“Win. Don’t bin” – that is the theme of this year’s Food Waste Action Week, run by government-funded body WRAP and its daughter campaign Love Food, Hate Waste. It follows the usual trend of food waste campaigns putting most of the onus on households and individuals to reduce their waste. In comparison, my preferred alternativeContinue reading “Food Waste Action Week should look beyond households”
Tag Archives: food waste policy
The war on wonky: how cosmetic standards create mountains of food waste
In 2007, food campaigner Tristram Stuart visited M. H. Poskitt Carrots which supplied carrots to Asda. What he saw shocked him: carrots were continually discarded for not being the right size or shape, being broken, having a cleft or blemish, or not being the perfect colour. One of the most outrageous reasons for rejecting themContinue reading “The war on wonky: how cosmetic standards create mountains of food waste”
Hidden waste on farms in the UK: new report by WWF and Tesco
A new report by WWF called ‘Hidden Waste: The Scale and Impact of Food Waste in Primary Production’ shows the extent of food waste in primary production in the UK (which means where food is grown and harvested like on farms and in fisheries). It follows their report from June 2021 in which they assessContinue reading “Hidden waste on farms in the UK: new report by WWF and Tesco”
National Food Strategy: tackling food waste is low-hanging fruit
Four years ago, Henry Dimbleby, the co-founder of Leon, was asked by the government to carry out a review of the food system, particularly looking at the accessibility of healthy food and the impact of the food system on the environment. Two weeks ago, the government finally responded to the review in a policy paper.Continue reading “National Food Strategy: tackling food waste is low-hanging fruit”
WWF’s report on farm-level food waste
In July 2021, WWF published their report ‘Driven to Waste: The Global Impact of Food Loss and Waste on Farms‘. It added to the efforts of UNEP and the FAO to quantify how much food waste is made through supply chains, and help find solutions for Sustainable Development Goal 12.3. However, the definition of foodContinue reading “WWF’s report on farm-level food waste”
Food waste in UK politics – July 2021
I often talk about needing bigger, ‘system’ changes to tackle food waste, and one example of this is changing food waste policy. In July 2021: I’m beyond delighted that this amendment has been tabled (see page 9 here). But why this amendment? There are five problems that this amendment addresses: 1) Although only 3% ofContinue reading “Food waste in UK politics – July 2021”
UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2021: a brief analysis
When I first saw the headline from the UNEP report that 931 million tonnes of food is wasted a year, I was happy! In 2011, an FAO report said it was 1.3 BILLION tonnes. But then I read closer – it was because the UNEP report did not include farm-level food waste. In all likelihood,Continue reading “UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2021: a brief analysis”
Holes and goals: The UK’s curious food waste targets
Do we have the right food waste targets? Why does it matter? In my previous blog ‘What is food waste?’ I explored how food waste is defined, who comes up with the definitions, and what impact this could have on policy. Since then, I have read Feedback’s (strangely named) report “When there’s no waste, there’sContinue reading “Holes and goals: The UK’s curious food waste targets”
Food waste as art: Part 2
Can food waste be beautiful? This question was posed by a Your Story contributor and inspired the first blog on ‘Food waste as art’ back in September, where I explored how artists have captured the morbidly fascinating process of decay. It turns out that creating art from food waste is not a rare phenomenon, andContinue reading “Food waste as art: Part 2”
What gives food more value, and how does this reduce food waste?
“… what remains when the good, fruitful, valuable, nourishing and useful has been taken […] the tat, the lowly that has sunk to the depth of a value system”. Scanlan, 2005 As Scalan posits, and as I explore in the Longer read What is food waste?, waste is simply something that has lost value toContinue reading “What gives food more value, and how does this reduce food waste?”
FOOD WASTE STORIES 