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.
The British grocery market is monopolised by large retailers, the big four grocery retailers had a combined market share of 78% in November 2008, and continue to maintain a stranglehold on the market. This is interesting as it is these supermarkets that control where and how we get hold of our food. As This is Rubbish likes to point out, most of the focus of the problem of food waste has been directed onto the individual, however only around 40% of food waste occurs in the home, and the rest of it is happening further up the supply chain. Many of the This is Rubbish retinue are freegans, and all one has to do is to slip into the backyard bins of supermarket stores (which are funnily enough often wrapped in barbed wire, as if they contain dangerous criminals, which is how the supermarkets will come to be seen if they don’t manage their food supply chain sustainably) to see how much food is chucked at the retail component of the supply chain. This is only a small proportion of food waste that the supermarkets are responsible for generating. Food waste of vast quantities occur at every stage of the food supply chain, and this food supply chain primarily serves to sustain the supermarket shelf. So the question is, what can the public do about this covetous and dismissive culture? Well, firstly we can all change our own behaviour, working hard to minimise food waste in the home, and then we can lobby and campaign.
At Feeding the 5000 This is Rubbish managed to secure the signatures of almost 1000 people agreeing with our proposed policy change. The political asks that This is Rubbish advocate are that all supermarkets are made to publish annual reports quantifying amounts of food waste generated, conducted by an independent auditor. We then wish to see annual food waste reduction targets set and met, so that supermarkets are held accountable for the amount of food waste they generate and then made to meet reduction targets. Seeing as no supermarket currently publishes quantities of food waste they generate, the only way we can reveal such a dismissive culture is to dive into bins and follow the retail food supply chain from farm to shelf. Various campaigners have examined at what stage food waste occurs in the supermarket supply chain, and WRAP are about to publish a report examining where food waste occurs in the supply chain. However, the point is that the revelation of food waste should not be left to the action of lone campaigners and seminal investigative reports, but policy needs to implemented that makes it obligatory for supermarkets to report on the amount of edible food that leaks out of their supply chain at every link and give good reason for such squanderance. If you would like to support our campaign, please sign our letter addressed to Dan Norris and join our facebook group to keep up to date with our campaign plans. Feeding the 5000 was a fantastically powerful event that clearly demonstrated the scale and severity of the problem of food waste, and it is from such a potent birth that This is Rubbish intends to sculpt its youthful and dedicated campaign from.
