October 16, 2015, by Helen Whitehead
#lovefoodhatewaste on World Food Day
I’ve recently been following the #lovefoodhatewaste hashtag on Twitter. With recent news reports on the amount of food wasted worldwide, and the conference “Fight Food Waste, Feed the Planet” at Expo Milan 2015 tackling the issue of food waste with the EU and the UN, it’s very topical. Today, 16th October, World Food Day, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Director-General of FAO will be joined by the President of the Republic of Italy, and the Italian Ministers for Agriculture and Foreign Affairs for the official celebration of World Food Day 2015 at Expo Milan.
The figures are staggering. here are just some that struck me:
- Every year, consumers in industrialized countries waste almost as much food as the entire net food production of sub-Saharan Africa (222 million vs. 230 million tons)
- The amount of food lost and wasted every year is equal to more than half of the world’s annual cereals crops (2.3 billion tons in 2009/10)
- The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) estimates that global food production accounts for 70 percent of fresh water use and 80 percent of deforestation
There are many great initiatives around the world to tackle the problem of reducing food waste, some as small as one fridge and sharing a few recipes, others at national and international level.
- In Bilbao, Spain, restaurants and households are teaming up to not waste leftovers, using a “solidarity fridge” shared by an entire city.
- In New York, USA, food rescuers turn leftovers into lunch for the hungry [Video]
- The Real Junk Food Project: The Leeds, UK, cafe that has fed 10,000 people, using 20 tonnes of unwanted food – and started a worldwide movement
In our household, as our family-sized attempt to waste less food, we have “Banyan Day” which is the day we use up whatever’s in the fridge, leftovers or unused food. I’ve discovered this is a word maybe originally borrowed from India that in British naval tradition originally referred to a day of the week when ships’ galley kitchens did not serve meat.
Here are a few useful websites for Banyan Day recipes.
- Sainsbury’s Food Rescue website for recipes to use up food
- BBC Good Food leftovers recipes
- Love food, hate waste
Do you have any good projects or recipes to share? Join us for our free online course Sustainability, Society and You starting 2nd November on Futurelearn.
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