reached the city. They were to take tea at Mrs. Ferrier’s, and afterward go to the church; for this was the last day of a warm and forward April, and on the next morning the exercises of the Month of Mary were to begin. At the most commanding spot on the crown of the hill stood Mrs. Ferrier’s house; and one has but to glance at it to understand at once why mademoiselle is a person of influence. Seventeen years before, those who knew them would have imagined almost any change of fortune sooner than that the Ferriers should become people of wealth. There was Mr. Ferrier, a stout, dull, uneducated, hard-working man, who had not talent nor ambition enough to learn any trade, but passed his life in drudging for any one who would give him a day’s work. A man of obtuse intelligence, and utterly uncultivated tastes, but for the spark of faith left in that
- 59. poor soul of his, he would have been a clod. But there the spark was, like a lamp in a tomb, showing, with its faint but steady light, the wreck of the beautiful, and the noble, and the sublime that was man as God made him; showing the dust of lost powers and possibilities, and the dust of much accumulated dishonor; showing the crumbling skeleton of a purpose that had started perfect; and showing also, carven deep, but dimly seen, the word of hope, Resurgam! Those human problems meet us often, staggering under the primal curse, ground down to pitiless labor from the cradle to the grave, losing in their sordid lives, little by little, first, the strength and courage to look abroad, then the wish, and, at last, the power, the soul in them shining with only an occasional flicker through the débris of their degraded natures. But if faith be there buried with the soul in that earthy darkness, the word of hope is still for them Resurgam! There was Mrs. Ferrier, a very different sort of person, healthy, thrifty, cheerful, with a narrow vein of stubborn good sense that was excellent as far as it went, and with a kind heart and a warm temper. The chief fault in her was a common fault: she wished to shape and measure the world by her own compasses; and, since those were noticeably small, the impertinence was very apparent. She was religiously obedient to her husband when he raised his fist; but, in most matters, she ruled the household, Mr. Ferrier being authoritative only on the subject of his three meals, his pipe and beer, and his occasional drop of something stronger. And there were five or six young ones, new little souls in very soiled bodies, the doors of life still open for them, their eyes open also to see, and their wills free to choose. These little ones, happy in their rags, baked mud pies, squabbled and made up twenty times a day, ate and slept like the healthy animals they were, their greatest trial being when their faces were washed and their hair combed, on which occasion there was an uproar in the family. These occasions were not frequent.
- 60. The Ferrier mansion had but one room, and the Ferrier plenishing was simple. The wardrobe also was simple. For state days, monsieur had a state costume, the salient points of which were an ample white waistcoat and an ancient and well-preserved silk hat which he wore very far back on his head, both these articles being part of his wedding gear. Madame had also her gala attire, with which she always assumed an expression of complacent solemnity. This toilet was composed of a dark-red merino gown, a dingy broché shawl, and a large straw bonnet, most unconsciously Pompadour, with its pink flowers and blue ribbons. For great occasions, the children had shoes, bought much too large that they might not be outgrown; and they had hats nearly as old as themselves. The girls had flannel gowns that hung decently to their heels; the boys, less careful of their finery, had to go very much patched. On Sundays and holidays, they all walked two miles to hear Mass, and each one put a penny into the box. On Christmas Days, they each gave a silver quarter, the father distributing the coin just before the collector reached them, all blushing with pride and pleasure as they made their offering, and smiling for some time after, the children nudging and whispering to each other till they had to be set to rights by their elders. Contented souls, how simple and harmless they were! Into the midst of this almost unconscious poverty, wealth dropped like a bombshell. If the sea of oil under their cabin and pasture had suddenly exploded and blown them sky-high, they could not have been more astounded; for oil there was, and floods of it. At almost any part of the little tract of land they had bought for next to nothing, it was but to dig a hole, and liquid gold bubbled up by the barrelful. Mr. Ferrier, poor man! was like a great clumsy beetle that blunders out of the familiar darkness of night into a brilliantly lighted room. Perhaps something aspiring and only half dead in him cried out through his dulness with a voice he could not comprehend; perhaps the sudden brightness put out what little sight he had: who knows? He drank. He was in a dream; and he drank again. The
