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News    
  Milan signs Zero Waste Charter
The Mayor of Milan signed the Last Minute Market's Zero Waste Charter, joining over 230 other Italian regional, provincial and municipal administrators committing to reduce wastage and food losses in their jurisdiction.

Discovering the hidden cost of virtual water
Many know that we use about 220 litres of water per day drinking, showering and using toilets. When the Barilla centre checks how much water has gone into items we use every day, they find we use 25 times more, or an astonishing 5 600 litres. Get the FAO Virtual water poster here.

Sturdy Staples: 9 Foods That Can Outlast You
Stilltasty.com, the “ultimate” guide to freshness of almost any food item is featuring a story on staples that stay fresh for years, if not decades. Something to consider when reading narrow expiry dates.

Don’t Label Obese People as Food Wasters
Labelling obese people as “food wasters” is not only the wrong approach to the battle against food waste - it’s also a step in a completely wrong direction, writes Selina Juul on the Think.Eat.Save campaign website. Ms. Juul founded the Stop Wasting Food movement in Denmark.

Philippine project on reducing losses in rice sector
The government of Philippines will establish 28 rice processing centres to lessen the dependence of small farmers to rice millers and bring down post-harvest losses. Only qualified farmer associations or irrigation associations can qualify for the project.

GFN release Foodbanking video
In recognition of Earth Day on April 22, The Global FoodBanking Network (GFN) is spreading the word about the enormity of the world's food waste issue and how food banking can turn this environmental problem into a humanitarian solution to fight global hunger.

GFN Releases Video about Mothers and Hunger
The Global FoodBanking Network (GFN) has produced a new video recognizing how hunger greatly affects mothers around the world and how food banking helps mothers nourish their children.

Waste Less Lunch on Earth Day
Bank of America asked their employees to eat a “waste-less lunch” on Earth Day. 12 000 signed up across 26 countries. Employees packed or bought only what they would eat – leaving no waste – using reusable packaging, eating and drinking utensils in the process, and recycle the rest.

  Knowledge
 
Methodology for global study
on food losses and waste

The Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology (SIK) has published the methodology of the 2011 SAVE FOOD study on Global Food Losses and Food Waste. The study focused on the extent, effects, causes and prevention of food losses and food waste world-wide, and was the first of its kind.
 
EESC: Civil society and food losses and waste
The European Economic and Social Committee have published a paper on Civil society's contribution to a strategy for prevention and reduction of food losses and food waste. FAO participated in the process. The paper should help form a strategy to reduce food losses and waste in Europe.
 
Sustainable Sourcing Guide for business
The Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) Platform has launched what it describes as the world’s first practitioner’s guide to the sustainable sourcing of agricultural raw materials. The document captures best practices from global corporations, and includes initiatives to reduce food waste.
 
Food packaging perception and reality
A report published by the UK waste consultancy WRAP highlighted how consumer awareness on packaging could reduce food waste. Whilst it is recognized that packaging is protects food on its way to, and in, the store, only 13 percent of consumers think that it can play the same role in the home.
 
Africa loses US$ 4 billion
in post-harvest losses annually

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) has presented findings from a preliminary study on post harvest losses across Africa. “Post-harvest losses endanger livelihoods across the value chain by reducing incomes and profitability”, said Anne Mbaabu, AGRA Director of Markets.
 
Food Security Solutions for African Cities
The World Future Council will be organizing study tours for African mayors and representatives to learn how the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte implemented its food security system. Belo Horizonte has won fame for its success in addressing hunger and malnutrition while boosting the local economy.
 
Unlocking the Potential of Agribusiness
Agriculture is again seizing the attention of African governments, business leaders, communities, and development donors as a powerful driver of the continent’s relentless growth. If adequately addressed, the World Bank estimates that the sector can triple in value to US$ 1 trillion by 2030.
 
Rural 21 dedicates entire issue to food losses
The international journal for rural development (Rural21) analyse the dimensions of food losses and the underlying complex web of causes, and show how approaches have to be designed against the background of global challenges such as climate change and food security.


Upcoming events

 
1 April - 5 June
Best left-over recipes: Online European competition to find the best left-over recipes! Part of the Think.Eat.Save campaign, and hosted by UNEP’s European Office.

May 11-17, United Kingdom

Real Bread Maker Week is Britain’s biggest annual, national celebration of Real Bread. Reduce waste and bake your own bread using natural ingredients.

May 24-25, Rome, Italy

6th Festival Dell’Energia (Festival of Energy): Energy actors, media, research bodies, political and cultural leaders and civil society are invited to find ways of making energy more sustainable.

May 24-25, Italy

Energy Camp. ItaliaCamp is working with Festival Dell’Energia to galvanise ideas for sustainable energy use, in line with the Ideas for your country series that link ideas with decision makers.

1 June, Bonn, Germany

Resilient Urban Food Systems: Side event at the Resilient Cities congress. Panel discussion followed by interactive and participatory workshops showcasing leading initiatives on resilient food systems. FAO Agricultural Officer Makiko Taguchi will present SAVE FOOD and Food for the Cities at the event.

5 June 2013, Global

World Environment Day: Think.Eat.Save. Reduce Your Foodprint. Five-day celebration of indigenous ways of preserving food, and dialogues on green economy in global host country, Mongolia. Launch of report on food waste reduction and prevention. Plus more national and online events worldwide.

