NFU urges members to tackle food waste issue

ATTEMPTS to dramatically reduce wasted food in Britain has been backed by the nation’s farmers.

The National Farmers’ Union yesterday announced its support for the Food Waste Reduction Roadmap – and is encouraging its members to play their part in tackling food waste in the supply chain.

The initiative, run by the charities Wrap and IGD, aims to have 50 per cent of the UK’s largest 250 food businesses measuring, reporting and acting on food waste by 2019. It is working towards milestones to help halve UK food waste by 2030.

NFU President and Wiltshire beef farmer Minette Batters said: “This is an incredibly important initiative by Wrap and IGD, and the NFU is very pleased to be able to support it.

“Farmers are the first step in the supply chain, producing the raw ingredients that make up the safe, traceable and affordable domestic food supply that helps to feed the nation.

“As food producers, farmers and growers have a clear role to play in this effort and it is encouraging to see many of our members already committing to cutting food waste in their businesses.

“It’s very clear that a whole supply chain effort is required to effectively reduce our food waste and it is incredibly positive to see the entirety of the industry throw its weight behind this initiative.”

The NFU is committed to sustainability and transparency, and will continue to engage with the industry to address the food waste challenge.”

Many farm businesses have already committed to reducing their food waste and are actively introducing measures to achieve ambitious food waste targets. NFU member G’s Fresh is one example of a food business which has supported ambitious food waste targets.

Jacob Kirwan, precision farming and CSR manager for G’s, said: “G’s is proud to be a key part in this collective ambition to reduce food waste by 50 per cent by 2030, and we hope that other growers and producers will join the commitment of ‘Target, Measure, Act’ to help accelerate the achievement.”