- 61. dream became a nightmare; and still he drank—drank desperately— till at last nature gave way under the strain, and there came to him an hour of such utter silence as he had not known since he lay, an infant, in his mother’s lap. During that silence, light broke in at last, and the imprisoned light shone out with a strange and bewildered surprise. The priest, that visible angel of God, was by his side, instructing his ignorance, calming his fears, calling up in his awakening soul the saving contrition, leaving him only when the last breath had gone. After the husband went child after child, till but two were left, Annette and Louis. These, the eldest, the mother saved alive. We laugh at the preposterous extravagance and display of the newly enriched. But is there not something pitiful in it, after all? How it tells of wants long denied, of common pleasures that were so distant from those hopeless eyes as to look like shining stars! They flutter and run foolishly about, those suddenly prosperous ones, like birds released from the cage, like insects when the stone is lifted from them; but those who have always been free to practise their smooth flight through a sunny space, or to crawl at ease over the fruits of the world, would do well not to scorn them. The house Mrs. Ferrier had built for herself in the newest and finest avenue of Crichton was, it must be confessed, too highly ornamented. Ultra-Corinthian columns; cornerstones piled to the very roof at each angle, and so laboriously vermiculated that they gave one an impression of wriggling; cornices laden with carving, festoons, fancy finials wherever they could perch; oriels, baywindows, arched windows with carven faces over them—all these fretted the sight. But the view from the place was superb. When our three flower-bearers reached the gate, they turned to contemplate the scene. All round, a circle of purple hills stood bathed in the sunset. From these hills the Crichtonians had borrowed the graceful Athenian title, and called their fair city the “city of the violet crown.” Forming their eastern boundary flowed the stately Saranac, that had but lately carried its last float of ice out to sea, almost carrying a bridge with
- 62. it. Swollen with dissolving snows, it glided past, a moving mirror, nearly to the tops of the wharves. Northward was the Cocheco, an untamed little river born and brought up amid crags and rocks. It cleft the city in twain, to cast itself headlong into the Saranac, a line of bubbles showing its course for half a mile down the smoother tide. The Cocheco was in high feather this spring, having succeeded at last in dislodging an unsightly mill that had been built at one of its most picturesque turns. Let trade go up the Saranac, and bind its gentler waters to grind wheat and corn, and saw logs, and act as sewer; the Cocheco reserved itself for the beautiful and the contemplative. It liked that lovers should walk the winding roads along its banks; that children should come at intervals, wondering, half afraid, as if in fairy-land; that troubled souls, longing for solitude, should find it in some almost inaccessible nook among its crags; but, best of all, it liked that some child of grace, divinely gifted to see everything in God, should walk rejoicingly by its side. “O my God! how sweet are those little thoughts of thine, the violets! How thy songs flow down the waters, and roll out from the clouds! How tender is the shadow of thy hand when at night it presses our heavy eyelids down, and folds us to sleep in thy bosom, or when it wakens us silently to commune with thee!” For such a soul, the river had an articulate voice, and answered song for song. Yes; that was what it had to do in the world. Away with mills and traffic! Let trade go up the Saranac. So for three years watery tongues had licked persistently at posts and timbers, legions of bubbles had snapped at splinters till they wore away, and the whole river had gathered and flung itself against the foundations, till at last, when the spring thaw came, over went the mill, and was spun down stream, and flung into the deeper tide, and so swept out to sea. Let trade go up the Saranac! But the patient Saranac sawed the logs, and carried away their dust and refuse, and took all the little fretted brooks and rivers into its bosom, and soothed their murmurs there. And both did God’s will, and both were good.
- 63. Half hidden by the steep slope of the hill, as one stood in Mrs. Ferrier’s porch, was the church of S. John the Evangelist. Only the unfinished tower of it was visible, and a long line of slated roof seen in glimpses between spires and chimneys. “I really believe, Lawrence, that Crichton is the pleasantest place in the world,” remarked Miss Pembroke, after a short silence. A servant had taken away their flowers to keep fresh for the evening, and Miss Ferrier had gone in to change her dress. The mother being away, there was no need the other two should enter, when the lovely evening invited them to remain outside. Receiving no reply, the lady glanced inquiringly at her companion, and saw that his silence was a dissenting one. He had thrown himself into a chair, tossed his hat aside, and was looking off into the distance with fixed and gloomy eyes. The tumbled locks of hair fell over half his forehead, his attitude expressed discontent and depression, and there was a look about the mouth that showed his silence might proceed only from the suppression of a reply too bitter or too rude to utter. Seeing that her glance might force him to speak, she anticipated him, and continued, in a gentle, soothing tone: “If one loves religion, here is a beautiful church, and the best of priests; if one is intellectual, here is every advantage—books, lectures, and a cultivated society; if one is a lover of nature, where can be found a more beautiful country? Oh! it is not Switzerland nor Italy, I know; but it is delightful, for all that.” She had spoken carefully, like one feeling her way, and here she hesitated just for a breath, as though not sure whether she had better go on, but went on nevertheless. “Here every one is known, and his position secure. He need not suffer in public esteem from adverse circumstances, if they do not affect his character. There never was a place, I think, where a truly courageous and manly act would be more heartily applauded.” “Ah! yes,” the young man said, with hasty scorn; “they applaud while the thing is new, and then forget all about it. They like novelty. I don’t doubt that all the people would clap their hands if I should
