This is a student blog entry I wrote as part of my degree in Cardiff. I think it's an interesting and worrying topic, so I like to share it with you.

Fig.1: Distributing fridge

Saving food with a bike

My friend Jan got a bicycle trailer for Christmas. Why? He collects food that supermarkets, bakeries, cafés and restaurants would throw away otherwise. The trailer comes in handy for transporting bags, packages and baskets of fruit, vegetables, bread and cans. Jan built up a food distributing centre, publicly accessible shelves and fridge in his city. What lands on the shelf? Food that is still good and edible, but doesn’t look nice, has expired or just doesn’t fit customer standards anymore, for example because there are two brown apples in a pack of 12.

Jan is a food-saver - his work his unpaid, but significant. He recognized a big problem that is widely ignored: Food waste is not just a harmless externality of everyday life. It is not just the curry you forgot to eat that went mouldy in the fridge. It’s 15 million tonnes of food wasted in the UK every year. One third of food produced worldwide for human consumption is thrown away.[1]

Where food goes to waste

Food waste happens in production and consumption – Combined they are called “food wastage” by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). They released a report in 2013 itemising the several factors, countries and modes of production of food to better understand the problem.[2] Large organizations concerning agriculture and trade, like the EU, set standards for products that lead farmers to throw food away, as soon as during the harvest, because it doesn’t fit them.

The consumers, you included, have a big share in the responsibility, too. 48% of food waste happens at household level[3] It can be the bad packaging, the modes of consumption, bad planning of meals or uncertainty about “use by”-dates that leads you to binning food.

Environmental and social consequences

The greenhouse gas that is mostly emitted by food rotting on landfills, is methane (CH₄). Methane is 23 times more harmful to the atmosphere and the climate than CO₂. Livestock farming contributes most to methane emissions. Nitrous oxide has even 296 times the effect of CO_2.It is emitted in food production, especially through chemical fertilizers.[4] Food waste makes these emissions in the production even more harmful, because the climate is impacted for nothing. Food production accounts for 70% of fresh water use globally. Food waste means the waste of water. Pouring a glass of milk down the drain, equals 1000L of water.[5]

Fig. 2: Poster Foodsharing Edinburgh

Remember when your mum said: “Eat your vegetables, children in Africa are starving.”? Even though redistribution of food is not as easy as we would like it to be - we can’t just send your sandwich to Nigeria - there is a valid point to the argument. Industrialized countries waste food that could save the lives of people in developing countries.[6] The moral and social dimensions of food waste are enormous: Humans produce enough to feed everyone in the world. But the unequal distribution of wealth and access lead to people starving on one side of the world.

Politicizing food wastage

You might think: “Wait, why is the government not doing anything about it?”. It is in fact worrying, to see that a problem of this environmental and social scale is mostly tackled by charities and individuals. Governments could implement binding laws on businesses, as well on households to waste less. After a big reveal of food waste at Tesco and their attempts to reduce it, UK “government insists that such action should remain voluntary.”[7]

On the contrary, the France passed a law in 2015 to prohibit the disposal of food that is still good. Supermarkets that kept their containers closed or even poured bleach into, to avoid food savers “stealing” from them, are now obliged to give away the stuff that is still palatable to charities or as animal feed. According to Al Jazeera, the French “government is hoping to slice food waste in half by 2025.”[8]

A similar law in the UK and other countries could reduce food waste and raise the awareness of a multi-dimensional problem that concerns all layers of society. Food saving and sharing, like my friend Jan does, shouldn’t be criminalized – Rather they should be made the norm.

How you can start to fight food waste now

Look for food sharing groups in your area, e.g. download the app OLIO https://olioex.com/
Plan your meals - waste less[9]
Question “use by “- dates and trust your senses to judge
Think twice before you buy – The bigger package is not always the best economic solution, don’t go grocery shopping when you’re hungry
Offer others food. You made too much curry? Probably your house mates would love some. Give away to friends, neighbours, charities or homeless people.
Make your voice be heard – protest, send a letter to your MP

Bibliography

Al Jazeera (2015): France to ban food waste in supermarkets. Published on 22/05/2015. Available online at: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/05/france-food-waste-supermarkets-150522070410772.html

FAO (2013): Food wastage footprint. FAO – Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Available online at: http://www.fao.org/docrep/018/i3347e/i3347e.pdf

Foodsharing Scotland (2017) www.foodsharing.scot

Jacobson, Kurt (2015): The Environmental Impact of Food Waste. Move for Hunger. Available online at https://moveforhunger.org/the-environmental-impact-of-food-waste/

Nixon, Jack (2015): Food waste is becoming serious economic and environmental issue, report says. Published on 25/02/2015. New York Times. Available online at: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/26/us/food-waste-is-becoming-serious-economic-and-environmental-issue-report-says.html?_r=1

Sage, Colin (2012): Environment & Food. Published by Routledge. New York.

Smithers, Rebecca (2013): UK supermarkets face mounting pressure to cut food waste. Published on 21/10/2013. In: The Guardian. Available online at: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/oct/21/uk-supermarkets-pressure-cut-food-waste

WWF (2014): Small Steps to Reduce Food Waste. Published 06/11/2014 by Worldwide Fund for Nature. Available online at: http://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/small-steps-to-reduce-food-waste