GENEVA / FOOD WASTE

Simple actions by consumers and food retailers can dramatically cut the 1.3 billion tones of food lost or wasted each year and help shape a sustainable future, according to a new global campaign to cut food waste launched today (22 January)  by the UN Environment Program. the Food and Agriculture Organization  and partners. CH UNTV

 

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:56
• Production Date: 22 January 2013
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION - FAO; UNITED NATIONS ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME - UNEP; WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME - WFP
• Subject Topical: FOOD INDUSTRY; NUTRITION
• MAMS Id: U130122e

Description

STORY: GENEVA / FOOD WASTE
TRT: 2.56
SOURCE: CH UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 22 JANUARY 2013, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

Shotlist

1. Wide shot, exterior Palais des Nations.
2. Wide shot, press briefing
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Ann Tutwiler, Deputy Director-General, FAO:
“Worldwide FAO estimates that at least 1/3rd of all food products are lost. This is equivalent to 1.3 billion tones that are lost or wasted every year in food production systems and also in consumption. In rich countries- industrialized countries- about half of the food that is wasted can be described as 'food waste' which is what Achim was referring to. About half of this food is lost because producers, retailers, and consumers discard food that is perfectly still fit for consumption.”
4. Cutaway, journalists
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Ann Tutwiler, Deputy Director-General, FAO
“If you take all of the food that is wasted in the industrialized world, it amounts to more than the total net production of food in Africa.”
6. Cutaway, journalists
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director:
“People, something is happening in the world that is simply not justifiable, not necessary, and in fact it involves each and every one of you in the sense that you could make a difference.”
8. Cutaway, journalists
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director:
“Somewhere between the FAO's estimate of around a third of everything we produce under the heading of food on this planet is being lost and what Liz and her organization found in the UK, in terms of sometimes approaching 40-50% of food being wasted, we are doing something that is completely irrational.”
10. Cutaway, journalist
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Tristram Stuart, Feeding the 5,000:
“One of the positive anecdotal histories that have happened is the issue of wonky fruit and vegetables which are very often left on farms across Europe and North America simply because they don't meet the cosmetic standards of retailers. There’s nothing nutritionally wrong with them, it's just that supermarkets won't buy them and they're left in the field to rot or, at very best, fed to livestock. Since 2009, in the United Kingdom, I’m delighted to say that the sale of wonky fruit and vegetable is now the fastest growing sector within the fresh produce market.”
12. Cut a way, journalist
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Tristram Stuart, Feeding the 5,000:
“Reducing food waste saves people money. Buying wonky fruits and vegetables, buying offal, for example which is very often wasted because we don’t eat so much of it in Europe, these are cheaper alternatives to mainstream consumption habits. So anyone, whether it's a taxi-driver or a politician, or the manager of a large firm can get involved, in those solutions, in win-win situations.”
13. Wide shot, briefing

Storyline

Simple actions by consumers and food retailers can dramatically cut the 1.3 billion tones of food lost or wasted each year and help shape a sustainable future, according to a new global campaign to cut food waste launched today by the UN Environment Program (UNEP), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and partners.

The campaign, ‘Think.Eat.Save. Reduce Your Foodprint’, specifically targets food wasted by consumers, retailers and the hospitality industry.

Worldwide, about one-third of all food produced, worth around US$1 trillion, gets lost or wasted in food production and consumption systems, according to data released by FAO. Food loss occurs mostly at the production stages - harvesting, processing and distribution - while food waste typically takes place at the retailer and consumer end of the food-supply chain.

Ann Tutwiler, Deputy Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organziation (FAO) briefing reporters at the campaign launch in Geneva today (22 January) said that, the wasted food in the industrialized world, amounted to “more than the total net production of food in Africa”.

And Achim Steiner, the Executive Director of the United Nations Environmental program (UNEP) said that around a third of everything produced under the heading of food on this planet is being lost, he added that “we are doing something that is completely irrational”.