- 64. take to sweeping the streets, and that for a week the young ladies would tie bouquets to the end of the broomstick. But after the week was over, what then? They would find me a dusty fellow whose acquaintance they would gradually drop. Besides, their applause is not all. I might not enjoy street-sweeping, even though I and my broomstick were crowned with flowers as long as we lasted.” Miss Pembroke had blushed slightly at this sudden and violent interpretation of her hidden meaning; but she answered quietly: “No: their applause is not all—the applause of the world is never all, but it helps sometimes; and, if they give it to us for one moment when we start on the right path, it is all that we ought to expect. Life is not a theatre with a few actors and a great circle of spectators: we all have our part to play, and cannot stop long to admire others.” “Especially when that other is only the scene-shifter,” laughed the young man, throwing the hair back from his face. “I know well that ordinary, inelegant work would come very hard to you, Lawrence,” she said kindly; “and, if it were to be continued to the end of your life, I might think it too hard. But there must be ways, for other men have found them, of beginning at the lower end of the ladder, even very low down, even in the dust, and climbing steadily to a height that would satisfy the climber’s ambition. It needs only a strong will and perseverance; and I firmly believe, Lawrence, that, to a strong will, almost anything is possible.” “A strong will is a special gift,” he replied stubbornly. “Yes; and one for which we may ask,” she said; then, seeing that he frowned, added: “And for you I like Crichton, as I said. One is known here, and motives and circumstances are understood. A thousand little helps might be given which in a strange city you would not have. All would be seen and understood here.” “All would be seen, yes!” he exclaimed, with a shrug and a frown. “That is the trouble. One would rather hide something.” She would not be repelled. “There is, of course, sometimes a disadvantage in living where everything is known,” she admitted.
- 65. “But there must be disadvantages everywhere in the world. Look at the bright side of it. If you were in a great city, where all sorts of crimes hide, where men the most abandoned in reality can for a long time maintain a fair reputation before the world, how your difficulties would be increased! You would not then know whom to trust. Here, on the contrary, no wrong can remain long hidden.” He had not looked at her before, but at these words his eyes flashed into her face a startled glance. Her eyes were looking thoughtfully over the town. Feeling his gaze, she turned towards him with a quick change of expression and manner. A friendly and coaxing, almost caressing, raillery took the place of her seriousness: “Come! drive away your blues, Lawrence, and take courage. Study out some course for yourself where you can see far ahead, and then start and follow it, though you should find obstacles grow up in the way. Bore through them, or climb over them. There must be a way. There is something in you for honor, something better than complaining. Cheer up!” She extended her hand to him impulsively. “What motive have I?” he asked. But his face had softened, and a faint smile showed that the cloud had a silver lining. “For your mother’s sake,” she said. “How happy she would be!” “I can make my mother happy by kissing her, and telling her she is an angel,” he answered. It was but too true. “For poor Annette, then. There is a good deal in her, and she is devoted to you.” He shrugged his shoulders, and lifted his eyebrows: “She loves me as I am, and would love me if I were ten times as worthless, poor silly girl!” Miss Pembroke withdrew her hand, and retired a step from him. Again he had spoken the truth, this spoiled favorite of women! “For God’s sake, then.” He did not dare give another shrug, for his mentor’s face was losing its kindness. “You know I am not at all pious, Honora,” he
- 66. said, dropping his eyes. She still retained her patience: “Can you find no motive in yourself, Lawrence? Do you feel no necessity for action, for courageous trial of what life may hold for you?” His pale face grew bright with an eager light. “If life but held for me one boon! O Honora....” She made a quick, silencing gesture, and a glance, inconceivably haughty and scornful, shot from her eyes. “Are you two people quarrelling?” Miss Ferrier inquired, behind them. “If you are, I am in good time. Tea is ready, and I suppose the sooner we are off, the better.” “I sent the flowers to the church,” she continued, as they went in through the gorgeous hall, “and directed John to tell Mother Chevreuse that we should come down in about an hour. But he brings me word that she is out with some sick woman, and may not come home till quite late. So we are but three.” Mother Chevreuse was the priest’s mother. It had grown to be a custom to give her that title, partly out of love for both mother and son, partly because Father Chevreuse himself sometimes called her so. “It will require one person to carry your train, Annette,” Mr. Gerald said, looking at the length of rustling brown silk over which he had twice stumbled. “And that takes two out; for, of course, you can do nothing in that dress. Honora will have the pleasure of decorating the altar, while we look on.” Only the faintest shade of mortification passed momentarily over the girl’s face, and vanished. She knew well the power her wealth had with this man, and that she could not make it too evident. Miss Ferrier was frivolous and extravagant, but she was not without discernment. “Did you ever know me to fail when I attempted anything?” she asked, with a little mingling of defiance and triumph in her air. “Honora goes calmly and steadily to work; but when I begin....”
