Eco Comment – Food Waste Action Week – 17-23 March 2025

In a world where so many are hungry the world wastes an incredible amount of food each year. It is one of the most important but unseen issues of climate change. 

 ‘As of the end of 2023, 2.5 billion tonnes of food is lost or wasted globally each year, with one third of this occurring in the food production stage. This equates to 40% of all food produced for human consumption going to waste.’ (Food waste facts and statistics – The Eco Experts) According to the World Food programme this amounts to one billion meals a day. 

‘The amount of food waste generated, as a percentage of the amount of food purchased, is 18% for hospitality and food service sector, 16% for households, 3.8% for manufacturing and 0.4% for retail.’ (Food Waste in the UK – UK Parliament 12.4.24) 

To put these figures into context we also need to know that a report produced by the Food Foundation for the UK government found that ‘13.6% of households experienced moderate or severe food insecurity’ equating to 7.2 million households struggling to afford healthy meals.’ This is happening in a supposedly wealthy country.  

As chance would have it I got a phone call from a charity this afternoon – Fare Share. Whilst not an active partner in Food Waste Action Week (according to the partner list) they actively work to ‘redistribute charitable food donations from the food industry and get it to nearly 8,000 frontline charities and community groups across the UK. These include school breakfast clubs, older people’s lunch clubs, homeless shelters and community cafes providing enough food to create almost a million meals for vulnerable people.’ (fareshare.org.uk) 

But back to ‘Love Food Hate Waste’ and their Food Waste Action week. ‘WRAP has built a reputation for forging collaborative partnerships around the world. [They] will unite partners in a shared network to access best practice and accelerate delivery.’ ‘WRAP is a global environmental action NGO transforming our broken product and food systems to create Circular Living for the benefit of climate, nature and people.’ 

They have worked in the UK since 2000 and have live projects and active partner collaborations all around the world from South Africa to Mexico and from Indonesia to the USA. They have offices in London, Washington DC and Adelaide. They can truly say that they ‘have the footprint and the contacts to deliver on a global scale.’  

They also have committed support from a number of ‘partners – retailers, manufacturers, governments, local authorities, NGOs and community organisations – all working together with the aim of reducing household food waste. They are (endeavouring to change) the way food is produced and consumed – reducing costs to the environment, to businesses and to people.’ 

Their mission is simple this year (and echoes one of the suggestions I made in last week’s Eco Comment) – they ‘want to get more and more people across the UK talking about why buying loose fruit and vegetables is better.’ 

Why? Because their ‘research shows that selling items loose (unpackaged), so that people can buy just the amount they need, is an effective way to reduce household food waste.’ 

“If all apples, bananas and potatoes were sold loose, 60,000 tonnes of food waste could be saved every year.” 

According to the posters being used to publicise the week (wrap.ngo):

• 46% of the potatoes that we buy are wasted 
• 18% of the apples that we buy are wasted and  
• 25% of the carrots that we buy are wasted. 

The reasons for this are many. Supermarkets invariably market vegetables and fruit in fixed quantities in the hope that we’ll buy more on the premise that they are slightly better value for money (£ per kilo). If we choose to buy loose fruit and vegetables, we are asked to pay more but this could actually provide better value as we would only buy what we need. That’s fine for people who can pop into the shop several times per week if not on a daily basis. Those who shop once a week might find this more problematic unless they are really organised and know what they are going to eat for the whole week and have a shopping list. I do know people who do this and I am full of admiration for them! I tend to be more spontaneous not least because I don’t like making decisions and need some sort of incentive like a yellow sticker to decide what I feel like eating. I do cook using fresh ingredients, but this isn’t possible for all due to both time and financial constraints.  

We don’t have to think globally though, there is a relatively new organisation in Wakefield which is also trying to improve the quality and quantity of the food we eat so that the Wakefield district eats better and in turn wastes less. This is the Wakefield District Good Food Partnership. The partnership is aiming to work with many of the different organisations within the food industry, from growers and farmers, to buyers and retailers to consumers, to educators, health practitioners and future consumers. Most of us are aware that good food equates to healthier people. We have so many people in the local district doing great work in all sorts of food related work. The partnership is hoping to open avenues of conversation between the people so that not only can we all benefit but we can learn from each other and share experiences. 

We in the cathedral are showing a film about soil, from which all life starts. Whether you’re thinking of the crops and vegetables or the insects and animals that help us have healthier soil to the food that is a direct result of the soil. Please keep the date free Wednesday 9th April. The film ‘Six inches of Soil’ will be followed by a Q&A session featuring two very well informed ‘soil’ specialists. Tickets will be available here soon. 

You can start wasting less immediately though. Only buy what you need. 

Susan Morgan
Eco Group