5 June 2013, Dubai

Corporate Social Environmental Responsibility (CSER) Summit: Leaders from a variety of sectors including Food, Health and Energy promote corporate policies that have a shared financial and social value.

June 6-7 2013, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Sustainable Foods Summit: The 5th European edition will focus on sustainable ingredients, sustainability best-practices, marketing developments and consumer behaviour.


This newsletter presents ongoing activities in the area of food losses and waste. It does not necessarily reflect the views of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, nor of any individual partner in SAVE FOOD.

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Media  
  SAVE FOOD on Deutsche Welle (English)
Deutsche Welle TV dedicated their April 2nd edition of the Agenda show to highlight food waste. FAO Senior Agro-Industries Officer, Divine Njie, participated for SAVE FOOD. He argued that one should look into rewarding waste reducing behaviour rather than penalizing offenders.

SAVE FOOD on Portuguese radio PTF (Portuguese)
SAVE FOOD Policy Consultant Camelia Bucatariu confirmed on Portuguese radio that the "Zero Waste" campaign, launched DariAcordar, is interesting to FAO. It is important to find solutions that work at different levels, she said.

Post-harvest fish losses on Togolese radio (French)
FAO Fishery Industry Officer, Yvette DieiOuadi, was interviewed by Radio Metropolis in Lome, Togo, during a sub-regional meeting on artisanal fisheries. The training workshop on data collection and use for post-harvest fish losses aimed at identifying sustainable solutions in reducing fish losses.

Why do Israelis throw away half the food they buy?
Haaretz journalist, Netta Ahituv, looks at food waste in Israel. She finds food stand operators being told by their supervisors to overstock prepared food, so as to “not look empty”. This increases unsold food, but food Bank Leket Israel collects and redistributes it.

Bridges between agribusiness and development
FAO Senior Agribusiness Economist Carlos da Silva participated in a Guardian Newspaper panel titled ”How far can agribusiness initiatives work for development, and do no harm?”. Improving market access for farmers is one of the most effective ways of reducing post-harvest losses.

Events  
  Messe Düsseldorf and FAO sign MoU
Daniel Gustafson, Deputy Director-General of FAO, and Werner M. Dornscheidt, CEO of Messe Düsseldorf GmbH, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the Save Food initiative in Rome. The agreement strengthens the Global Initiative to fight against food losses and waste – SAVE FOOD, and will further broaden the variety of private and public stakeholders involved in the partnership.

Annual meeting of the European Federation of Foodbanks (FEBA)
Eighty representatives from European FoodBanks met in Brussels to discuss how donations of food that is about to be thrown away can be increased. SAVE FOOD and the Alliance Against Hunger and Malnutrition were represented by FAO coordinator Marie-Christine Laporte.

EU Public hearing on food redistribution
EU Parliament Member Nuno Melo and the European Federation of Food Banks hosted a public hearing on "Food surpluses to feed deprived people" at the European Parliament. FEBA considers that the E.U. has a role to play on incentives that will encourage recovery of food surpluses.

Common approach on food losses and waste
SAVE FOOD invited for a two-day meeting to finalize a standardized methodology and a strategy for food loss and waste reduction. It is urgent to find a common approach, as there is a multitude of studies and activities on food loss and waste currently taking place at both national and regional levels.

High Level Consultation on post-2015 development agenda
UN member states, NGOs and civil society prioritize prevention and reduction of food waste and loss for Sustainable and resilient food production and consumption. The consultation was led by FAO and WFP and co-hosted by the Governments of Spain and Colombia.

Food losses and waste in the context of sustainable food systems
The High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE) held an e-consultation in April on the scope for a study on food losses and waste in the context of sustainable food systems. The final study will be presented to the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) in 2014.

Research Priorities for the 21st Century
The first Food Security Futures conference was held in April in Dublin, Ireland. It brought researchers from CGIAR and FAO, the private sector, agricultural research organizations and civil society together to present their priorities. Reducing food losses and waste was mentioned as one of the most promising ways to improve the resource efficiency of the global food system.

Swedish national liaison group on food waste
The Swedish national liaison group for prevention of food waste (SaMMa) met in Uppsala to share progress. The group has representatives from national and local authorities, food companies, traders, researchers, consumers and waste managers. SAVE FOOD presented at the event.


Partnerships


DariAcordar partners with SAVE FOOD
Portuguese anti-waste organization DariAcrodar celebrated its first anniversary by joining SAVE FOOD. As institutions join its Zero waste initiative, they commit to recover left-over meals from their dining areas. This has helped recover nearly 400 000 meals until now.

Foodloss Challenge partners with SAVE FOOD (Jap)
The Japanese Foodloss Challenge (FC) spread awareness of Food losses and waste issues. There are discussions between FAO, FC and the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture to see how collaboration may be expanded to implement food waste reduction programmes on the ground.

ItaliaCamp partners with SAVE FOOD
ItaliaCamp was started in 2008 for developing the BarCamp model – an open conference approach to capture ideas – for Italian universities. Since then the Italian government, private, public and civic organizations have joined, making the initiative one of the largest user-driven forms in Italy.

ISTRC partners with SAVE FOOD
The International Society for Tropical Root Crops (ISTRC) was created to foster, stimulate and support any type of activity leading to the general improvement of world tropical root crop production and utilization.