Feeding the 5000 was a monumental indicator of the scale of food waste, and This is Rubbish was there to offer tasty testaments of the problem and practical policy based solutions. The symbolism of the event was potent while the physical actuality of the situation was far more vivid. Feeding the 5000 was a feast of epic proportions, and was made possible by the fact that there is so much food waste occurring in the global food supply chain. It is an ironic situation; delivering delicious food for free is not a gift, in this case it is a symptom of a fatally flawed system. When natural resources are scarce, 1 in 6 people suffer from malnutrition and food price spikes are set to become more frequent, we cannot tolerate such indecent squandering of food, and so as a form of resistance we had a This is Rubbish gathering in Trafalgar Square to feast on the waste. Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive Director, states that ” More than half the food produced today is either lost, wasted or discarded because of inefficiency, there is evidence … that the world could feed the entire projected population growth alone by becoming more efficient while also ensuring the survival of wild animals, birds and fish on this planet,” With such a large figure of edible food becoming waste being estimated, the question is where and how is this happening? This is Rubbish examines the home turf, in the belief that all change starts at home. Read on >

Yesterday in zero degree temperatures, and an almost constant light snowfall, people turned up at Trafalgar Square in their thousands to enjoy that rarest of occasions, a free lunch. Luckily for the assembled crowd This is Rubbish also braved the weather and provided delicious fruit smoothies to compliment the hot curry (all made from food that would have otherwise been wasted). The smiles all around make it clear we were in support. The question on everyone’s lips, ‘what is wrong with the food?’ no one could understand why our delicious feast was available to all for free and more than a few people where outraged and even quite visibly moved that in a world where millions die from– and hundreds of millions suffer from–malnutrition, all this food was destined for landfill or anaerobic digestion.

Given this setting: people eating free food prepared by us and questioning how that could even be possible, it probably isn’t surprising that we received a good reception. However, I think that it’s fair to say we where all overwhelmed by just how well things went. A group of us talked to people in the crowd and in the queue explaining our focus on retailers and talking about our aims. In this way we managed to get many hundreds of letters to Dan Norris signed (print your own off here). Once people had read the letter and had it explained I didn’t experience even one refusal to support our demands. For us this was a revelation, confirmation that the British public are not only fully supportive of mandatory rather than voluntary commitments to food waste, but that they understand the need for transparency on a supermarket by supermarket basis on how much food waste these businesses produce. Read on >