Welcome to the new episode of Urbcast. Today we will talk about an extremely complex topic which is the food waste that we face in our cities all over the world. To emphasize the importance of the topic: we throw out from 33 to 55% of all the food that we have produced (Global Food: Waste Not, Want Not). At the same time, about 8.9% of the world’s population — 690 million people is affected by hunger (worldvision.org).
So what is wrong with us? It is not that we do not produce enough to feed our planet. There is a problem with access and distribution, to begin with. How to improve the system? As so many of us live in cities nowadays we need to face this enormous challenge and think about some solutions. What can supermarkets do to decrease the amount of food they throw out due to food/safety regulations? Is dumpster diving or urban harvesting a solution? Or maybe we should all use food saving apps like TooGoodTooGo? Where to start if I want to reduce food waste?
I asked all those important questions to my guest: Matt Homewood – a food campaigner and An Urban Harvester based Copenhagen.
We also talked about Matt’s journey through the US where he started dumpster diving as well as his professional exerience at Nordic Sustaina and working with the Cities100 report, as well as Matt’s work at Greenpeace Nordic. We talk about the situation in the sustainable Copenhagen where consumer food waste is a big issue (37% of DK food waste). Supermarkets account for 23% and they cause more upstream at the farm level.
So we wonder: how can we prevent food waste in Copenhagen (and other cities)?
Book reccommended by Matt is:
The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow’s World, Charles C. Mann
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34959327-the-wizard-and-the-prophet
You can follow Matt and his campaign against food waste:
at his webiste:
https://www.matthomewood.com/
on An Urban Harvester Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/anurbanharvester/
his Linkedin:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-homewood/
#foodwaste #dumpsterdiving #food #hunger #poverty #inequalities #copenhagen #supermarkets #foodscarcity #toogoodtogo