- 67. She stopped, embarrassed, for a rude speech had been at her lips. “You do twice as much as I,” Miss Pembroke finished, with sweet cordiality. “It is true, Annette, though you did not like to say it. You have great energy.” She put her hand out, and touched caressingly the shoulder of her young hostess in passing. “You are just what Lawrence needs.” Tears of pleasure filled Annette’s eyes. For all her wealth and the flatteries it had brought her, she had seldom heard a word of earnest commendation. To be praised by Honora was sweet; but to be praised before Lawrence was sweetest of all. They hurried through their tea, and went to the church. Mother Chevreuse had not returned home, and the priest also was away. The pleasant task of adorning the altar of Our Lady was left to them. The stars were beginning to show faintly in the sky when they commenced their work, and all the church was full of that clear yellow twilight. The pillars and walls, snowy white, with only delicate bands of gilding, reflected the softened beams, and seemed to grow transparent in them. But around the side-altar burned a ring of brilliant gas-jets; and through the open door of the sacristy was visible, ruddily lighted, a long passage and stairway leading to the basement. The light of heaven and the light of earth were thus brought face to face—the one pure, tender, and pervading, the other flaring, thick, and partial. But as daylight faded away, that inner light brought out strange effects. There was no longer anything white in the church: it was all turned to rose-color and deep shadow. Carven faces looked down with seeing eyes from arch, capital, and cornice; the pillars, standing up and down in long rows, appeared to lean together, to move, and change places with each other; there was a tremor in the dimly-seen organ-pipes, as though the strong breath of music were passing through them, and would presently break out in loud accord. A picture of S. John beside the grand altar showed
- 68. nothing but the face, and the face was as glowing as if it had just been lifted from the bosom of the Lord to look into the Lord’s eyes. One might fancy that this fair temple in which God had taken up his dwelling only waited for those three to go away, that it might break into joy and adoration over its divine Guest. On a pedestal at the gospel side of the altar stood the statue of Our Lady, lovely eyelids downcast, as she gazed on those below, loving hands and arms outstretched, inviting all the world to her motherly embrace. An arch of white lilies had already been put up against a larger arch of green that was to be set with candles and a crown of light. They were now engaged in putting under the lilies a third and smaller arch of Mayflowers, that the whole might be like the Lady it was meant to honor—radiant with glory, mantled in purity, and full of tender sweetness. Annette had redeemed her promise of usefulness. Her long train was pinned about her, leaving a white skirt with the hem close to her ankles, and the flowing drapery of her sleeves was bound above the elbow, her arms being quite free. Mounted on the topmost step of an unsteady ladder, she fastened the higher flowers; lower down, at either side, Lawrence Gerald and Honora tied the lower ones. Not much was said, the few necessary words were lowly spoken; but they smiled now and then in each other’s lighted faces. It was ten o’clock when they went out through the basement, leaving a man to extinguish the gas and lock the door. On their way to the street, they passed the priest’s house. Only one light was visible in it, and that shone in a wide-open stairway window. The light, with a shadow beside it, was approaching the window, and presently a man’s head and shoulders appeared above the high sill. Father Chevreuse had returned home, and was going up to his chamber. He stopped, holding a candle, and put out his right hand to close the window, but paused, hearing a step outside. “Who’s there?” he asked authoritatively, peering out, but seeing nothing in the darkness. “Three friends who are just going home,” answered a voice.
