Don't Waste our future!

The local campaign “Save food, love the world” presented by students in the Festival of Science and Philosophy

felcos — Tue, 02 May 2017 10:41:48 +0000

Students involved in the local campaign “Save food, love the world” participated to the showroom #experimenta, in the framework of the Festival of Science and Philosophy!

In the last weekend, from 28th to 30th April 2017, students from several high schools of Umbria region have shown their initiatives to raise awareness on food waste and global right to food in Palazzo Candiotti, Foligno, inviting people to say NO to #food waste!

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“Towards a global commitment for food waste reduction and the right to food”

felcos — Tue, 18 Apr 2017 13:05:28 +0000

ACR+ is pleased to invite you to the final event of the Don’t Waste Our Future project (DWOF) that will take place on 20 April 2017 at the Committee of the Regions in Brussels. This conference is entitled “Towards a global commitment for food waste reduction and the right to food”. Registrations are now open so you can already prepare your trip to Brussels!

This conference will be an opportunity to present the results of the project on education to the fight against food waste and for the global right to food in 7 European countries. A special focus will be given to public policies on food waste reduction, especially towards schools and educational programmes, and the wider topic of sustainable food systems at local level will also be addressed.

Program & Registration

The program is available here

To register to this event, please fill in this form before 5 April

Not in Brussels but still willing to take a stand against food waste? Sign online the DWOF charter against food waste!

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NEW didactic modules on food waste and global right to food!

felcos — Mon, 20 Mar 2017 08:53:30 +0000

Thanks to the extension of the Project “DON’T WASTE OUR FUTURE!” until May 2017, new didactic modules on food waste and global right to food have been realized in Umbria.

From January to March 2017, 135 new students participated to the laboratories. Through a participative learning methodology, students reached new informations about global right to food, discussing problems and solutions. In the second part of the modules, they actively elaborated a questionnaire to be filled by restaurants and pizzerias of their cities, aiming to investigate about their behaviors in treating food.

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First Africa-wide Postharvest Food Loss Reduction Conference and Exhibition

felcos — Thu, 09 Mar 2017 12:21:36 +0000

28 – 31 March 2017
Nairobi, Kenya

The conference will provide a platform for researchers, academics, farmers, industry, development agencies, civil society and policy makers to learn, share information, build networks and partnerships with the overall objective of identifying effective interventions to reduce food lossess and waste in the continent.

The specific objectives of the conference are as follows:

To raise awareness on food losses and waste through data and information sharing.
To document the impact of postharvest food loss and waste on food and nutrition in Africa.
To identify and disseminate effective and appropriate technologies and practices for FLW reduction in the African context.
To identify postharvest “Skill Gaps” and “Technology Gaps” in Africa’s higher education and extension systems
To identify effective multi-stakeholder strategies and policy interventions for FLW reduction
To provide a platform for participants to build networks and partnerships for resource mobilization and other activities geared towards FLW reduction
To generate a comprehensive action plan for the reduction of food loss and waste for the African continent.

Source: http://www.fao.org/save-food/news-and-multimedia/events/detail-events/en/c/412196/

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World’s future food security “in jeopardy” due to multiple challenges, report warns

felcos — Thu, 09 Mar 2017 12:19:48 +0000

Without additional efforts, the target of ending hunger by 2030 will not be met

Empowering small-scale farmers and providing them better access to information, markets and technologies is key to ensuring future food security.

22 February 2017, Rome – Mankind’s future ability to feed itself is in jeopardy due to intensifying pressures on natural resources, mounting inequality, and the fallout from a changing climate, warns a new FAO report out today.

Though very real and significant progress in reducing global hunger has been achieved over the past 30 years, “expanding food production and economic growth have often come at a heavy cost to the natural environment,” says The Future of Food and Agriculture: Trends and Challenges.

“Almost one half of the forests that once covered the Earth are now gone. Groundwater sources are being depleted rapidly. Biodiversity has been deeply eroded,” it notes.

As a result, “planetary boundaries may well be surpassed, if current trends continue,” cautions FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva in his introduction to the report.

By 2050 humanity’s ranks will likely have grown to nearly 10 billion people. In a scenario with moderate economic growth, this population increase will push up global demand for agricultural products by 50 percent over present levels projects The Future of Food and Agriculture, intensifying pressures on already-strained natural resources.

