A gardener is showing Instagram viewers how to prevent food waste when tomatoes have gone "bad."
Rayniel De Guzman (@urrbangarden), who has 112,000 followers and specializes in food and gardening tips, explains exactly what he does when his tomatoes don't look so good.
"I don't throw it away. That would be a waste," De Guzman says.
The scoop
The video begins with an image of a tomato being held by De Guzman. The fruit appears to be well past its prime.
He explains how instead of throwing the tomato into the trash, he just splits it in half and leaves it on top of the soil of his garden.
"This will keep some pests away from your plants, as it is a source of food, and as it decomposes that puts nutrients into the ground as well," De Guzman says, adding that the insects that eat the tomatoes are also beneficial to the soil.
How it's helping
Up to 10% of planet-warming pollutants come from food that goes to waste, in part because transportation accounts for about 6% of the food industry's contribution to the industrial activities heating our Earth.
Also, large swaths of land are needed to grow food, which means trees are cut down to make space for agriculture.
Trees actually help get rid of pollutants that warm the planet, so when we have fewer trees, there are more heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere.
Land use, especially that geared toward raising livestock for meat and dairy, is responsible for about 24% of the gases released from overall food production.
What everyone's saying
"I would not have thought of doing that," one commenter wrote.
"That is a brilliant idea!" another added.
"That happened to one of the organic ones I bought … was already growing seedlings, so I potted and ate the new ones later … was awesome!" another person admitted.
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