Tilt

Food waste in the western world has reached phenomenal proportions, with the average UK household wasting £480 per year on food. When totaled up this equates to over 18 million tonnes of edible food being thrown away every year with a staggering value of £23 billion. Food waste issues are prone to the shortfalls outlined by Meadow’s et al (1972) Human Perspectives model, which plots the decreasing human concern relative to the increasing temporal or spatial distance. Overcoming this shortfall of human perspectives is essential to ensuring suitable action is taken to reduce food wastage, and one such way is being explored by the Welsh based group ‘This is Rubbish’.

Human Perspectives Model from Limits to Growth (1972)

Three weeks ago, I attended an event at Hay Festival in Wales, called Green Dragons Den in which every day five projects pitched for £10,000 from the Welsh Government to support their venture. One of the most exciting projects which featured on the day dedicated to food projects, was ‘This is Rubbish’ and their waste food tour ‘Feast’. The project which gained a lot of attention at the festival, aimed to communicate the preventable scale of food wasted in the UK, through policy, community and arts led public events, highlighting the fact that supermarkets and pre-domestic waste are responsible for over 60% of all food waste. The campaign observes the success of other similar schemes such as WRAP: Love Food Hate Waste campaign, in tackling food waste in the home. But aims to build on these successes in combating the 60% of food wasted before it reaches consumers, within the supply chain itself through lobbying government and campaigning for the establishment of an independent commission responsible for annual auditing and publishing of waste.

Check out their website (http://www.thisisrubbish.org.uk) and pledge your support and to play your part in fighting off the impending food crises.