A recent FAO report on food waste was released in May at Save Food!, an international congress held in Düsseldorf at the trade fair of the international packaging industry Interpack2011.
Basically, people waste a lot of food. And the richer they are – the more they waste, “…by both retailers and consumers throwing perfectly edible foodstuffs into the trash”. The numbers are staggering of course and I won’t repeat them here.
What is interesting is the way these things are twisted by the various vested interest groups. The main message from the report, at least to my reading, seems to be:
“The advice is therefore to strengthen the food supply chain by assisting small farmers to link directly to buyers”
Where as foodproductiondaily.com is reporting it as Better food packaging can cut 1.3bn ton waste bill – um. I don’t think so.
The FAO report goes on to tick all the boxes we who like farmers markets and tasty apples know already.
At retail level, large quantities of food are also wasted due to quality standards that over-emphasize appearance ….
…. Selling farm produce closer to consumers, without having to conform to supermarkets’ quality standards, is another suggestion. This could be achieved through farmers’ markets and farm shops.
Food for thought.
Sophie's harvest