"Best before": At SGES 2019, the focus was on foodwaste
Switzerland must halve the proportion of food waste by 2030. This is an ambitious goal and yet an important building block for achieving the climate targets. Claudio Beretta, President of the foodwaste.ch association, reported on the topic of food at the Swiss Green Economy Symposium SGES on September 3, 2019.
Foodwaste is on everyone's lips today, because global warming definitely affects everyone. But what impact does food waste in Switzerland have on the climate? Claudio Beretta underlined at this year's SGES: A very big one: "Food production accounts for about one third of CO2 production. That's a similar amount to transport!"
An important part of the SGES program therefore addressed the evident question of why we waste so much food and how we might do better with these resources?
Food waste in Switzerland
Claudio Beretta, co-founder and president of the foodwaste.ch association, introduced the topic of food waste at the innovation forum "FOOD: ENJOYABLE, HEALTHY, AFFORDABLE, ENVIRONMENTALLY SUSTAINABLE":
"The main reason for foodwaste is probably that we can afford it. On average, we spend only about seven percent of our income on food. So we're much less careful with it than older generations."
Problematically, most "waste" is produced at the end of the supply chain, i.e. at the end consumer. Beretta explains consumers' demands: "Food should always be available, we want a large variety, high-quality and immaculate products. Everything else ends up in the bucket."
Unfortunately, the appreciation of food in our industrialized countries is declining at the same time: Food should not be too expensive and should be quick.
Food waste in the industry
"Likewise, we do not know exactly from what and how the product we buy has been produced. The more problematic, he said, is that many don't want to admit that they're making food, including vegan ingredients, on an artificial basis ... or they just don't realize it, because it's a matter of small quantities each time."
This considerable amount of byproducts cannot be easily recycled and composted. This is also part of the theme of foodwaste.ch, says Claudio Beretta: Even if the nutrients go back into the cycle, the large expenditure of energy, water, land, fertilizer and pesticides for production, transport and storage would be forgotten.
For more information and tips on how to combat food waste, read the full Interviewconducted by Regula von Büren, Institute for Business Psychology at Kalaidos University of Applied Sciences.
