Guilting children into finishing their dinner with "there are starving families in Africa" might be a well intended and sometimes successful parenting tip, but how much more effective if we could start guilting adults and corporations with the same line. There are four million people affected by food poverty in the UK alone, and forcing yourself to eat a few extra beans or, daringly, a yoghurt several days past its sell-by-date isn't going to solve that.
The problem lies in the food chain, the final rung of which is your fridge and dinner table. The precarious rungs lower down on this flimsy metaphorical ladder are to do with farming, feeding livestock, transportation, supermarket supply, restaurant policy and expenditure, and a demand for out of season food free from visual imperfections. Who would really want to eat a bent carrot or misshapen potato?
The absurdity of a world where food is wasted on a gross scale at the same time as billions go hungry is a poignant microcosm of the inequality epidemic. But since the publication of Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal, which helped highlight the issue in statistics, there has been concerted action from individuals and charities to tackle the issue. Consider some of my favourite facts:
•All the world's nearly one billion hungry people could be lifted out of malnourishment on less than a quarter of the food that is wasted in the US, UK and Europe.
•4600 kilocalories per day of food are harvested for every person on the planet; of these, only around 2000 on average are eaten - more than half of it is lost on the way.
•10% of rich countries' greenhouse gas emissions come from growing food that is never eaten.
•The irrigation water used globally to grow food that is wasted would be enough for the domestic needs (at 200 litres per person per day) of 9 billion people - the number expected on the planet by 2050.
Clearly defining the impact and importance of food waste in these terms has been an important factor in changing attitudes. Recently, charities combined to feed over 5000 people in Trafalgar Square with fresh misshapen vegetables that would have otherwise gone to waste. Boris Johnson's appearance at the event and the subsequent media attention are proof of some success.
I went to talk to one of the charities, Food Cycle, which was part of Feed the 5K at one of their cafes in Bromley by Bow. The café is situated in a community centre and supplies cheap and nutritious meals using food that would otherwise have been disposed of. It is an extension of the charities original projects, which saw student volunteers taking this waste food from supermarkets and cooking it in free kitchen space. They have worked to feed members of Mind, local communities, the unemployed and the elderly.
As we talk over a sweet potato and lentil shepherd's pie, an invention of one of the volunteers, Food Cycle is described to me as 'putting the dots together. There are people with the time and skills to help, a lot of vacant kitchen space in urban areas and a food waste and food poverty problem'.
This kind of simple logic, when combined with a certain dynamism, has proved very successful and Food Cycle now have fourteen hubs throughout England and two cafes in London. They have moved beyond their University roots and seen a rapid expansion in their three years of existence. It is explained to me how some people can become 'obsessed with Food Cycle and their hub', and while the stark facts above continue to be true it is easy to see how easy this obsession must be.
Everything now has to be considered in relation to the current economic climate and this article, http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/oct/01/sharp-rise-demand-food-handouts?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487, that featured in the Guardian in October clearly shows the rise in food poverty and demand food charities are currently experiencing. Fare Share, another integral part behind the Feed the 5K event, Food Cycle and similar charities are going to be relied on more and more, but with their noble ethics and bold plans this can almost be turned into a positive. It can be an inspiration to tackle food waste, an opportunity to right some obvious wrongs, just as public departments across the country are being forced to find money by cutting down on wasteful expenditure.
Food Cycle seems to embody something that is spoken about all too often yet rarely seen. In Bromley by Bow, where ethnic diversity, unemployment and poverty is evident, where the nearest restaurant is a McDonalds and beyond that there are only chippies or fried chicken shops, to see volunteers serving meals from food waste is stirring.
I think of the empty rhetoric of the Big Society and Ethical Capitalism, but here there is a national link with Sainsbury's and a sense of community. Volunteers are often referred via employment staff who work in the same building, many of those eating suffer with disabilities, some who visit the hubs are newly widowed or alone and have the money to eat well but not the knowledge or access.
There are many positive to take from charities such as Food Cycle and Food Share, but this cannot deny the realities of food waste and food poverty. Corporations, government and individuals all need to take more responsibility. Looming in the peripheries of the Bromley by Bow café is a large Tesco, the only local source of fresh produce, when I ask about their relationship with the nearby superstore there is an awkward laugh: "they claim they don't have any food waste and we have no links with them."