Text and featured image by Judit Molnár, Hungary
1.3 billion tonnes of food go to waste around the world each year, an alarming number considering that 26,000 children die of hunger every single day and that eight million people are severely malnourished.
Although the food we produce would be enough to feed the world’s population twice over, overproduction is still the norm.
“In the European Union, we waste a lot of food”, said Arne Gericke, a Member of the European Parliament. He explained that while the question of food scarcity typically comes up in a non-European context, it is necessary to start examining the European Union’s role in the processes that contribute to the issue.
Furthermore, he urged to explore alternative ways to create a sustainable system that could result in fairer access to nutrition, considered a basic human right by the United Nations, and encouraged following in the footsteps of some outstanding young people whose projects have grown out of such efforts.
One such example was created by Iseult Ward, a young entrepreneur and founder of NGO FoodCloud, which won the Social Entrepreneurs' Ireland Impact award in 2014. The concept of the start-up is very simple: it connects businesses that have too much food to charities in their communities that have too little. By providing an app where businesses with surplus food can list the items they would like to dispose of, they give the opportunity to charities to pick exactly what they would have the best use of and redistribute it to those in need.
According to Ward, the project has been highly popular especially because it has given people in precarious situations the access to items that they would have never been able to purchase for themselves.
Although she thinks there is still a lot of work to be done to change people’s rigid attitude to “best before” dates (which are not the same as “expires by” dates) and the notion of waste, she is positive about the future and believes that such projects are a good way of moving towards a sustainable tomorrow.
Recycling food
Julie Van Mulders from Young Charitas argued that the discarded 30% of the overall food production is food that is stolen from the dinner table of the poor. The Young Charitas puts an emphasis on enhancing social inclusion through bringing recycled food into people’s lives. Apart from organising food markets, where people in need can fill their baskets with unlimited amounts of reclaimed food for €3, they also support women in crisis situations, whose bonding often starts through the food donated to them by charities.
“First they might just ask each other what an avocado is, because they have never seen such a vegetable in their lives, but the next day, they would already be sharing recipes and the third, they would all be cooking and eating together, a process which hugely contributes to their reintegration into society,” Van Mulders explained.
New ways for sustainable food management
When it comes to food, the best attitude one can adopt is to consciously avoid the production of waste, noted Vanessa Hofeditz, the president of International Young Naturefriends. During a workshop, she discouraged participants from opting for a catering service when hosting an event.
“By having a cook on the venue instead, a certain amount can be prepared at a time and if it runs out, it can always be replaced by cooking more. This is the only way to come close to the actual amount that will be consumed and to avoid having to throw anything away. It is only a simple change to how we do things, but if followed by many, it is bound to have a massive impact, not only on our environment, but on people’s attitude towards our resources,” she explained.
