Hundreds of post-harvest professionals are steadily making their way to Rome, Italy for the 1st International Congress on Post-Harvest Loss Reduction slated for October 5-7 in Rome’s Auditorium Antonianum. The much anticipated Congress is a unique joint initiative primarily led by the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign’s ADM Institute on Post-harvest Loss Reduction with the support of the Global Initiative on Food Loss and Waste Reduction (SAVE FOOD) and The Rockefeller Foundation among others. Read more...

The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the United Nations Rome-based agencies (FAO, IFAD and WFP) co-organized a workshop on post-harvest management (PHM) and food loss reduction (FLR) held on 7–11 September in Jinja, Uganda. The aims were to discuss how to increase the dynamics of the Community of Practice (CoP) on FLR; to inform and engage stakeholders in PHM/FLR efforts; and to define joint activities and priorities for 2016. The workshop included a field trip to the sites of WFP’s reducing PHL programme, where participants met the local partners and producers involved. Read more...

With hundreds of thousands of families affected by severe food losses, the governments of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua are distributing agricultural aid packages, including seeds, fertilizers and irrigation pumps, to help farmers recover as much as possible in the second planting season, which is now under way. Read more...

This conference will gather European Union (EU) and international policy-makers, and all stakeholders involved in the food chain – from industry to non-governmental organizations, the scientific community and consumers – to share achievements and stimulate an open and action-oriented debate. The conference will take place on 15 October 2015 at the EXPO Milano Conference Centre in Milan, Italy. Read more...

In Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, on 29–30 September, FAO’s Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean convened national representatives from governments in the region to discuss how reducing food loss and waste (FLW) can contribute to food security and combat malnutrition. Progress was made towards the formation of a regional alliance on FLW reduction, with participants representing public and private sector and civil society agreeing to continue working under three strategic pillars: i) research and technology; ii) governance; and iii) awareness and communication. Read more...

FAO won the poster competition of the World Seafood Congress 2015 with its “Vicious circle of fish losses, vulnerability of natural resources and the poverty trap in small-scale fisheries” poster. The World Seafood Congress (WSC) is a biannual global event organized by the International Association of Seafood Professionals (IAFI). Its objective is to provide a forum for exchange of the latest knowledge on international market requirements, especially for seafood safety and quality. The 2015 congress was held in Grimsby, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Read more...

"Trees are alive because they make the apples, the leaves, the wind". This message from five-year-old Camilla opened the Conference on Education in Food and Environmental Sustainability hosted by Reggio Children srl, Municipal Infant-Toddler Centres and Preschools of the Municipality of Reggio Emilia and the Loris Malaguzzi International Centre Foundation, on 20 September at EXPO Milano in Milan, Italy. Read more...

Organized by Italy’s Permanent Representation to the United Nations, the Permanent Representation of the Islamic Republic of Iran/Chair of G77 and China, and the University of Bologna (Italy), a seminar on reducing food losses and waste was held at FAO Headquarters in Rome on 16 September. Participants from civil society and the public and private sectors discussed policies and experiences in food loss and waste reduction and management in the broader context of food security and nutrition practices. Read more...

The project “Don’t Waste Our Future!” is building a European Union- (EU)-wide alliance of youth and local authorities to combat food waste and support sustainable development and consumption. The network includes representatives from primary and secondary schools, local authorities and the private sector in Belgium, Cyprus, France, Italy, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Read more...

The consultation, to be held on 24–26 November in Bangkok, will focus on agro-ecological approaches, including FAO’s “Save and Grow” agricultural development paradigm; the Zero Hunger initiative; programmes on family farming, information and communication technologies in agriculture, climate-resilient agriculture, social protection and addressing malnutrition; reduction of food losses and waste, including the SAVE FOOD campaign; and the declaration of 2015 as “Soil Health Year”. Read more...

The United Nations joint project on food loss reduction, funded by the Government of Ireland, is one of the SAVE FOOD initiative’s many projects. Its objective is to identify the causes of food loss and develop solutions through research, awareness raising and collaboration with private and public partners around the world. Read more...

FAO is hosting this e-conference, organized by the Livestock Production Systems Branch of the Animal Production and Health Division, from 1 to 30 October 2015. A background document is available containing a draft framework and an action plan. The e-conference is open to everybody interested in the topic, and participation is free. Read more...

At the upcoming Committee on World Food Security (CFS) forty-second session there will be a side-event – the “Youth for Food Security and Nutrition Idea Incubator”. The initiative aims to motivate restaurants to reduce food waste efficiently by introducing a certification or rating system. The idea will be pitched live at the side-event on Monday 12 October from 5:30 to 7 pm. Read more...

The United States Agriculture Secretary, Tom Vilsack, and the Deputy Administrator of EPA, Stan Meiburg, announced the United States of America’s first ever national food waste reduction goal, calling for a 50-percent reduction in food waste by 2030. As part of the effort, the federal government will lead a new partnership with charitable organizations, faith-based organizations, the private sector and local, state and tribal governments on reducing food losses and waste to improve overall food security and conserve the nation’s natural resources. Read more...

About 30 world leaders – including United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and French President Francois Hollande – were served "landfill salads" made of vegetable scraps at a high-level working lunch at United Nations Headquarters in New York. The goal of the lunch was to highlight the role of food waste as an overlooked aspect of climate change. Read more...

Americans waste a lot of food, but the seafood that never gets eaten is the most troubling. Few sources of nutrition are as coveted as fish, but between 2009 and 2013 up to 47 percent of the edible seafood available in the United States of America went to waste, according to a study from the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (CLF). Read more...

AFAAS is organizing a side-event on post-harvest management of grains during its Second Africa Wide Agricultural Extension Week 2015, on 12–16 October in Addis Ababa.

The report Surplus food management against food waste: From words to action will be presented during the Food Waste: from words to action conference on 6 October at the Orogel Conference Centre, EXPO Milano, Milan, Italy.

Feedback’s report on Food waste in Kenya: Uncovering food waste in the horticultural export supply chain reveals that European retail buyers are subjecting Kenyan farmers to unfair trading practices, such as last-minute cancellation of orders and unnecessarily strict cosmetic standards, resulting in massive amounts of food waste.

SecondBite’s first Waste Not Want Not dinner and auction, with Matt Preston in partnership with the Langham Melbourne in Australia, was held on 20 August and was a great success.

Selina Juul, founder of Denmark’s Stop Wasting Food movement (Stop Spild Af Mad), has posted a blog on the topic of food waste.

Eindhoven University of Technology will present their new research on “The Frontiers of Waste & Lost Sales in Fresh” during the Sell more, Waste less a free one-day Conference and workshop for food retailers and manufacturers on 20 October, London, England.

16 September marked the start of the "Resource Efficient Food and dRink for the Entire Supply cHain" (REFRESH) project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020. Twenty-six partners partners from 12 European countries and China will work towards the project's goal of contributing to a 30-percent reduction in food waste across Europe by 2025, reducing waste management costs and maximizing the value from unavoidable food waste and packaging materials. Led by Wageningen University and Research Centre (UR) in the Netherlands, the project will run from 2015 until 2019.