- 69. “And who are the other two, Honora Pembroke?” demanded the priest. “Annette and Lawrence. We have been arranging flowers for Our Lady.” “That’s well. Good-night!” He pulled the sash down with a bang; but Honora, smiling in the dark, still held her companions beneath the window. It opened again with another bang. “Children!” he called out. “Yes, father!” “God bless you! Good-night!” Again the sash came down, more gently this time, and the light and the kind heart went on climbing up the stairway. “He wouldn’t have slept well to-night if he had not said ‘God bless you!’ to us,” said Miss Pembroke. “And I believe we shall sleep better for it, too, God bless him!” They walked up the steep hillside from the lower part of the town toward South Avenue. Half-way up the hill, on a cross-street that led out toward the country, was the cottage in which Lawrence Gerald lived with his mother, his aunt, and Honora Pembroke. As they approached this road, Annette Ferrier’s heart fluttered. Lawrence had been very amiable that evening. He had praised her, had twice smiled very kindly, and had put her shawl over her shoulders before they came out, as though he were really afraid she might take cold. Perhaps he would leave Honora at home first, and then go up with her. What great good this would do her she could not have explained; for seldom had she heard from him a word too tender to be spoken before witnesses. Still, she wished it. He might say something kind, or listen willingly to some word of affection from her. At any rate, she would be a little longer in his company. Miss Pembroke anticipated her wish, or had some other reason for making the proposal. “Just go as far as the gate with me, and
- 70. then you can escort Annette,” she said. “You will not mind a few extra steps, Annette?” “Oh! come up with us,” the young man interposed hastily. “It is a beautiful night for walking, and I know you are not tired yet. You can bear twice the walking that Annette can.” She hesitated a moment, then went on with them. His request displeased her on more than one account: she did not like his indifference to the company of his promised wife, and she did not like his preference for being with herself. But his mother would be anxiously watching for him; and it would be something if he could be lured in at an early hour after a quiet evening. Down in the black heart of the town, among the offices, was a certain back room where the windows were not so closely curtained but those who watched outside could see a thread of light burning all night long. To this room men went sometimes in the hope of mending their fortunes, or, after the demon of gambling had caught them fast, to taste of that fiery excitement which had now become to them a necessity. Honora more than suspected that Lawrence Gerald’s steps had sometimes turned in there. A year or two before, in one of his good moods, he had confessed it to her, with an almost boyish contrition, and had promised never to go again. It was his last confession of the sort, but, she feared, not his last sin. Of what worth were the promises of a weak, tempted man who never sought earnestly the help of God to strengthen his resolution? Of no more value than an anchor without a cable. Lawrence needed to be watched and cared for; so she went on with them. “I am so sorry to trouble you both,” Miss Ferrier exclaimed, in a voice trembling with anger and disappointment. “I could have had John come for me, if I had thought.” She snatched her hand from the arm of her escort, and pulled her shawl about her with nervous twitches. “It would have been better to have had John,” Honora said; “for he could have gone home with me. I am the troublesome third, as it is. But then,” speaking lightly, “if I am the last, Lawrence will be obliged to go in early.”
- 71. With another twitch of her shawl, Annette took her escort’s arm again as abruptly as she had left it, and, held it closely. Careless as the last words had sounded, she knew their meaning, for there had been something said on this subject before. She chose to take it defiantly now, and it comforted her to do so. Others might blame and doubt him, but she would not. He seemed nearer to her in the light of her superior devotedness than to any one else. She would never fail him; and by-and-by he would know her worth. The glow of this fervent hope warmed the girl’s chilled heart, and gave her a sort of happiness. And so they reached the house, and, after a quiet good-night, separated. The walk back was passed in silence; and Miss Pembroke did not choose to lean on her companion’s arm; she wished to hold her dress out of the dust. The street they went through was one of those delightful old ones which a city sometimes leaves untouched for a long time. Over- arching elms grew thickly on either side, and the houses were all detached. Midway up this street stood the cottage of the Geralds, with a garden in front and at the back, and a narrow green at right and left. Three long windows in front, lighting the parlor, reached almost to the ground. The steep roof slanted to a veranda at each side, leaving but one upper window over the three—a wide window with casements swinging back from the middle. The cottage was in the shape of a cross, and at one arm of it a lighted window shone out on the veranda. At sound of the gate-latch, the curtain was drawn aside a little, and a woman looked out an instant, then hastened to open the door. “Are we late, Mrs. Gerald?” Honora asked, and stepped forward into the sitting-room. “Oh! no, dear; I did not expect you any sooner.” Mrs. Gerald lingered in the doorway, looking back at her son as he stopped to leave his hat and overcoat in the entry, and only
