The 2024 National Food Waste Summit is underway, with more than 300 delegates hearing international and local leaders in the field provide updates on projects underway, overseas models and mindsets, and the challenges and triumphs of Australia’s commitment to halving food waste by 2030.
End Food Waste Australia (EFWA) CEO, Dr Steven Lapidge, presented the 2024-2030 Strategic Business Plan with honest evaluations of where the country is currently sitting and what needs to be done to achieve the target.
“Our target is to reduce food waste by 4.6 million tonnes. Our modelling shows if we do nothing else from today, we will reduce waste by 1.4 tonnes. By further enhancing our activities over the next six years, we will increase that to 2.5 tonnes. And then factoring in activities by our partners that contribute to the target but that we may not be capturing in our food waste totals, which we estimate at around 15 per cent of the national target, we can get to the hardened food waste target.
“This strategic plan is about how we are going to get there, as an organisation and as a country. Because none of us can do it alone,” Lapidge said.
Lapidge said to get there is going to take $135 million in new investment.
“Yes, it’s a large figure but it’s certainly less than the $2 billion cost of food waste indicated by the the national food waste feasibility study indicated a couple of years ago.
“We are one of the only countries in the world to have a costed plan to halve food waste by 2030, and that is a bottom up, evidence-based plan. We have also become one of the world’s largest public private partnerships in food waste and I’m really proud of that. Australia started 10 years behind many of our countries, but we are now one of the largest, and we’re catching up quickly on the rest of the world. That’s something I think we should all be proud of,” he said.
Lapidge’s update on what has been achieved to date was bolstering. Forty-four projects have been completed, more than 150 scientific publications produced, and there is around $20 million in new projects in the pipeline. Forty companies have signed the voluntary Australian Food Pact, donated 190 million meals to food rescue agencies and in turn saved the signatories around $60 million. Ten sector action plans have been completed, including the horticulture sector, a massive undertaking for an industry that accounts for 50 per cent of the country’s food waste.
And later this year, EFWA will launch its nationwide behaviour change campaign.
Time for legislative change and tax reform
Food Bank CEO, Brianna Casey said while there have already been some “extraordinary” achievements in a relatively short space of time, “we have a pretty shameful record and some pretty shameful statistics that we need to be honest about”.
“Despite the fact we produce enough food in this country to feed our population three times over – three times over – we’ve got 3.7 million households across Australia experiencing food insecurity. We are rapidly approaching a situation where 50 per cent of Australian households know what food insecurity is because they’ve been touched by it themselves,” Casey said.
She explained food insecurity as a spectrum, ranging from feeling anxious and worried about whether or not you've got enough money in the household budget to put a meal on the table through to making “impossible choices and ultimate compromises and sacrifices on the type of food you’re eating, or whether you're eating at all, and that’s a growing reality in Australia right now. We hear these stories every day”, she said.
Casey spoke about Foodbank Australia’s focus on upstream, where it can identify where food loss and waste is happening. Partnerships with growers, farmers, and manufacturers identify where products are, then its partnerships with transport and logistics companies swing into gear, collect the goods, and bring it to Foodbank distribution centres.
“We don’t talk about food supply chains at Foodbank, we call them food surprise chains because we don’t know where that food loss and waste is going to be found day in and day out,” she said.
(Source: End Food Waste Australia)
Casey also spoke on the bill recently tabled in parliament by West Australian senator, Dean Hill, and backed by EFWA.
“I was on the original bid committee with Steve to fund a food waste CRC and we identified – more than a decade ago – that without tax incentives in our regulatory framework there is no incentive for farmers, growers, manufacturers, or transport logistics companies to donate to food rescue organisations. They do so because they’re great humans but financially, there is no incentive to do so.
“The bill is the game changer we’ve been waiting for. It will unlock more food and groceries than ever before – it has the potential to unlock an additional 100 million meals a year by 2030.”
Casey said there are “regulatory headwinds” making the bill harder to sell. With food safety challenges and government departments too caught up in bureaucracy.
She also said there needs to be care regarding unintended consequences of well-intended regulation that can have unfortunate outcomes.
“We’ve got a lot more work to do and we’re really excited to be doing it with you.”
Do the easy things for maximum impact
Samen Tegen Voedselverspilling (Food Wast Free United, Netherlands) director, Toine Timmermans brought the international perspective to the morning session on Day 1.
Timmermans said the in the EU, the latest game changer has been linking food waste to climate change impacts and having a framework that will drive every company and consumer to use their resources better.
“The calculations are very simple – about one third of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) caused by human action is linked to our food system. If globally, we waste up to one third, that adds up to 10 per cent of emissions that we could avoid.
“Research shows that two of the top three solutions to mitigate climate change are food waste reduction and moving to a more plant-based diet.
“But how many people do you know who know this? That they are far better and more impactful solutions than flying less or driving an electric car (which is about number 60 on the top 100 mitigation actions). These are the things we have to do that are easy and have the greatest impact,” Timmermans said.
He also explained the EU introducing binding food waste reduction targets.
“Of course, you need to create awareness but also you need to create the strategy and policy background and that’s what Europe has been doing well.
“The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) are aspirational - and intentionally so - if targets are missed there are no consequences, that’s why the EU has introduced binding targets. They are lower that what was initially planned, and farming was excluded which I think was a big mistake, but we’re working on that.
“What is crucial is that it is no longer about what you do in your operation, but also taking responsibility for your whole supply chain, so technically Scope 3,” Timmermans said.
He also questioned Australia’s reliance on landfill. “I think I’ve counted five or six mentions of landfill this morning. Why is landfilling here? Increase levies or just ban it like the Netherlands did 25 years ago. Keep things in the supply chain.”
(Source: End Food Waste Australia)
More to come.
