Food waste figures damaging our ‘green’ farming image

IRELAND’S poor performance on food loss and waste at consumer and farm level is harming the country’s ‘green’ farming image, a new food sustainability report has warned.

Ireland is ranked 18th out of 67 countries in the recent Food Sustainability Index, which was compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit for the Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition Foundation think tank.

Martin Kohering, a managing editor of the Economist Intelligence Unit, told the Farming Independent that the ranking is based on the overall score of a country in the three categories of food loss and waste, sustainable agriculture and nutritional challenges.

Mr Kohering said Ireland’s lack of a committed national strategy to combat food waste and loss at farm and consumer level was “a major problem”.

“Ireland cannot make the claim to be a leader in sustainable food production. While it performs well in agriculture, food loss and waste is a major problem in Ireland,” he said.

Dedicated

“There is no dedicated food loss or waste legalisation in Ireland and no regulatory agency in charge of it and no organisation dedicated to helping farmers manage food loss at farm level.

“This really drags down Ireland’s overall score.”

France ranked number one overall, followed by Netherlands, Canada, Finland and Japan.

A spokesperson for the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment said Ireland has committed to reducing food waste by 50pc by 2030 and added that the Government launched the Food Waste Charter in 2018.

“The charter is a public expression of a commitment by business and industry to achieve an Ireland where food is not wasted,” said the spokesperson.

“Signatories pledge to take at least one action that will help reduce food waste. The members of the Retail Action Group signed the Food Waste Charter in 2017. Nearly all major food retailers were represented on the group.”

It said that Foodcloud, Origin Green, the HSE, Grow It Yourself Ireland and the EPA food waste team work on raising awareness and providing the tools to tackle food waste to householders, businesses and the public sector.