TEMPO.CO, Bonn -
Deutsche Welle was celebrating its 60th year of broadcasting to the world in Bonn, Germany, two weeks ago, with the theme 'The Future of Growth - Economic Values and the Media', discussing value-based approaches for a sustainable future and the stand the media should take in the debate.
Some 2,500 journalists and activists from around the world attended. One of the last panels of the event, titled 'The Fight Against Food Waste: Everybody's Responsibility From Farm to Fork' was held to a packed room.
Panelist Tristram Stuart, author of Feeding the 5000, said that a good 50 percent of all food in the world was thrown away. His fellow panelist, Dr. Maria Schinke, of the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, disagreed. She was of the opinion that the figure may not be that high.
Food waste happened everywhere, said Stuart, in the agriculture sector, industry, wholesaler trade, supermarkets and restaurants. Schinke stressed that food was also wasted in households. She pointed out that in Germany alone, some 11 million tons of food end up in the bin every year. "That amounts to 275,000 truckloads of food," she said. "Enough to feed a whole town in a poor country."
Food waste has serious consequences. Not only does it needlessly consume resources, water, energy and arable land, unnecessary production and transportation of foodstuff place additional strain on the environment. An estimated 30 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions are linked to people's eating habits.
A similar estimate was echoed separately by Dr. Amanda Katili of the Indonesian National Council for Climate Change, who herself held an event in Jakarta to decry food waste a few days before the Global Media Forum in Bonn.
Foodstuff that ends up as trash also impacts prices, and in turn the global food situation. "The more we waste, the higher the demand on the global market, which drives up prices everywhere," said Stuart.
To effectively reduce food waste in Germany, the Federal Ministry of Food launched the initiative 'Too Good for the Bin' in 2012, a first in Europe. Awareness-raising activities associated with the campaign have their focus where food waste is deemed the greatest: in private households.
Stuart, though, took issue, grumbling that the biggest purveyor of waste was the food industry, from when food leaves farms, enters into the supply chain, and ends up in an outlet either a supermarket or other businesses.
Martin Bruning, managing director of the German supermarket chain REWE group, took note, saying, "When all is said and done, reducing food waste must be a joint-effort along the entire chain." In other words from farm to fork or as is the case in Indonesia, where most people eat with their hands, to our fingertips.
The panel agreed there is as yet no firm figure on how much food is actually wasted by any country on any given day. Stuart is adamant that the waste amounts to half of the food processed, while studies in the UK hover on an estimate of 30 percent.
Close to the end of the session, a sharp comment came from winner of this year's Deutsche Welle Best of Social Activism blog, Houda Lamqaddam, of the Moroccan youth initiative 475. "The problem is, in Europe, you want food to look perfect. Does a perfect yellow banana of a uniform size really taste better than a small, squishy one?" In an aside to Tempo, she scoffed at rich countries who demand food whenever they want it, e.g. strawberries in winter. "In Africa," she said, "we know that when it's not in season, it's just not available."
In response, Stuart told Tempo English, "It's time we move forward with our Ugly Food campaign," a campaign gaining ground in the UK, where outlets are finding that people don't mind beans that don't measure the same length, nor fruit looking slightly wilted, as long as they are edible and are sold at cheaper prices.
DEBRA H. YATIM