At the same time, greater numbers of people will be eating fewer cereals and larger amounts of meat, fruits, vegetables and processed food — a result of an ongoing global dietary transition that will further add to those pressures, driving more deforestation, land degradation, and greenhouse gas emissions.

Alongside these trends, the planet’s changing climate will throw up additional hurdles. “Climate change will affect every aspect of food production,” the report says. These include greater variability of precipitation and increases in the frequency of droughts and floods.

To reach zero hunger, we need to step up our efforts

The core question raised by today’s FAO publication is whether, looking ahead, the world’s agriculture and food systems are capable of sustainably meeting the needs of a burgeoning global population.

The short answer? Yes, the planet’s food systems are capable of producing enough food to do so, and in a sustainable way, but unlocking that potential — and ensuring that all of humanity benefits — will require “major transformations.”

Without a push to invest in and retool food systems, far too many people will still be hungry in 2030 — the year by which the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda has targeted the eradication of chronic food insecurity and malnutrition, the report warns.

“Without additional efforts to promote pro-poor development, reduce inequalities and protect vulnerable people, more than 600 million people would still be undernourished in 2030,” it says. In fact, the current rate of progress would not even be enough to eradicate hunger by 2050.

Where will our food come from?

Given the limited scope for expanding agriculture’s use of more land and water resources, the production increases needed to meet rising food demand will have to come mainly from improvements in productivity and resource-use efficiency.

However there are worrying signs that yield growth is levelling off for major crops. Since the 1990s, average increases in the yields of maize, rice, and wheat at the global level generally run just over 1 percent per annum, the report notes.

To tackle these and the other challenges outlined in the report, “business-as-usual” is not an option, The Future of Food and Agriculture argues.

“Major transformations in agricultural systems, rural economies and natural resource management will be needed if we are to meet the multiple challenges before us and realize the full potential of food and agriculture to ensure a secure and healthy future for all people and the entire planet,” it says.

“High-input, resource-intensive farming systems, which have caused massive deforestation, water scarcities, soil depletion and high levels of greenhouse gas emissions, cannot deliver sustainable food and agricultural production,” adds the report.

More with less

The core challenge is to produce more with less, while preserving and enhancing the livelihoods of small-scale and family farmers, and ensuring access to food by the most vulnerable. For this, a twin-track approach is needed which combines investment in social protection, to immediately tackle undernourishment, and pro-poor investments in productive activities — especially agriculture and in rural economies — to sustainably increase income-earning opportunities of the poor.

The world will need to shift to more sustainable food systems which make more efficient use of land, water and other inputs and sharply reduce their use of fossil fuels, leading to a drastic cut of agricultural green-house gas emissions, greater conservation of biodiversity, and a reduction of waste. This will necessitate more investment in agriculture and agrifood systems, as well as greater spending on research and development, the report says, to promote innovation, support sustainable production increases, and find better ways to cope with issues like water scarcity and climate change.

Along with boosting production and resilience, equally critical will be creating food supply chains that better connect farmers in low- and middle-income countries to urban markets — along with measures which ensure access for consumers to nutritious and safe food at affordable prices, such as such as pricing policies and social protection programs, it says.

Source: http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/471169/icode/

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SAVE FOOD: Global Initiative on Food Loss and Waste Reduction

felcos — Thu, 09 Mar 2017 12:17:59 +0000

SAVE FOOD Congress – 07 Mar 2017

The SAVE FOOD Initiative will present itself for the third time now this year on the occasion of interpack in Düsseldorf. At the international SAVE FOOD Congress on 4 May 2017 speakers from business, science and political spheres and civil society will get together to shed some light on the various facets of the food waste problem.

India will be one focal theme this year. In addition to a talk delivered by the Indian Minister of Food Processing Industries, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, a new SAVE FOOD Study will be presented that has analysed the status quo of food losses in India using various case studies.

As a Special Forum operated by the trade fair, the Innovationparc will again be entirely dedicated to the SAVE FOOD theme this year. Here partners and members of the SAVE FOOD Initiative present their studies as well as sector or company-specific initiatives.

Furthermore, the Innovationparc provides a setting for expert exchange and networking.

Further information on the agenda and speakers will follow shortly.

