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Save Food newsletter




	EU Fisheries Council ban fish discards The EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council have decided to phase out discards by the European fishing industry over the next four years. It is estimated that anything from 8 percent (up to 98 percent for some species) – 1.3 million tonnes – of European fish is thrown dead back into the sea. (EC impact assessment, 2011). NRC NORCAP supports SAVE FOOD The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is supporting the global Save Food Initiative with a Communications and Partnerships consultant. The post is part of NRC’s Nordic Capacity Programme (NORCAP), which strengthens the international organisations through rapid deployment of professional and experienced personnel. Africa: Cutting Food Waste Crucial to Ensuring Food Security One of Africa’s food waste hotspots is the Dandora rubbish dump on the outskirts of Nairobi. The presence of pigs, marabou storks, dogs and other animals - as well as human scavengers - indicates there is plenty to eat. Even in Kenya, more food gets produced than is consumed Thousands of smallholder farmers with farms under ten acres supply over 70 percent of the nearly 250 000 metric tonnes of fruits and vegetables exported from Kenya every year, but more than 50 percent of their produce often never reaches where it was intended in the first place: the dining table. Online food exchange has had a good start SAVE FOOD co-founder Messe Düsseldorf reports on a German food waste initiative helping distribute surplus food. Users can specify on foodsharing.de what kind of food they have, in what quantities, and where it can be collected, and interested parties may arrange to pick it up for free. Alliance Against Hunger and Malnutrition (AAHM) features SAVE FOOD The Alliance Against Hunger and Malnutrition, the global partnership for eradication of hunger and malnutrition, is covering food losses and waste as one mechanism of reducing hunger and malnutrition. The April edition will feature the recent partnership between SAVE FOOD and the Global FoodBanking Network, member of the US Alliance to end hunger.		Partnerships Launch of Think.Eat.Save Campaign Consumers, the hospitality and retailer sectors can reduce the massive amounts of food that is wasted every day. FAO, UNEP and partners recently launched the Think.Eat.Save campaign to spread the word, promote action, and support the wider goals of SAVE FOOD and the Zero Hunger Challenge. SAVE FOOD partners with the leading food bank networks Working collaboratively with the Global FoodBanking Network and the European Federation of Food Banks will advance the organizations’ shared mission of preventing and reducing food loss and food waste and support food and nutrition security worldwide. SAVE FOOD partners with Maersk Shipping The Danish oceanic transportation giant Maersk Shipping is the latest partner of the global initiative to reduce food loss and food waste. “Our goal is to help improve the food chain from farm to fork” said Head of communication and branding at Maersk, Erik Hogh-Sorensen in a statement. SAVE FOOD partners with the New York City Food Policy Center NY CUNYT seeks to contribute to the creation of policies that improve New York City’s food environments to reduce food-related health, social, and environmental challenges in a food distribution / disaster preparedness in perspective. Knowledge Global Food: Waste Not, Want Not The Institution of Mechanical Engineers recently released a desktop study supporting the findings from FAO publication Global food losses and food waste. They recommended that FAO works with the engineering community to help developed nations put in place programmes that transfer engineering knowledge, design know-how, and suitable technology to newly developing countries. Household Food Waste: Opportunities for Companies to Provide Solutions The brief is authored by US-based Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) and written by sustainability consultant Nancy Himmelfarb. It provides an overview of solutions companies can pursue to help consumers reduce household food waste. How America Is Losing Up to 40 Percent of Its Food from Farm to Fork to Landfill Issue paper on food losses and waste by US Environmental Organization NRDC. The food value chain uses ten percent of the total energy budget in the United States, 50 percent of all land, and 80 percent of all freshwater consumption. Yet, 40 percent of food produced goes uneaten. Upcoming events March 25–26, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 9th Comprehensive African Agriculture Development (CAADP) Partnership Platform April 9–10, Brussels, Belgium 3rd Conference on Decentralised Cooperation hosted by EC and Committee of the Regions April 18–19, Lisbon, Portugal Shaping the future of sustainable food consumption: Challenges and opportunities for policy and science integration This newsletter presents ongoing activities in the area of food losses and waste. It does not necessarily reflect the views of any individual partner in SAVE FOOD, nor that of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. If you have items that you think would fit in the SAVE FOOD news, please send an email to [email protected], or visit www.fao.org/save-food for more information.



	SAVE FOOD presents at the Sustainability in Packaging Conference in Florida Food packaging plays an increasingly key role in reducing food losses and waste along the entire value chain, from harvesting, storage, transport and sale. Joseph Mpagalile (FAO) presented some implications on food losses waste for the packaging sector, as well as outlining a way forward. EU FUSIONS: Optimising food use for social innovation The second stakeholder meeting for the EU funded FUSIONS project (Food Use for Social Innovation by Optimising Waste Prevention Strategies) was held in Lund in Sweden in March. FUSIONS is establishing a platform to develop a strategy to prevent food loss and waste throughout Europe. FAO SAVE FOOD presents at the Sustainable Foods Summit in San Francisco SAVE FOOD participated in the Sustainable Foods Summit in San Francisco through the FAO Liaison Office for North America. The summit brought together 160 food industry executives to address supply chain inefficiencies leading to over a third of human food production lost and wasted. UNEP Governing Council When the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) recently held its Governing Council reception, they added a twist: All vegetables used in the dinner had been rejected by exporters for cosmetic reasons – a leading global cause of food waste. One third photo-exhibition displayed in Nairobi SAVE FOOD partnered with UNEP and Alliance Française to bring Klaus Pichler’s renowned photo exhibit to Nairobi. One third of all food is either wasted or lost, and Pichler has beautifully photographed normal food items in various stages of decay to illustrate this point. Expert Consultation on Food Losses and Waste Reduction in the Near East Region The FAO regional conference for the Near East Region (NERC) highlighted the importance of assisting member countries to address the key challenges related to food losses and waste and developing a plan to reduce them by 50 percent within ten years in the Near East Region.