One of the world’s great challenges is feeding a growing global population. However, at it’s simplest, there is enough food being produced to supply the current population (7.3 billion people at time of writing) and many more, but the issue is distribution of unused or superfluous food.
Food waste is occurring at staggering levels in some parts of the world. The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates that there is more than 1.4 billion tonnes of food waste each year, which is enough to feed 2 billion people. Moving food from where there is surplus to where there is need sounds like a simple task but there are many issues to resolve: geopolitical, technology, expense and the will to act amongst others.
According to World Vision, most food loss occurring in low-income countries is due to ineffective harvesting capabilities, poor storage, or deficiencies in transportation, processing, or infrastructure. Within medium- and high-income countries, food loss is typically due to unsold food waste at supermarkets and restaurants or by consumers throwing out food at home.
Food Redistribution in Australia
There are a number of programs and organisations in Australia that are assisting food producers with excess connect with those who can use or redistribute it. Examples are:
- OzHarvest: a leading reclamation service who collect excess food from commercial entities (such as supermarkets, hotels, airports, wholesalers, farmers etc) and redistributes it to over 1,000 charities involved with supporting needy people across the country. OzHarvest has comparable programs in the United Kingdom, New Zealand and South Africa.
- FoodBank: Foodbank is Australia’s largest food relief organisation, and is a critical partner of front-line charities feeding vulnerable Australians. Foodbank provides more than 70% of the food rescued for food relief organisations nation-wide. Food Bank works closely with farmers, manufacturers and retailers and connects these to charities and schools who distribute excess food to people in need.
- SecondBite: provides access to fresh, nutritious food for people in need throughout Australia. SecondBite sources surplus food from across the retail network, and redistributes it (free of charge) to more than 1,400 local charities. SecondBite believes that if the food is good enough to eat, it shouldn’t go to waste.
Global Food Redistribution
Comparable global initiatives providing surplus food reclamation and distribution include:
- City Harvest (New York, United States.): helps to feed the nearly 1.2 million New Yorkers who struggle to put meals on their tables. City Harvest rescues 64 million pounds of food each year and delivers it, free of charge, to hundreds of food pantries, soup kitchens and other community partners across the city. They help food-insecure individuals and families access nutritious food that builds a path to a food-secure future for all New Yorkers.
- Culinary Misfits (Berlin Germany): utilising vegetables that don’t fit the typical aesthetic standards of supermarket consumers, Culinary Misfits create meals with these often wasted food products. Cultural Misfits highlights that changing global consumer acceptance of food that “doesn’t look quite right”, but is perfectly consumable, would have a significant impact on reducing food waste.
- Feedback Global (United Kingdom): a campaign group working to regenerate nature by transforming the food system. Food production is having a significant impact on the environment, with food waste, habitat destruction and soil depletion leaving future food production at risk. Feedback aims to better utilise waste products in the food creation process and feed it back into the creation cycle. They do this by driving change through campaigning for improvements in food culture, economy and governance.
- Food Cycle (United Kingdom): works towards a society where no one is hungry or lonely, by nourishing communities using surplus food. Food Cycle runs projects to collect surplus food, create healthy meals from and then serve these meals to people in need.
- Food Policy Action (Washington DC, United States): established in 2012 through a collaboration of national food policy leaders in order to hold legislators accountable and to change the national dialogue on food policy. Food Policy Action highlights and promotes policies that support healthy diets, reduce hunger at home and abroad and improve food access and affordability.
- Last Minute Market: Based in Italy, this initiative connects retailers and producers with individuals and charities. Sellers with surplus food donate their food to individuals and organisations through the Last Minute Market. The project is scattered throughout cities and town across Italy and similar pilot projects are being implemented in Brazil and Argentina.
Food Tank has a great list of more than 50 organisations involved with minimising food waste and improve distribution to those in need.
Tristram Stuart: The Global Food Waste Scandal
Western countries throw out nearly half of their food, not because it’s inedible — but because it doesn’t look appealing. Tristram Stuart delves into the shocking data of wasted food, calling for a more responsible use of global resources.
How To Make a Difference
One of the most powerful actions you can deploy, as an individual, is to get involved as a user or customer of programs such as those listed above. There is no point in food producers and redistribution organisations setting up their partnerships and distribution networks if individuals and families are not willing to source more of their food in this manner. While many of the programs supply food to charities working with the homeless, or isolated communities having difficulty accessing safe food, consumers have great influence over the standard of food sold to them and what should happen to the excess.