Source: http://www.fao.org/save-food/news-and-multimedia/news/news-details/en/c/472954/

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REDUCING FOOD LOSSES MEANS IMPROVING THE CLIMATE

felcos — Thu, 26 Jan 2017 16:44:37 +0000

4 November was a crucial date, as this is when the Global Climate Treaty entered into force, an agreement which had been decided upon only a year earlier, in Paris, by over 190 countries. A few days later representatives from those countries convened again to specify the details of their climate targets, which had previously been formulated in Paris, and also to develop appropriate rules. The discussions focused primarily on reviewing the permitted greenhouse gas budget of each country and to determine what kind of methods might be used to stop greenhouse gas emissions.

Reducing greenhouse gases needs to be a major goal for the global population. Photo: S. Hecht, flickr.com. https://www.flickr.com/photos/108434525@N05/

HOW DO FOOD LOSSES IMPACT OUR CLIMATE?

Under the Global Climate Treaty the world community is now aiming to reduce harmful greenhouse gases by abandoning oil, gas and coal altogether. The treaty will enter into force by 2020, when the 1997 Kyoto Protocol is due to run out.. One major role in the reduction of carbon emissions is played by the prevention of food losses. The carbon footprint of global food losses is 3.3 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent – third place compared with national carbon emissions produced by China and the United States.

The role of food losses was also addressed by Ban Ki-Moon in his acceptance speech when he received the 2016 German Sustainability Award. Photo: UN Photo, Rick Bajornas

How has this figure been calculated? Greenhouse gases in the food industry are the result of production, transport and storage. The highest CO2 values come from cereal products (34%), as they have the biggest share of the overall global production volume. They are followed by meat and vegetables, each with 21%. However, the proportion of meat in the total volume of food losses is less than five per cent, showing that its carbon footprint is clearly much greater than those of other products. This is primarily due to the high use of energy and resources in the growing of animal feed, though greenhouse gases are also created by facilities in animal husbandry and transportation. If food is spoiled or thrown away unnecessarily, then the resulting harmful gases reach the atmosphere without any benefit to the population whatsoever.

An ambitious goal: Annual losses of Kenya’s mango crops are to be reduced from 300,000 tonnes to 270,000. Photo: Azuri Health

SAVE FOOD

To avoid such losses, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and Messe Düsseldorf joined forces in 2011, founding the SAVE FOOD initiative. In early 2013 this initiative also gained the support of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and since then there has been close cooperation between industry, research and NGOs, leading to a large number of projects to reduce carbon emissions. One success factor in recent years has been the Mango Project in Kenya, saving a large proportion of mangos harvested by small-scale farmers whose losses had previously reached over 60%. The improvement has been achieved through the proper processing and packaging of their mangoes as dried fruit.

Share of food losses compared with production volumes, by segments. Chart: FAO. http://www.fao.org/docrep/018/i3347e/i3347e.pdf

Food waste: A global challenge, a local solution

felcos — Fri, 20 Jan 2017 12:48:05 +0000

In a few decades around 75% of of the population will be living in cities. How will we feed those cities?

Today 800 million people are undernourished and one third of food is lost or wasted. That is around 1.3 billion tonnes every year. With this loss you could feed those undernourished people. To put it into monetary terms: food loss equates to about US$940 billion per year. If you can use that money for projects to reduce food waste then we may have a solution.

That is the global challenge of food loss and waste. With the Sustainable Development Goals in mind, we have a window of opportunity for action. But how? How can we feed cities?

Guido Santini, from the Food for the Cities Programme says we need to give cities more responsibility for the issue. We have to look at cities in their territorial context and try to understand the role of food in rural and urban areas. There is a need to provide a national and regional framework .This includes ensuring the right to food in subnational legislation. The capacity of local food systems also needs to be strenghtened.

We need to share what we know about food waste and loss, Mr. Santini says. The FAO’s Food For Cities programme is a good example. In Ile de France, for instance, nutritious food is recovered and redistributed through social supermarkets. Other examples he mentioned were in Colombia, Canada, Brazil and Sweden.

Capacitiy building has an important role in food loss and food waste, says Nina Waldhauer, a Supply Chain Management expert from Wageningen University. This starts with children who need to appreciate food and understand where it comes from. Consumer behaviour also needs to change. Ms Waldhauer adds that better links between rural and urban areas could be created by shorter supply chains.

Educating kids about the value of food is a great idea and seems to make a lot of sense. It’s not a local solution, but it’s about changing behaviours on global level.

Blogpost by (Myriam Welvaert), #CFS43 Social Reporter – ( myriam.welvaert@wur.nl)

Photo Credit: Unsplash (Vincenzo di Giorgi)

This post is part of the live coverage during the 43rd Session of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS). This post is written by one of our social reporters, and represents the author’s views only.

