France has recently passed a law to ban food waste at supermarkets around the country. According to The Guardian, France wastes 7.1 million tonnes of food per year, with 11% of this being thrown away by shops. The law states that no supermarket shall throw away food approaching its best before date, and prohibits supermarkets from deliberately spoiling food to prevent foragers from eating it out of the store’s bins. This new law requires supermarkets to sign donation deals with charities, allowing these charities to expand the quality and diversity of food products they can distribute.
The grassroots campaign to end supermarket food waste began from shoppers and those against poverty, eventually turning into a petition. This is truly delightful to hear, as it is quite hard to imagine that a small number of individuals can create change and garner the attention of many other people.
I find it extremely surprising that this is only happening now, when it seems obvious that huge quantities of food can be donated to those in need, rather than simply throwing them away. I also read another CBC article describing how best before dates are not always the final date at which the product can be consumed- that is even more worrisome! The fact that food is being wasted significantly before it is no longer consumable shows us how wasteful our societies really are.
I hope that France puts pressure on the EU to adopt this policy throughout its member countries. Furthermore, I hope that this policy is adopted around the world, especially in North America. I would think that North America wastes more food than other areas of the world, but it would be interesting to find out if this is actually true.
alexandrajoyce
March 19, 2016 — 5:56 pm
As someone who lived in Paris for four months on exchange last year, I was stunned by the amount of homeless people and “gypsies” with children dispersed throughout each arrondissement. I can recall one night where I was standing in line at an event, and a young girl, no older than 6 years old, approached me for money. I remember thinking, “Why is she not in bed? It’s a school night!” I find it appalling that she was expected to earn money for her family at the expense of her education. By requiring major French supermarkets to donate all food waste to charities, food security in France will improve drastically. Furthermore, it will put less of a strain on low-income families and allow children to focus on their studies instead of worrying about when their next meal will be.
I completely agree that Canada, especially Vancouver in particular, should adopt this policy as soon as possible. After working with Save on Meats, a social enterprise on Vancouver’s DTES, I have learned how important food security is for both mental and physical well-being. Furthermore, it allows people to focus on pursuing employment opportunities and improves their overall lifestyle.
MarionaDomenech
March 27, 2016 — 8:47 pm
After reading your article, I felt very identified with the situation you have described in France, as in Spain the same is happening. It is pretty common to see homeless people waiting at the back of supermarkets stores, waiting for them to throw the “not in perfect conditions food”.
I remembered a time when one supermarket was even developing a system by which homeless people could not access their wasted food, being this food destroyed straight after it was considered not to be good enough to be sold.
I find really encouraging the measure that France is taking, and we will see If other countries (specially Spain which is directly affected) reacts in the same way.
Wanda He
March 28, 2016 — 12:03 am
It is inspiring that France is actually implementing a law on this, which helps to leverage some of the resources to the people in need, as a form of redistribution. I always wonder why Supermarket chooses to dispose, rather than donate some of the food items that is no longer fresh, but is still edible to garbage can. It sounds very logical for them to already be doing public good, from a cost perspective. After all, the food will probably be waste anyway; therefore, it would be very good PR and CSR for the supermarkets to set up a system of exchange, which in turn, builds a good image and stimulate sales.
This is one of the theoretical and realistic-sounding win-win situations that is not observed in the society. Therefore, I wonder why companies are not doing it. It may be because of tradition and heritage, where these companies have always operated in a way where after they have found post best-before date items, or items after a suggested consuming time frame, they would naturally and instinctively dispose it into garbage. As well, consumers are also a bit mindless on this issue. I have to admit, I never thought about where the perished items went when I go into supermarkets. It is something that we unconsciously ignore. Just like the issue about heritage and inheritance that are related to corporate behaviour, out mindset is set up in a way where we believe items that are not fresh poses health concerns, and should be disposed to garbage in order to protect our own well-being. It makes sense, to use law in the beginning stage to discipline companies and to guide them towards the preferred behaviour patterns. The law exists both to regulate and to punish, and hopefully, there could be a time where the law has become symbolic. It is present, for the sake of reference, rather than actually being applied to companies who consciously fail to commit themselves into these preferred behaviour.