The campaigning organisation, Avaaz, has become involved in the effort to see that supermarkets do not destroy unsold food, but give it to needy people instead through charitable agencies.
Algarve Daily News has covered the new law in France which enforces this and the French campaigner's initiative to take the concept to the EU and this peptition should back up his work.
Avaaz is asking members of the public to sign a petition to world leaders to pass laws to ensure the big food retailers donate unsold food and give fair treatment to their growers.
Below is the text for anyone interested in the initiative and perhaps also interested in adding their name to the petition to end the global food waste scandal
Take a moment to send this email to anyone you think might join you, so we can make this massive before we table it at the EU, UN, and all the countries which could soon change their laws and feed the world.
Forward this email to friends and family, post the link on Facebook, and tell people you meet:
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/food_waste_loc/?tHasEab
With hope,
The Feedback and Avaaz teams
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Dear friends,
It's a recipe to feed the world -- stop wasting a third of all the food we grow, and stop tens of millions of children going to bed hungry each night.
The ingredients are all there -- an amazing movement in France just won a law making supermarkets give unsold produce to the poor and homeless. The whole EU is consulting on how to stop supermarkets cancelling vast orders of food farmers have grown for them. And the UN is agreeing a goal to halve food waste.
Timing is everything to get this recipe right. We already have a network of politicians ready to table legislation, we just need to build a huge push behind them. Let's race to build a million-strong petition, submit to the EU consultation before it ends, then work with allies around the world till we win the laws we need. Add your name, then send this to everyone you've shared a meal with:
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/food_waste_loc/?tHasEab
For 15 years I and the organization I founded, Feedback, have battled the supermarkets' scandalous levels of waste. In Kenya, we discovered that up to half the veg grown for Western supermarkets is destroyed. Supermarkets say the produce is the wrong shape or colour, or cancel entire orders when they're ready to ship.
I've met day labourers working for less than $2 a day, who say they don't get paid when orders are cancelled: they can't send their children to school or feed them. Some farmers even have to sign contracts preventing them from giving out the food for free to those who need it.
In the UK it is now illegal for supermarkets to mistreat farmers in these ways. A regulator has powers to receive anonymous complaints from farmers and fine supermarkets up to 1% of their turnover. Already the biggest supermarket, Tesco, is under investigation, and we're taking the message to other supermarket bosses.
The UN is agreeing a goal to halve global food waste by 2030, and opportunities are coming thick and fast. The EU is running a consultation on how to stop supermarkets' unfair trading practices as part of a new plan to reduce waste across the continent. The UK and France have started to show what's possible, and politicians in Berlin, Brussels, Madrid and Washington DC are already pushing for change. Now it's up to us to give them a huge public mandate to win the laws we need to end food waste. Add your name:
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/food_waste_loc/?tHasEab
Nothing is more central to how we live as a global human race than finding ways to feed everyone. If we now join together the burgeoning food waste movement and the Avaaz community around the world, we can feed the hungry and remove the huge pressure on poor farmers and our precious environment.
With hope,
Tristram Stuart, with the Feedback and Avaaz teams
MORE INFORMATION
Putting a stop to global food waste (Feedback)
http://www.feedbackglobal.org/stopdumping
EU supermarkets blamed for Kenya food waste (Al Jazeera)
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/02/2013222152652620999.html
France to force big supermarkets to give away unsold food to charity (The Guardian)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/22/france-to-force-big-supermarkets-to-give-away-unsold-fo...
France Wants To Forbid Supermarkets To Destroy Unsold Food (Huffington Post)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/22/france-supermarkets-unsold-food_n_7420702.html
5 Amazing Strategies to Eliminate Food Waste and Feed the Hungry (Time)
http://time.com/money/3913386/food-waste-feed-hungry/
EU circular economy consultation launched (Letsrecycle.com)
http://www.letsrecycle.com/news/latest-news/eu-circular-economy-consultation-launched/
Tesco probed by new regulator (BBC)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-31143452
Avaaz.org is a 41-million-person global campaign network that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people shape global decision-making. ("Avaaz" means "voice" or "song" in many languages.) Avaaz members live in every nation of the world; our team is spread across 18 countries on 6 continents and operates in 17 languages. Learn about some of Avaaz's biggest campaigns here, or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.
You became a member of the Avaaz movement and started receiving these emails when you signed "Stop food waste, end hunger!" on 2015-07-09 17:18:34 using the email address janet@algarvedailynews.com.
To ensure that Avaaz messages reach your inbox, please add avaaz@avaaz.org to your address book. To change your email address, language settings, or other personal information, contact us, or simply email=janet@algarvedailynews.com&;lang=en&cid=16533" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">go here to unsubscribe.To contact Avaaz, please do not reply to this email. Instead, write to us at www.avaaz.org/en/contact or call us at +1-888-922-8229 (US).