24/10/2016 13:30

Source: http://www.fao.org/cfs/cfs-home/blog/blog-articles/article/en/c/449010/

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FAO praises the UAE Food Bank Initiative

felcos — Fri, 20 Jan 2017 12:43:50 +0000

11 Jan 2017

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations praised the decision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai, to institutionalise the efforts of fighting hunger and food waste, through launching the UAE Food Bank Initiative.

Mr. Nabil Gangi, FAO Representative to UAE & Coordinator ad interim to the Sub Regional Office for GCC States and Yemen said that this initiative “reflects the true spirit of giving which has always characterized the UAE communities, and the vision of the father of the country, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.”

He added: “Launching the UAE Food bank as the first initiative during the year of giving, confirms the political will to institutionally fight hunger and food waste, which will definitely lead the regional efforts in managing food loss and food waste.”

Mr. Gangi praised the initiative of Sheikh Mohammed to turn Dubai into the first city in the region, and probably the world, to achieve zero food waste, and confirmed FAO’s readiness to continue to work hand-in-hand with the UAE Government & Stakeholders on ensuring the success of this Initiative within a sustainable Food Diversification Strategy.

FAO welcomes a Dubai Zero Waste (D0W) future and looks forward to include UAE’s spearheading D0W best practices among its global “Technical Platform on the Measurement and Reduction of Food Losses and Wastes”. (http://www.fao.org/platform-food-loss-waste/food-waste/food-waste-reduction/country-level-guidance/en/ ).

The newly established UAE food bank will gather many stakeholders to collect excess food from hotels, supermarkets, restaurants and farms. It will store and package the food for distribution, while inedible food will be recycled for different usages, including but not limited to animal feed and fertilisers.

Food loss and waste in NENA is estimated at up to 250kg per person and over $60 billion USD annually, and the reduction of food losses and waste is vital for sustainable food systems and regional food security. (http://www.fao.org/neareast/perspectives/food-waste/en/ ).

At the 32nd session of the FAO regional conference for the Near East, in 2014, member countries endorsed a plan to reduce food loss and waste in the region by 50 percent over 10 years. Initiatives like D0W are crucial to ensure that this commitment turns into reality.

Source: http://www.fao.org/save-food/news-and-multimedia/news/news-details/en/c/463293/

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Official launch of the SAVE FOOD Initiative on the Russian market

felcos — Fri, 20 Jan 2017 12:39:38 +0000

18 Jan 2017

UPAKOVKA 2017 will see the launch of the SAVE FOOD Initiative on the Russian market.

FAO Liaison Office with the Russian Federation has teamed up with Messe Dusseldorf Moscow to organize a special event at the “Upakovka-2017” Processing and Packaging Industry Trade Fair, member of the Interpack Alliance. The Fair displaying 220 exhibitors from 19 countries runs from 24 to 27 January 2017 in the Russian capital.

The special event will be held the first day of the Fair, 24 January, and will feature a ceremony of accession to the Global Initiative on Food Loss and Waste Reduction (SAVE FOOD) of four Russian organizations, the Dairy Union of Russia; Foodbank “Rus”; Sfera Publishing House; and the “Tara and Upakovka” (“Package and Packaging”) Magazine.

The ceremony will be followed by a conference on the current challenges of combatting food loss and waste in Russia and throughout the world. Mr Robert van Otterdijk, one of FAO’s leading specialists on FLW issues, will speak at the conference. He will be joined by, among others, Mr Konstantin Laykam, the Deputy head of the Russian Federal Service for Statistics (RosStat); Ms Vera Fritsche, from the German Mechanical Engineering Industry Association (VDMA); and Mr Mushegh Mamikonyan, the Executive Director of the Meat Association of Russia.

SAVE FOOD will have its own stand at the Fair divided into four areas illustrating the problem of food waste in different contexts: shopping, home, business and social projects, and demonstrating the best world practice of food loss and waste reduction.

On top of the Upakovka event, on 31 January 2017 the FAO Liaison Office, together with the Retail Companies’ Association of Russia (AKORT), is organizing a round-table on the FLW reduction agenda in Russia. The roundtable will convene representatives of private companies and their associations and will serve as a basis for the development of a white paper on the issue of FLW for Russian government agencies.

Source: http://www.fao.org/save-food/news-and-multimedia/news/news-details/en/c/463418/

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