Californian distillery makes vodka from food waste

San Diego-based distillery Misadventure & Company is fighting food waste by using unsold baked goods from a nearby food bank to produce its inaugural spirit, Misadventure Vodka.

The brainchild of bartender Whit Rigali and agricultural economist Samuel Chereskin, Misadventure & Company is founded upon the concept of "hedonistic sustainability" – the idea that doing good doesn't have to be a punishment. The company uses baked goods to produce the vodka because "they can still contain usable starches that can be converted to sugars that are then eaten by microscopic yeast and turned into marvellous alcohol". A statement on the company's website reads: "Precious resources are used to grow, package, transport, and sell food, but a large portion of it never reaches human mouths and is, instead, thrown away. At your local store unsold baked goods are often donated to food banks by mindful shop owners. This normally would be the food’s last stop before it was taken to the landfill. "Misadventure Vodka extends the useful life of these foods... We take what the environmental community calls 'food waste' and turn it into something better: clean, smooth vodka. "Every year American consumers, companies, and farmers spend US$218 billion, or 1.3% of US gross domestic product (GDP), growing, transporting, and disposing of 50-60 million tons of food that never gets eaten. Every drink you have of Misadventure Vodka is directly part of the solution." According to the National Resources Defense Council, 40% of food grown in the US ends up in a landfill.