Clearly, intensifying agriculture helps with productivity but it degrades the land,” ​said Abruzzese. As the world hopes to achieve a 50-percent reduction in food waste in 11 years, in accordance with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, it’s worth revisiting France’s effort. In fact, “mandatory” agreements rely largely on preexisting tax incentives and voluntary commitments. “It’s a figure that’s well-known but it’s still rather incredible that 30% of all food produced is wasted, from both a business stand-point and a humanitarian one," the public policy director said.

We’re beginning to see governments take the right input to get the outcomes.”​, According to Ertharin Cousin, distinguished fellow of global agriculture at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, the food system should be at the heart of efforts to achieve the SDGs and the Paris Agreement. have called for urgent change in production and consumption patterns. Subscribe, By Niamh Michail As the world hopes to achieve a 50-percent reduction in food waste in 11 years, in accordance with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, it’s worth revisiting France’s effort. Three-fifths of Europeans do not understand the correct meaning of a “use by” date, while 53 per cent misunderstand what “best before” means. queueAmazonSlots([slot]); Companies in France are also forced to include data on food waste in their CSR reports. In 2015, France became the first country to ban edible food waste from markets, opting to have stores to donate food to charities instead.

However, the EIU and BCFN were careful to note that a high score does not mean all problems have been solved, but that a country is “on the right path​” to addressing the issue in question. The indicators on which France scored highest focused on policy and governmental action: its quality of response to food losses, tackling distribution-level loss, management of water supplies, climate change mitigation, and policy response to unhealthy diets. of unnecessary production in the first place. How the 2020 Election Will Impact Food, Agriculture, and Labor in the U.S. 20 Food Cooperatives Building Resilient Communities, Supporting Nigeria Amid Protests: 5 Organizations to Know About, Urban Farm Grows Good Food and Good Mental Health, Meat in the Middle: Blended Options Join Eaters in Sustainability, Treasure8 Appoints New Sr. VP of Operations, Mexican State of Oaxaca Becomes First to Ban Selling Junk Food To Children, Annual Food Tank NYC Summit and Gala Dinner. A third of all food produced globally (1.3 bn tonnes) gets thrown away, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization. According to the French Coordinator of Food Waste policies Augé, the law has also helped improve the quality of donated food, as supermarkets are expected to sort produce and donate packaged items 48 hours. “That implies that every authority, at every level, plays its part.”. Such developments at country level can have a global resonance. Several other European countries broke the top five, including Germany, Spain, and Sweden, while Japan ranked second. Food waste also produces incredible amounts of greenhouse gases in landfills, making it the third largest source of emissions after China and the U.S. As Inhabitat previously reported, over 1.4 billion tons of food is thrown out across the globe each year, which the World Bank estimates to be between one-quarter and one-third of all food produced. if(typeof(headertag) == "object") { (function(googletag) { The French law evolved from several years of workshops and. Related: Study finds that cutting food waste could feed one billion hungry people,