Food waste - you are what you waste
17th MIBAS Debates on CSR - “Food waste: you are what you eat waste”
Guests:
- Dominik Lorenzen, Member of the Green Parliamentary Group and spokesman for economic and port policy, founder of Stückgut (a zero-waste grocery store), managing partner of Teamgeist Nord GmbH, Hamburg
- Elia Carceller, Coordinator of the Slow Food Youth Academy in Germany, agricultural and environmental scientist, Berlin
- Marcel Henin, Ambassador for the organization of Foodsharing, a volunteering foodsaver, Hamburg
- Erdmuthe Seth, Co-Founder of "Alternulltiv - Zero Waste Hamburg", blogger, Hamburg
Every German throws away over 80 kilograms of food on average per year, according to a study presented by Ministry of Agriculture. This means that Germany throws out 11 million kilograms of food every year. Much of this food waste is preventable, in the same time it impacts extremely negatively the environment and the economy. Food waste happens everywhere: from production, supermarkets, restaurants to every household. The main question remains not answered: is there any way to stop this useless flow of food into the bin?
The idea of this debate was to bring different expertise together and elaborate the potential of food waste reduction, its impact on society and the environment as well as the challenges for individuals, businesses and politics. Governmental regulations, negative consequences, motivation to act, best practices and many other questions were discussed at the 17th MIBAS Debate “Food Waste: you are what you eat waste”, which took place in Guesthouse of University of Hamburg on the 29th of November, 2018.
Four speakers represented and argued the main topic from different perspectives: governmental, business, volunteering and customer. The discussion shifted several times during debate from the causes of food waste to the side effects and prevention. The most controversial theme for our experts became the question who are the clients of the “saved” food stores. The speakers argued whether or not the idea of cheaper food will split the society on those, who can buy in ordinary supermarkets, and those, who can afford only cheaper food stores. Plenty of questions about German politics and regulations received Mr Lorenzen. He shared his unique experience on the way from a zero-waste grocery store “Stückgut” to the Parliament of Hamburg. Ambassador of Foodsharing Mr Henin and the co-founder of “Alternativ” Ms Seth provided to the audience examples of best practices on food saving, which exist nowadays. Coordinator of the Slow Food Youth Academy in Germany Ms Carceller, who visited Hamburg for this discussion, shared her opinion on effectiveness of food waste prevention and education of EU customers. As a final bonus before the open discussion started with experts shared their personal tips and experiences how to fight against food waste at home and how to consume responsible.
The audience took the insights from this interesting debate with and the speakers shared their contacts for the possible cooperation in the future. The organizational team wishes to express its appreciation and thanks the speakers and the audience for the active participation. We are looking forward to the next debates!