Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue reminded consumers on Stop Food Waste Day (Tuesday 1 March) to think critically about the amount of food that is wasted.
Statement By Minister McConalogue
A statement published on Gov.ie included a statement from Minister McConalogue, in which he said, "When we think of food waste, we think of the amount of food we put in our waste bins. But we don't always think of why we are putting it in there. Today, let's take time to think about that question and to understand what food we waste, how much we waste and why we waste it. We can each work towards reducing the amount of food we waste, which will in turn help us reduce our carbon footprint."
Climate Action Plan
According to the statement published on Gov.ie, Ireland's recently published Climate Action Plan aims to reduce food waste by 50% by 2030, and this aligns with one target of UN Sustainable Development Goal 12 to "cut in half per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer level and reducing food losses along production and supply chains (including post-harvest losses) by 2030", as well as with commitments of Food Vision 2030 on reducing food waste.
Focus Of Stop Food Waste Day
The statement published on Gov.ie said that the focus of this year's Stop Food Waste Day "Make Use-By Dates Work for You" is to make people aware that:
- food passing its use-by date is the main reason that Irish consumers are wasting food;
- and food can be used or frozen right up to its use-by date to avoid food waste.
Food Wastage's Carbon Footprint
Globally, food wastage's carbon footprint is estimated at 3.3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent of green house gas emissions released into the atmosphere per year, and Ireland generates more than one million tonnes of food waste each year and a third of that happens in homes, according to the statement published on Gov.ie.
Additional Statement By Minister McConalogue
The statement published on Gov.ie included an additional statement from Minister McConalogue, in which he said, "By reducing our food waste, we also show our farmers, fishers and other food producers that we value their work and the safe and nutritious food they work all year round to provide."
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