Too much is thrown away.
Photo: dpa/Christoph Soeder
In times of war, economic war, fuel and energy crises, careful handling of food could take on a whole new meaning. Even in a society like Germany, where food has so far been available in abundance in the shops. However, it was already too expensive for many people in this country in the past, and the inflation in this area means that there are more and more people who cannot afford good food.
Regulations obliging wholesalers and retailers not to throw away vegetables, fruit, sausage, cheese and bread that are still edible, but to make them available free of charge to food banks or food rescue organizations, do not yet exist in the Federal Republic. In fact, people who salvage discarded food can still be sued by food companies for theft. The federal government of the SPD, Greens and FDP had announced that they would remedy the situation and, following the French example, would decriminalize saving food, also known as “containers”, and would ban supermarket chains from disposing of edible products.
But little has happened in this direction so far. That is why an alliance supported by companies and initiatives that protect food from being thrown away and trade in it, together with the German Environmental Aid (DUH) made an appeal to Federal Minister of Agriculture Cem Özdemir (Greens) on the International Day against Food Waste. It calls for concerted action against the problem. The day of action was proclaimed by the United Nations in 2020 and will be celebrated for the third time this Thursday.
The food rescue alliance demands that “all those involved, from the field to the trade, immediately commit to reducing” waste. According to a position paper by the alliance, all attempts to rely on voluntary commitments by industry have failed. “By the end of 2023” a law on food rescue must therefore be passed. But it’s not just about regulations, but also about tax incentives to save food. In addition, there must finally be legal certainty for rescue organizations. The alliance is also calling for a significant improvement in the data on generation, consumption and losses along the supply chain. Only on this basis can effective action be taken against waste.
Sascha Müller-Kraenner, Federal Managing Director of the DUH, criticized the fact that the Federal Government has “so far not heralded any turning point” in the area of food rescue. The federal government had already committed itself in 2012 to halving waste by 2030. Ten years later there is still no progress, although food waste is “expensive, harmful to the environment and climate and irresponsible against the background of the escalating food crisis”.
Meanwhile, two food rescuers have collected nearly 190,000 signatures on a petition to decriminalize containerization and a food rescue law. A week ago, the young women handed over the appeal to Federal Minister Özdemir on the sidelines of the Agriculture Ministers’ Conference in Quedlinburg. A petition started by the food rescue alliance has so far had 28,000 supporters. It points out that according to current surveys, 16.5 million tons of food are wasted in Germany every year. Farmers have to dispose of around 30 percent of their harvest simply because of the high demands placed on the appearance of their products by retailers.
According to a study published on Monday by the management consulting group McKinsey, around two billion tons of food are wasted worldwide every year. This corresponds to 33 to 40 percent of production. For comparison: The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) previously assumed 1.3 billion tons per year. Globally, half of this is accounted for by trade, gastronomy and households combined, while the other half is generated by production, storage and transport. Food losses and waste account for 8 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.
In the countries of the Global South in particular, there is a lack of storage capacity such as cold stores and halls for grain storage, so that a large part of the food spoils or is damaged by pests and eaten before it can end up on the plate. In contrast, in Germany, for example, more than half of the losses are due to discarding in private households.
According to McKinsey, 50 to 70 percent of losses could be avoided if food manufacturers and retailers “led efforts to reduce food losses and all stakeholders in the value chain worked together”. The company should not have thought of state planning.