- 72. entered the sitting-room when she had caught a glimpse of his face as he came toward her. He was looking pleasant, she saw, and was contented with that. “Well, mother!” he said, and sank indolently into the arm-chair she pushed before the open fire for him. It was the only arm-chair in the room. She drew another chair forward, and seated herself beside him. Honora, sitting on a low stool in the corner, with the firelight shining over her, told what they had been doing that afternoon and evening. The son listened, his eyes fixed on the fire; the mother listened, her eyes fixed on her son. Mrs. Gerald was an Irish lady of good descent, well educated, and well mannered, and had seen better days. We do not call them better days because in her girlhood and early married life this lady had been wealthy, but because she had been the happy daughter of excellent parents, and the happy wife of a good man. All were gone now but this son; the husband dead for many a year, the daughters married and far away, the wealth melted from her like sunset gold from a cloud; but Lawrence was left, and he filled her heart. One could read this in her face as she watched him. It revealed the pride of the mother in that beautiful manhood which she had given to the world, and which was hers by an inalienable right that no one could usurp; and it revealed, too, the entire self-forgetfulness of the woman who lives only in the life so dear to her. The face showed more yet; for, hovering over this love and devotion as the mist of the coming storm surrounds the full moon, and rings its softened brightness with a tremulous halo, one could detect even in the mother’s smile the mist of a foreboding sadness. How ineffable and without hope is that sadness which is ever the companion of a too exclusive affection! Honora Pembroke looked at the two, and pain and indignation, and the necessity for restraining any expression of either, swelled in her heart, painted her cheeks a deep red, and lifted her lids with a fuller and more scornful gaze than those soft eyes were wont to give. Where was the courtesy which any man, not rudely insensible,
- 73. should show to a lady? Where the grateful tenderness that any child, not cruelly ungrateful, pays to a mother? This man could be gallant when he wished to make a favorable impression; and she had heard him make very pretty, if very senseless, speeches about chivalry and ideal characters, as if he knew what they were. He had even, in the early days of their acquaintance, maintained for a long time an irreproachable demeanor in her presence. She was learning a doubt and distrust of men, judging them by this one, of whom she knew most. Were they often as selfish and insensible as he was? Were they incapable of being affected by any enchantment except that which is lent by a delusive distance? Here beside him was an ideal affection, and he accepted it as he accepted air and sunshine—it was a matter of course. The mother was in person one who might satisfy even such a fastidious taste as his; for though the face was thin and faded, and the hands marred by household labor, there were still the remains of what had once been a striking beauty. Mrs. Gerald carried her tall form with undiminished stateliness, her coal- black hair had not a single thread of white among its thick tresses, and her deep-blue eyes had gained in tenderness what they had lost in fire. To use one of Miss Pembroke’s favorite expressions, it was not fitting that the son, after having passed a day without fatigue, should lounge at ease among cushions, while the mother, to whom every evening brought weariness, should sit beside him in a chair of penitential hardness. But even while she criticised him, he looked up from the fire, his face brightening with a sudden pleasant recollection. “O mother! I had almost forgotten,” he said, and began searching in his pockets for something. “Neither you nor Honora mentioned it; but I keep count, and I know that to-day your ladyship is five times ten years old.” He smiled with a boyish pleasure more beautiful than his beauty, and the little touch of self-satisfaction he betrayed was as far as possible from being disagreeable. He could not help knowing that he was about to give delight, and cover himself with honor in the eyes of these two women.
- 74. “Now, mother,” opening a tiny morocco case, “this is the first ring I ever gave any woman. The one I gave Annette was only a diamond of yours reset, and so no gift of mine. But this your good- for-nothing son actually earned, and had made on purpose for you.” He drew from the case a broad gold ring that sparkled in the firelight as if set with diamonds, and, taking the trembling hand his mother had extended caressingly at his first words, slipped the circlet onto her finger. “I had no stone put in it, because I want you to wear it all the time,” he said. “Doesn’t it fit nicely?” “My dear boy!” Mrs. Gerald exclaimed, and could say no more; for tears that she wished to restrain were choking her. A fiftieth birthday is not a joyful anniversary when there is no one but one’s self to remember that it has come. Just as the mother had given up hope, and was making to herself excuses for his not remembering it, her son showed that it had been long in his thought. The joy was as unexpected as it was sweet. When she said her prayers that night, Mrs. Gerald’s clasped hands pressed the dear gift close to her cheek; and no maiden saying her first prayer over her betrothal-ring ever felt a tenderer happiness or more impassioned gratitude. “Dear Lawrence! it was so nice of you!” whispered Honora, and gave him her hand as she wished him good-night. He threw himself back in the arm-chair again when he was left alone, and for a few minutes had a very pleasant sense of being happy and the cause of happiness. “Who would think that so much fun could be got out of a quiet evening spent in tying Mayflowers round a pole, and giving a gold birthday ring to one’s mother?” he mused. “After all, the good people have the best of it, and we scape- graces are the ones to be pitied. If I were rich, I should be all right. If I had even half a chance, I would ask no more. But the poverty!” He glanced about the room, then looked gloomily into the fire again. Yes; poverty was there—that depressing poverty which speaks of decayed fortunes. The carpet, from which the brilliant velvet pile was
