Waste Not, Want Not – We Can’t Sustain Our Throwaway Culture

We live in a world of convenience, buying three items for the price of two when only one is needed. We need to go back to basics

Previous generations who lived in rural Ireland consumed what they grew, bought only what they needed, and knew how to cook a meal from leftovers.

It was a lifestyle embedded in good housekeeping, economic need, and an adherence to an inherited philosophy that is neatly summed up in the simple message: “Waste not, want not.” People planted potatoes and vegetables in their back gardens, reared hens that laid eggs, had their own milk supply, cured salty bacon, baked bread and cakes, cooked apples from the orchard, and made their own butter and jams.

It was a self-sufficient society compared to today’s modern world of convenience foods with less time spent in the kitchen and a tendency to buy three food items for the price of two when only one is needed.

Previous generations would be shocked that a third of the edible food produced globally for human consumption today — 1.3bn tonnes — is lost or wasted. The financial costs are estimated at about $1trn each year.

Nearly a billion hungry people could be fed on less than a quarter of the food wasted in the United States, Britain, and Europe, while 1.4bn hectares of land, 28% of the world’s agricultural area, is also used annually to produce food that is never eaten.

The volume of water utilised to produce food that is lost or wasted is equivalent to the annual flow of Russia’s Volga River, three times that of Lake Geneva and over 100 times what flows through the River Shannon.

Ireland generates over one million tonnes of food waste per year. The average household is responsible for 117kgs of that waste, costing each between €400 and €1,000 per year. Home composting is one way to reduce waste. Picture: iStock

Food waste during Covid-19 is also causing concern. Food banks across the developed world now expect a significant increase in demand, due to a surge in job losses, poverty, and starvation arising from the crisis.

The flagship State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2020 Report, produced by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FA0), with four other UN agencies, estimates that the pandemic could force a further 130m people into chronic hunger by year-end.

Now more than ever, the FAO said, there is a need to promote and implement global efforts towards resolving the issue. That is why the UN General Assembly has designated September 29 as the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste.

Ireland generates over one million tonnes of food waste per year — 55% of it in processing and 45% in the commercial and household sectors. The average household is responsible for 117kgs of that waste, costing each between €400 and €1,000 per year.

While some food waste is anaerobically digested to make biogas, or is composted or rendered to make animal feed, much of it still ends up in landfills, where it releases methane, a greenhouse gas. Many multi-sectoral schemes and partnerships are in place to help various sectors to reduce the volumes.

Research funded by the Environment Protection Agency indicated last year that much of the 250,000 tonnes of food waste generated annually by commercial food businesses in Ireland, such as restaurants, shops, and workplace canteens, is avoidable with potential savings of over €300m per year for the hospitality sector alone.

Richard Bruton, the then communications, climate action, and environment minister, speaking last year, said about 70% of the food wasted every year in Ireland comes from industry, costing Irish business over €2bn annually.

Stop Food Waste, an EPA prevention campaign, provides guidance and resources to help consumers through education, training, recognition of local champions and promotions help to raise awareness and empower citizens to change their behaviour to reduce food waste.

The campaign, managed by the Clean Technology Centre at Cork Institute of Technology, works with householders, communities, schools, local authorities, Tidy Towns groups, Irish Peatland Conservation Council (IPCC), and businesses on reducing waste and provides training and information on home composting.

CTC is one of three groups that will receive funding this year from the Department of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine under the Rural Innovation and Development Fund for initiatives to reduce food waste generated by food businesses, retailer/wholesalers, or suppliers in rural areas. It has been approved for €98,550 funding for the continued development and national roll-out of the Savour Food programme, which offers bespoke support to implement solutions tackling food waste that suit the individual needs of engaged businesses.

Food Cloud, the social enterprise that connects businesses that have surplus food with charities and community groups that need it, has been awarded €100,00 for a project that involves the development of technology to alert volunteers when and where surplus food is available and what local charities can accept it, and for the training and recruitment of volunteers.

Another €100,000 is being allocated to Foodie Save for the development of an app that allows businesses in the commercial food sector to sell their unsold surplus food at the end of their business day.

Ireland, along with almost 200 other countries, is meanwhile committed to the UN Sustainable Development Goals relating to climate change, one of which is to halve per capita global food waste at retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains by 2030.

(Source – Irish Examiner – Farming – Ray Ryan – 31/08/2020)