Everything in excess is an enemy to nature. Hippocraces
This is Rubbish exist because the UK food industry is responsible for generating approx 60 per cent of the 18 – 20 million tones of food wasted in the UK every year.1 Globally, as much as 50 per cent of food produced is wasted. As it stands, I have encountered food waste in large quantities at every stage of the supply chain in Wales and the UK. Both public and private sector policy makers are responding to evidence of the vast quantities of food being wasted, but change is slow.
The problem is, that avoidable waste comes at a cost to society and the environment. In the UK food poverty is on the rise, and globally, 1/7 people do not have enough to eat. 2 Meanwhile, the food industry consumes large amounts of natural resources while contributing to climate change. Cutting food waste will reduce hunger and greenhouse gas emissions while lessening demand on natural resources such as water and land.
We humans are united through the common experience of eating. This banal yet vital act ties us to the natural world. Natural resources such as water, soil, organic matter, land and ecosystems, underpin the production and consumption of food; yet these resources are under increasing pressure. The current food production system is highly dependent on finite resources and simultaneously responsible for generating vast quantities of green house gas emissions. Global agriculture is estimated to contribute 12–14% of greenhouse gas emissions, including those associated with fertiliser production; the figure rises to 30% or more when costs beyond the farm gate and especially land conversion are added. 3 On a more national level, 10% of the greenhouse gas emissions from the West come from growing food that is never eaten. 4
Evidence to accurately quantify global food waste is currently weak, but it is estimated that as much as 50% of food produced globally goes to waste. 5 The problem needs to be addressed as a political priority if global food systems are to feed over 8 billion people equitably and sustainably by 2030. As Jill Evens MEP stated at the Forum and Feast event, “What I’d like to see is targets, legally binding targets to reduce food waste. People want to reduce food waste, they want to see change, and it has to come from government.”
Food waste is on UK and EU political agendas. The British government has addressed the issue in reports such as Food 2030, The Foresight Future of Food and Farming Report, and Defra’s Waste Strategy for England. The UK government and WRAP are currently rolling out voluntary industry agreements on food waste, such as the Courtauld Commitment 1 & 2, and these are gaining far-reaching support from food businesses. These approaches are not working: the focus is overly directed at households, and industry-facing agreements such as the Courtauld Commitment are too unambitous to bring any significant change.
It is time for the government to be bold, and lead the way in introducing food waste audits and reduction targets that are legally binding. Any governmental policy change needs to clearly follow the waste hierarchy: food waste must first be prevented, reduced, and then redistributed. The aim of food sustainability should to be to produce zero food waste supply chain systems, and policy change should focus on creating far-reaching, large-scale change. To achieve this, This is Rubbish make two proposals.
One, make it mandatory that all big businesses in the food industry should be required to conduct regular food waste audits. To deter false reporting, incorporating an independent ombudsman to spot check would ensure an accurate audit uptake. It is likely that such enforced methodologies would be argued against by key players in the food industry, but the end result would be in more efficient supply chains, reduced costs and increased profit margins achieved through cost saving. The Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) Regulations currently require large manufacturers to fill in solid waste reports; this practice already covers 30 – 40 % of UK food manufacturing industry. Simple bolt on auditing methods could be attached to the IPPC, and Defra estimate that to manage such a scheme would take only 2 employees at a cost of £100,000 per annum.6
Two, There is another workable precedent for introducing ambitious and mandatory food waste reduction targets. The carbon emissions reduction targets, introduced as part of the 2008 Climate Change Act, are an example of a reduction target model that could be used to measure the reduction of food waste, after an initial audit period. Various food waste reduction targets have been presented by activists and NGO’s, the governments Future of Food and Farming report proposes halving the total amount of food waste 2050 as a realistic target 7
History suggests that businesses are likely to object to regulation, on the grounds of the perceived high costs of the design and roll out of new systems, and also in a bid to remain free from governmental regulation. The argument doesn’t hold; there are affordable ways of integrating food waste audits and reduction strategies into existing waste accounting systems such as the The Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations (IPPC). Companies are already familiar with producing environmental and social audits, and understand the methods and processes used to gather data, making the learning curve of new auditing systems less steep. Opposition to the high costs of food waste accounting can be countered as statistics showing that almost 50% of businesses who have cut food waste, have measured significant financial savings due to financial benefits through lower taxes. 8
To generate any significant movement advocating the above proposals, the focus must lie on collaborative inter-disciplinary working. This is Rubbish will continue working across the industry, with professionals from all part of the supply chain, policy experts, academics and the wider public. We did this in Feast, working in partnership with 35 collaborating artists, poets, performers, musicians, policy makers and expert speakers, and are preparing to do this in our upcoming IFWAP project.
We believe the vehicle for change is through politically informed participatory art and interactive experiences, aiming to engage government, industry and public with viable policy change proposals. One pervious collaborator, Harriet Lamb, author and director of the Fairtrade Foundation states “This is Rubbish communicate the problem of food waste effectively and accurately, they also communicate it visually and emotionally.” Such creative engagement demonstrates that the political is personal. Immersive and celebratory art is a perfect place to position political debate and discourse. Committed to evidence led campaigning, we also hope to call for realistic, timely and viable policy changes. The voice of change is one of many. By conducting reliable research projects such as IFWAP, and using findings to inform more in depth research and campaigning, This is Rubbish set out to inspire and mobilize far reaching support for our calls for legislative regulation of large scale, wasteful food industries. If you would like to get involved with a research or creative campaigning project, or are interested in setting up a This is Rubbish constellation group, please get in touch. We’d love to hear from you.
1. HM Government, (2010) Food 2030, London, p. 54
2. 2012 World Hunger and Poverty Facts and Statistics, https://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/world%20hunger%20facts%202002.htm, accessed 12th September 2012
3. Foresight. (2011), The Future of Food and Farming , Executive Summary, London, The Government Office for Science, p. 28
4. Stuart, Tristram, https://www.tristramstuart.co.uk/, accessed 12th September 2012
5. Foresight. (2011) The Future of Food and Farming, Executive Summary. London, The Government Office for Science, p. 18
6. T. Stuart, (2009) Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal, London, Penguin, p.209
7. Foresight. (2011) The Future of Food and Farming, Executive Summary, London, The Government Office for Science, p. 19
8. House of Commons Environment, (2010) Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Waste Strategy for England 2007, Third Report of Session 2009–10. London, p.13
