Feeding the 5,000 and food waste

Congratulations to the Feeding 5,000 team on a brilliant event. I thoroughly enjoyed volunteering for the day and raising awareness to the ridiculous amount of food wasted by the anti social, national, food industry. A social, local, food industry is a far better option!

All those I spoke to in the queue for free food agreed.

And over 6,000 pledged to help change the law to allow large amounts of waste to go to animal feed, following the example of many countries around the world.

To see what the Telegraph said about the day click here

Telegraph pic. One of the pigs destined for Feeding 5k

So what more can we do after signing the petition?

The main reason we have so much waste is that supermarkets say WE want all types of food all year and at a very high quality.

Farmers are instructed to grow the produce, some is left in the field, middle men reject anything that is sub standard and retailers throw away unsold stock.

We must tell supermarkets we are happy to buy lower grade produce at a lower price, and that we would rather see stock ran out than over ordering, and waste, to guarantee supply.

Or better still switch to buying direct from local farm shops and suppliers. Buy what is in season and fresh, and benefit from cheaper prices due to the shorter supply chain.
We must buy from local farmers to encourage them to grow a wider range of foods instead of specialising on one, high yielding, long shelf life, crop, to achieve economies of scale. Especially when they get such a small percentage of the retail price through the national supply chain.

We need to get social at our local shops. Grow our own to sell through the shop with BigBarn’s Crop for the Shop scheme. Encourage local shops to run food swaps and seasonal food days. Get cooking fresh healthy food, especially kids and schools!

Let’s get enthused about our food and celebrate the seasons.