Here are two enterprising ways of cutting food waste: A hotel and an organic farm work together to turn kitchen waste into compost while a food foundation gets surplus food for the needy. The  Star  presents former manager Will Chua, who left his job to dedicate himself to organic famring. He says food waste makes the best compost for organic farming. With four of the close friends from his student times in Melbourne got together with Chua to start an organic farm. It all fell into place when they met Ah Lek, a 47-year-old organic farmer who was struggling with not enough land and with having to deal with middlemen who forced his prices down.

It started off at first as an effort to “Feed Our Loved Ones”, which is how Folo Farm got its name. Then Ah Lek told them about 72-year-old Pierre Loisel, a French-Canadian who has become a bit of a hero in Taiwan for turning food waste into compost to grow organic vegetables, which he used to feed and heal his wife who had breast cancer. The guys went over to Taiwan to meet Loisel who generously shared his knowledge with them.

Eight months ago, they gave it a shot, setting up their own composting centre on a plot of land one of them had in Ulu Tiram, Johor. Chua admits it was a hassle initially to get hotels and restaurants to give them their food waste until Hotel Renaissance JB agreed. Chef Mahady says it actually serves the international hotel well to give their food waste to Folo Farm to be turned into compost.“They use it to fertilize their soil so they are giving back to the Earth. These vegetables are used to feed their families and friends and if they have extra they give it away to orphans and old folks homes so there is also charity involved. And we save quite a lot of money because we don’t need to pay anyone to come in and collect our kitchen and food waste. We save on carbon emission as well. So we are basically helping to save the earth as well,” he explained.