- 75. worn nearly off, the faded and mended covers of the carved chair- frames, the few old-fashioned ornaments which had been retained when all that would sell well had gone to the auction-room, each showed by the scrupulous care with which it had been preserved a poverty that clung to the rags of prosperity in the past because it saw no near hope of prosperity in the future. Miles of unbroken forest could be seen from the cupolas of Crichton; yet in this room the very stick of wood that burned slowly on the andirons was an extravagance which Mrs. Gerald would not have allowed herself. “Yes; the good ones have the best of it,” the young man repeated, rousing himself. He drew the andirons out, and let the unconsumed stick down into the ashes, lighted a candle, and turned the gas off. Then, candle in hand, he stood musing a moment longer, the clear light shining over his face, and showing an almost childlike smile coming sweetly to his lips. “After all,” he said softly, “I haven’t been a bad fellow to-night,” and with that pleased smile still lingering on his face, went slowly out of the room. And so the stillness of night descended, and deep sleep brooded over the town as the lights went out. Crichton was a well-governed city: no rude broils disturbed its hours of darkness. Decency was in power there, and made itself obeyed. You might see a doctor’s buggy whirl by, like a ghost of a carriage, its light wheels faintly crunching the gravel; for only the business streets were paved. Now and then, on still nights, might be heard the grating of ropes, as some vessel sailed up to the wharf after a long ocean voyage. Perhaps a woman in one of the houses on the hill above would hear that sound through her dream, and start up to listen, fancying that, in the word of command the soft breeze bore to her casement, she could detect a familiar voice long unheard and anxiously waited for. Perhaps the sailor, whose swift keel had shot like an arrow past the heavy junk of Chinese waters, and scattered, as it approached the shore, clear reflections of tufted palms and dusky natives—perhaps he looked eagerly up the hill to
- 76. that spot which his eyes could find without aid of chart or compass, and saw suddenly twinkle out the lamp in the window of his home. But except for such soft sounds and shadowy idyls, Crichton was at night as still as sleep itself. The Crichtonians had a pleasant saying that their city was built by a woman, and the best compliment we can pay them is that they made this saying proudly, and kept in honored remembrance the hand of the gentle architect. But not so much in brick and stone was it acknowledged, though they owed to her their first ideas of correct and symmetrical building: in their society, high and low, in many of their pretty customs, in their tastes, in their freedom from bigotry of opinions, even in their government, they felt her influence. While the city lies sleeping under the stars, strong, adult, and beautiful, full of ambitious dreams, full, too, of kind and generous feeling, let us go back to the time when, an infant town, it began to use its powers, and stammer brokenly the alphabet of civilization. Hush, fair city, all thy many thousands, while the angels watch above thee! and, sweeter marvel yet! while the dear Lord waits unsleeping in thy midst, where that solitary taper burns. Sleep in peace, “poor exiled children of Eve,” and be grateful at least in dreams. Not very long ago, this place was a wild forest, with a rude little settlement hewn out of it on the river’s banks. It was shut in from the world, though the world was not far distant. But the river was broad and deep, the ocean only ten miles away, and within a few miles were large and growing cities. Soon the sound of the axe and the saw were heard, and little craft, sloops and schooners, floated down the Saranac laden with lumber till the water rippled close to the rails. The story of her growth in this regard is the story of a thousand other towns. The vessels grew larger, their voyages longer, more houses were built, some men became comparatively wealthy and gave employment to others, while the majority kept the level of the employed. Social distinctions began to show themselves, detestable ones for the most part, since there was no social cultivation. Indeed, this poor settlement was in a fair way to become
- 77. the most odious of towns. The two meeting-houses began to be called churches by the aspiring; the leading woman of the town ventured to call her help a servant (on which the indignant “help” immediately deserted her); and the first piano appeared. But let us mention this piano with respect, for it was the pioneer of harmony. When Crichton had about fifteen hundred inhabitants, a stranger came there one day, as a passenger on board a bark returning from a distant city. This bark was the chief vessel, and was owned by the three chief men of Crichton. It had gone away laden with laths, and it brought back tea, coffee, sugar, and other foreign groceries; and, more than all, it brought Mr. Seth Carpenter. He was not, apparently, a very remarkable man in any way, except as all strangers were remarkable in this young town. He was plain-looking, rather freckled, and had a pair of small and very bright eyes which he almost closed, in a near-sighted way, when he wished to see well. Behind those eyes was a good deal of will and wit, and the will to put the wit into immediate practice. Moreover, he knew how to hold his tongue very cleverly, and baffle the curious without offending them. Nothing but his name transpired. He might be a mountebank, a detective, a king’s son—how were these people to know? In fact, he was nothing more mysterious than a respectable young man twenty-five years of age, who, having his fortune to make, had thought best to leave his prim, sober, native town, where nothing was being done, and where the people were mummies, and seek what, in modern parlance, is called a “live” place. In his pockets he had nothing but his hands; in his valise was a single change of linen. The very morning of his arrival at Crichton, Mr. Seth Carpenter went to the highest hill-top, and from it viewed the town, the river, and the receding forests. He then strolled down to the river, and looked through the mills, and from there sauntered to the ship-yard, where he found a ship on the stocks, almost ready to be launched. He walked round the yard, whistling softly, with an air of critical indifference. He paused near two other men who were viewing the ship, and, since their conference was not private, listened to it.
