Food waste
April 17th 2008 09:35
Back in February a young man by the name of Jolyon White spent a month living on just NZ$1.49 a day – like some 1.2 billion other people in the world. He camped out in what is known as The Town Belt, an area of bush and trees that rings the city of Dunedin, and managed to survive, though there were some unpleasant days when it rained heavily.
He’s just got back in the news because he’s wondering why so many supermarkets and food places throw so much food away. When he was living in his poverty period, he found that it was far too easy to scavenge fresh food from rubbish bins around the town. He said it negated the point of what he was doing.
‘Given that the month was supposed to be a personal act of solidarity with people in poverty, the quality and quantity of food I could access was ruining the exercise.’
As far as Mr White is concerned, much of this food shouldn’t be thrown away, but distributed to those who need it.
There are some concerns amongst those who throw away the food. For one thing they don’t want to have someone coming back at them saying their food wasn’t fresh, and perhaps bringing the Department of Health down on them. Others already distribute food that can be used to food banks. Others have contracts with pig farmers to supply them with leftover food.
That still leaves an awful lot of food going to waste around the city.
Mr White is investigating further.
He’s just got back in the news because he’s wondering why so many supermarkets and food places throw so much food away. When he was living in his poverty period, he found that it was far too easy to scavenge fresh food from rubbish bins around the town. He said it negated the point of what he was doing.
‘Given that the month was supposed to be a personal act of solidarity with people in poverty, the quality and quantity of food I could access was ruining the exercise.’
As far as Mr White is concerned, much of this food shouldn’t be thrown away, but distributed to those who need it.
There are some concerns amongst those who throw away the food. For one thing they don’t want to have someone coming back at them saying their food wasn’t fresh, and perhaps bringing the Department of Health down on them. Others already distribute food that can be used to food banks. Others have contracts with pig farmers to supply them with leftover food.
That still leaves an awful lot of food going to waste around the city.
Mr White is investigating further.
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