Media Coverage- Feeding the 5000

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Feeding the 5000 was a fantastic event, and something that This is Rubbish are extremely proud of being an active part of. We did it first and foremost to draw attention to the epic problem of food waste occurring in the UK and globally. We also were there to refocus attention the where the most food is wasted and suggest methods of reducing the severe scale of food waste that currently occurs at every stage of our food supply chain. We feel TiR’s communication objectives were achieved; not only did over 4000 people attend the event and feast on food that otherwise would’ve been wasted, the event received lots of media coverage. A sure fire way to raise public attention about the problem of food waste and propose practical and policy based solutions.

Please see below for all the press coverage that the event received. What a success!

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  • Independent – news story 30th November
  • Observer (review) – interview with Tristram – Sunday 13th (attached)
  • Daily Mail – full page piece by Tristram –14th Dec (attached)
  • Evening Standard – news story – Tuesday 15th
  • Times – full page comment piece – Tues 15th (attached)
  • Press Association – news story Tues 15th
  • Times – Universal Daily Register – Wed 16th (attached)
  • Evening Standard – piece by Rosie Boycott – Wed 16th (attached)
  • Metro – news and photo story – Thurs 17th (attached)
  • Guardian – leader – Thurs 17th (attached)
  • FT- Lunch with the FT – taking place today at Wahaca – 26th December More

Edible Indication

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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

Foodwaste is not a christmas gift

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As Feeding the 5000 approaches, This is Rubbish are in the midst of logistical and media preparation. Today was our first day in London. After breaking away from mid Wales we have every intention of clearly communicating why the acceptance of vast quantities of food waste generated at every stage of the supply chain should not be tolerated. The day was spent securing surplus yet completely edible fruit at a large wholesale market. At present there are large crates of bananas and apples waiting to be collected, both standing over 2 meters high; it is such industrial quantities of “waste” that is intolerable. This is Rubbish will be returning over the next three days to secure more crates of perfectly edible food that will otherwise go to waste. This food is deemed to be waste simply because it is slightly aesthetically imperfect, or more often because main buyers simply ordered too much of a certain product; such behaviour suggests that retailers, and therefore individuals seem to think that all food grows constantly and abundantly on trees. However, the food waste that was piled up in neat boxed columns today was not the guilty secret of a wasteful individual, but that of the food retail and catering supply chain. Over 50% of food waste is generated further up the supply chain than the supermarket, and seeing as The “Big Four” supermarkets had a combined share of 76.0% of the UK grocery market in November 2008, it is these supermarkets who dominate our food supply chain. These profiteering multinationals must be held accountable for the quantities of food waste that they are responsible for generating, and be regulated in a way where they will have to meet annual food waste reduction targets. More

Political Progress

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This is Rubbish is about one thing, reducing the scale of food waste in the UK.

While there are already campaigns working in this area we are a little different in that our focus : did you know less than 40% of food waste is produced by households? Most people are surprised by this, so much attention having been given to households alone. We are interested in engaging people not as consumers but as powerful political agents.

We plant to engage people in the issue of food waste by graphically exposing this waste to the public gaze. In Trafalgar Sq on December 16th we will be doing just this by serving up fruit smoothies from compost caddies, and letting people make their own by selecting delicious ‘waste’ food from our full size mock up skip!

Why not get your voice heard by writing a letter to your local MP and including a couple of our key messages. Or sending our standard letter by snail mail to Dan Norris the minister in charge of food waste policy at DEFRA. More

Feeding The 5000: Trafalgar Sq, December 16th 2009

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Going to be in London on December 16th…

No? Well you should be.  5000 (or at least a very large number) are about to be served free lunch in Trafalgar Sq.

Numerous groups are involved each with their own take on reducing food waste in the UK. We will be there handing out free smoothies made from fruit which otherwise would have been land-filled, and talking to people about the food that is wasted before it even gets to them.

Our key messages:

1. Less than 40% of UK food waste is produced by households.

2. We want to see all retailers obliged to report on the food waste they generate in
their activities, with annual reports audited and publicised by an independent commission.

3. We want the government to introduce an obligation upon retailers to reduce
food waste.

Get involved!

We have a growing band of volunteers helping us to make the day a success, we need stewards, assistants for bicycle powered smoothie makers, smoothie dispensers and general hands on deck. If you have a couple of hours spare, get in touch before hand and we will be happy to make you part of the team and you can help decide where the campaign goes in the future.

info@thisisrubbish.org.uk

Obscene levels of food waste – a transformative encounter

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On Friday 28th August myself and the skipped smoothie retinue Rachel Solnick and Ellie Stevens visited one of the main fruit veg wholesale markets in the UK, serving all of London the Midlands, East Anglia and Kent. We went to reclaim some of the food waste that is generated daily at the market. It was our mission to relocate the misplaced food, mix the ripe and fragrant fruits and virile vegetables into immune boosting smoothies and distribute them for free to attendees of climate camp, using the great tasting smoothies as an example of the ludicrous scale of good food going to waste on a daily basis in the UK. However, before transporting the free and perfectly edible fruit to the Blackheath climate camp, the shock of physically encountering such enormous piles of mouth watering fruit and veg destined for landfill and anaerobic biodigesters jolted me into vowing to examine the UK food production line.

Food consumption in the UK accounts for an average of 1.5tonnes per person of CO2 emissions annually, almost the same quantity of C02 emissions generated from average flying habits of UK residents (1.2tonnes). It is estimated that the UK, EU and America throw away almost half of the food that they produce and import. If the food industry and individuals reduced their food waste by half, then carbon emissions related to food production would be cut by 50%.  However, it is not simply the carbon emissions associated with food waste that are problematic, but also the unnecessary consumption of resources and the social injustice that food waste perpetuates. More

Getting Ready to Feed The 5000

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In December This Is Rubbish Will be contributing to Tristram Stuart’s Feeding The Five Thousand event in Trafalgar Square. We will be handing out free smoothies made entirely from fruit that hasn’t passed the exacting aesthetic standards of a major wholesale market.

We are expecting a good number of people * so most of the smoothies will be prepared before hand. But we will also be making smoothies during the event and all the fruit will be stored in our very own mockup skip. Making the point that this good food shouldn’t be in a skip in the first place, eating thrown out food isn’t an ideal, the ideal is a system where good food isn’t thrown out.

*5000 would be a good number of people.

L is for Lacuna

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If you do a quick Google search for UK food waste you will quickly find out that UK households waste 8.3 Million tonnes of food per year, most of which is perfectly edible.

This is a lot of food, and a great deal of expense. Roughly £480 a year for an average household. For this reason we are glad that campaigns like Love Food : Hate Waste exist, offering practical tips on how all of us can cut our food waste and improve our budgeting.

However, there is a question that isn’t so easily answered. How much food is wasted before it gets to the supermarket shelves or the restaurant table?  Well, if you are persistent in checking all the pages that Google brings to your attention you may find the website of Inetec.  And they make an interesting claim.  Apparently the UK wastes around 17 Million tonnes of food a year, a third of which is produced by large scale food processes.  The breakdown of food waste is therefore roughly 8 million tonnes by households, 6 million tonnes during food manufacture and 3 million tonnes by supermarkets and restaurants.

This Is Rubbish has been in contact with Charlotte Henderson at WRAP and established that they are doing work on food waste from field to supermarket shelf:

“We are carrying out research at the moment to understand how much and where product is lost in the retail supply chain. This includes waste at manufacturing sites, in distribution and back of store, covering the grocery supply chain.” More

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