This is Rubbish host ‘Feast’ at Machynlleth Market, Wednesday 10th November from 12 – 2pm, a theatrical community banquet from food that would otherwise have been wasted.

Over 20 million tonnes of good food is wasted in the UK alone every year whilst 4 million of its citizens are unable to access or afford a nutritional diet. If we stopped wasting food that could have been eaten, we could also reduce environmental impacts, the equivalent of taking 1 in 4 cars off UK roads! Tackling the problem at every stage of the food supply chain can significantly reduce green house gas emissions, save consumers money and stop good food going to waste.

This is Rubbish is an anti food waste campaign that aims to demonstrate the industrial scale of food waste through arts led public events. This Wednesday they host a banquet on Machynlleth Market, where you can literally ‘feast’ on the surrounding issues of food waste. More

This is Rubbish are very pleased and excited to be collaborating with The Arcola Theatre and Pangolin’s Ark. On Sunday the 11th April The Arcola Theatre, This is Rubbish and Pangolin’s Ark will host a day of sustainable food themed talks, activities and workshops, followed by a fine food waste and sustainably sourced feast.

Buy tickets for the feast here

We are currently scheduling the workshops and a detailed program of the day will be released soon. Tickets for the feast will also be on sale in the very near future. Watch this space!

If you fancy getting involved with a crew chopathon and baking session, we’re looking for volunteers to help prepare and cook the food on the Saturday, and volunteers to help prepare and serve the food during the evening event on Sunday. The soil service (waitresses and waiters) will be dressed up as soil particles, salad and vegetables and service will be very interactive and incredibly earthy!

Give us a shout if you are interested on helping out on day that is set to be super soily and sustainably wonderful.

info@thisisrubbish.org.uk

poppy@pangolins-ark.co.uk

TiR were invited to run a food waste workshop at Hungry for Activism, which was a public food policy event taking place in Leeds Civic Hall on the 20th February.

The day started with an early rise and some last minute amendments of the very first TiR power point presentation, some carefully selected outfits and a healthy dose of porridge. Arriving at Leeds civic hall was a pleasant affair, a large ice rink stood in front of an even bigger building, that stood authoritatively and with a light grandiose.

When we entered the building, we were shown the TiR workshop / presentation room; the central council chamber. The room was a large oblong set out in a oval seating arrangement with a huge tapestry set behind the main desk, mahogany seats encircled the main floor and balcony viewing platforms sat at each end of the room. It felt very official and archaically political, which of course it was. Voting ballot boxes were set in discreet draws in front of every seat, likewise, every seat had its own microphone. I was reminded of images from Copenhagen conferences, which was more intimidating than exciting, but the setting really emphasized the very political nature of food waste, production and availability. More

TiR attended the Soil Association Conference on Wednesday 3rd February 2010. The conference focused heavily on debating the contrasting farming methods of organic and conventional farming.

In view of decreasing oil and fossil fuel availability, massively reduced soil fertility and chemically intensive agriculture, the onus was placed on the need for a radical transition from conventional intensive farming to a sustainable organic farming methodology.

Organic farming is different to intensive farming as it bans chemical fertilizers, heavily restricts the use of pesticides, disallows the use of chemical medicines, and antibiotics and instead encourages preventative livestock rearing methods such as maintaining larger fresher pastures and keeping smaller herds, GM feedstock for livestock is also prohibited. Conversely, conventional intensive farming frequently creates dense monocultures of crop and livestock, encouraging high yields through the thick application of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and dosing animals with chemical antibiotics. When synthetic fertilizers are applied to soil they are released quickly, so enabling rapid crop growth. However, the chemical fertilizers are an illusion of fertility as they maim living organisms in the soil. Once application is reduced, it takes a long time for the microbial life in the soil to recover. Such intense chemical application also decreases the soil organic matter, a vital range of ingredients that allows soil to lock up carbon, which if encouraged could be an effective carbon reduction land management method. More

Books
Waste
Tristram Stuart
Publisher : Penguin (02 Jul 2009)
ISBN: 9780141036342
Tescopoly, How One Shop Came Out on Top and Why it Matters
Marcus Simms
IBSN; 9781845295110
Soil Not Oil: Environmental Justice in an Age of Climate Crisis
Vandana Shiva
Publisher: South End Press (October 1, 2008)
ISBN-10: 0896087824
The Political Economy of Diet, Health and Food Policy
Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (November 10, 1998)
ISBN-10: 0415163668
Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply
Vandana Shiva
Publisher: South End Press; Soft Cover edition (January 1, 2000)
ISBN-10: 0896086070
Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System
Raj Patel
Publisher: Melville House; 398 edition (April 1, 2008)
ISBN-10: 1933633492
Local Food – how to make it happen in your community
Transition publications (2009)

Films
King Corn (2007)
The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil (2006)
Our Daily Bread (2006)
Super Size Me (2004)
Food, Inc. (2009)
End of the line (2009)
Slaughterhouse; the task of blood (2008)

On Wednesday 20th January This is Rubbish attended the Cymru WRAP Resource Efficiency conference in Cardiff.

The conference was organised to discuss three main issues; how can businesses realise the benefits of reducing waste, how can resource efficiency help Wales achieve its climate change targets and how can WRAP Cymru and Government help. The conference bought together over 100 business leaders, environmental experts and members of the WAG Government.

Waking up early on Wednesday and going through the agenda, we weren’t sure of how the conference really related to This is Rubbish’s campaign objectives, as there was no specific mention of food waste. The focus was on reducing waste and maximising the efficient use of resources in general. The agenda looked broad and potentially too business- focused for our campaign to really be relevant in the context. We decided to go anyway and get our first taste of a corporate, political and expert waste reduction discussion. More

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. More