- 78. One of these men, a sailor, rather thought he might make up his mind to buy that ship. Did his companion know what was likely to be asked for it? The other reckoned, and calculated, and guessed, and expected, and finally owned that he did not know. Mr. Carpenter, his eyes winking fast with the sparks that came into them, and his fingers working nervously, walked out of the yard, and found the owner of the ship, and, still with nothing in his pockets but his hands, made his bargain with all the coolness of a millionaire. Before sunset, the ship was nominally his; and, before sunrise, it had changed owners again, and the young adventurer had made five hundred dollars by the bargain. “I will yet rule the town!” he said exultingly, when he found himself alone; and he kept his word. Everything prospered with him, and in a short time even rivalry ceased. Men who had been proud to add dollar to dollar shrank and bowed before this man who added thousand to unit. Half the men in town, after ten years, were in his employment, and business prospered as he prospered. In another ten years, Crichton was a city, with all barriers down between her and the great world; but a raw, unkempt city; jealous, superficially educated, quarrelsome, pretentious, and rapidly crystallizing into that mould. Only a person of supreme position and character could now change it. Mr. Carpenter had the position, but not the character. He thought only of money-making, and of the excitement of enterprise and power; the rest he viewed with a pleasant indifference not without contempt. At forty-five he was still a bachelor. We have mentioned the first piano with respect, because others followed in its train, rendering a music-teacher necessary; so that, after a succession of tyros, Miss Agnes Weston came, bringing the very spirit of harmony with her into the town she was to conquer. She did not come as a conqueror, however; nor probably did she anticipate the part she was to play any more than the Crichtonians did. She came to earn her bread, and, while doing so, was anything but popular. Nothing but her brilliant musical abilities, and the fact that she had been educated at Leipsic, saved her from utter failure.
- 79. People did not fancy this self-possessed, unpretending young person, who could sometimes show such a haughty front to the presuming, and who was, moreover, so frightfully dark and sallow. They did not understand her, and preferred to leave her very much to herself. One person only found her not a puzzle. To Mr. Carpenter she was simply a refined woman among uncongenial associates; becoming discontented and unhappy there, too, before many months had passed. He did not choose that she should go away. He had become pleasantly accustomed to seeing her, had sometimes met her on her long walks out of town; and once, when he had politely offered to drive her home—an offer which any other lady in Crichton would have accepted beamingly, without the preliminary of an introduction—had been refreshed by receiving a cold refusal, and a surprised stare from a pair of large black eyes. The great man, surfeited with smiles and flatteries, was immensely pleased by this superciliousness. But though strangely disturbed at the prospect of Miss Weston’s leaving, he hesitated to speak the word which might detain her. A bachelor of forty-five does not readily determine on making a sensible marriage; it usually needs some great folly to spur him on to a change so long deferred. He had, moreover, two other reasons for delaying: he wanted a charming wife, and was in doubt whether even his power could transform this lady into his ideal: the other reason had blue eyes, and a dimple in its chin, and was a very silly reason. But no one who knew this gentleman would expect him to remain long in doubt on any subject. Within a month from the day he first entertained the thought of running such a risk, Crichton was electrified by the announcement that Mr. Carpenter was soon to be married to Miss Weston; and, before they had recovered from their first astonishment, the marriage had taken place, and the quiet, dark-faced music-teacher was established as mistress of an imposing mansion on North Avenue.
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