Jennifer Murnane O'Connor
Question:53. Deputy Jennifer Murnane O'Connor asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his plans to tackle food waste. [8244/24]
View answerThursday, 22 February 2024
Questions (53)
Oral answers (6 contributions)
What plans does the Minister have to tackle food waste?
I thank Deputy Murnane O'Connor for raising this issue. As she knows, it is well documented that food waste is an important and real challenge. It is an issue I take very seriously, both personally and in the strategic positions and actions taken by my Department.
At the strategic level, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine works very closely with its counterpart, the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, on exploring ways to achieve UN sustainable development goal 12.3, which commits that by 2030 we should halve, per capita, global food waste at retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses. This commitment is also reflected in Food Vision 2030, the ten-year strategy for the agrifood sector.
Together with the Minister of State at the other Department, Deputy Ossian Smyth, who has responsibility for this, we launched the Government's food waste prevention roadmap in November 2022. This roadmap sets out a number of priority actions to bring the focus on food waste prevention in a coherent manner across key sectors in the supply chain. One of the key actions in the roadmap was a relaunch of the EPA food charter I launched last June with the Minister of State, Deputy Smyth. Food businesses that sign up to the food waste charter make a number of commitments related to measuring, reporting and reducing food waste. While sign-up to the charter is voluntary, these commitments by companies will be essential drivers across the agricultural and food supply chain to allow us to measure our progress against the 50% reduction target.
On funding, the Department has provided €10 million over recent years for the purchase of specialised equipment by the National Prepared Consumer Food Centre in Ashtown. This allows food companies to undertake piloting of their innovative processes, including reducing food waste in their production processes and packaging.
In May last year, I allocated €180,000 funding under the rural innovation and development fund to the FoodCloud growers’ project, which is doing tremendous work.
The project aimed to redistribute 60 tonnes of food produce in 2023, avoiding 190,000 kg of carbon equivalent. In January, I issued another call for proposals under that fund.
This is a matter that we all have to take seriously. Along with our respective teams, the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, and I are working closely on this.
Globally, a third of all food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted. The EPA estimates that, in Ireland, we waste approximately 750,000 tonnes of food each year. According to its 2021 research, most of that wastage occurred at the manufacturing and processing stage, representing 29%, and at the household stage, another 29%, with 25% of waste generated by restaurants and the food service industry.
I welcome the Minister’s comments about what has been launched, but where household waste is concerned, I am a firm believer in communicating information, working with various areas and educating people about what is happening. Incentives are also important in this regard.
Food waste is becoming a significant issue globally. Its impact on the environment is also a concern. The EPA estimates that it accounts for 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. That is quite worrying.
The Minister spoke about his roadmap and about how he is on track to meet his 2030 targets. I welcome that.
The Deputy is plugged into the farming community in her constituency of Carlow-Kilkenny and she does considerable work with its members. She is aware of the massive effort from morning until late at night, 365 days per year, that goes into producing food. I was glad to meet the large number of farmers who attended a meeting she organised a few months ago. The onus is on us all to ensure that the considerable work done by farm families ends up on plates, fuels, sustains and nourishes people in whatever part of the world they might be, and is not wasted. This requires that people throughout the food supply chain be attentive to what is happening and eliminate waste. There is an onus on everyone working in the supply chain from farm to fork to ensure that is the case.
In terms of leadership, my Department and the Department of energy, communications and climate are working with the EPA, which has a strong advocacy role in this regard. We have the food charter, which lays out a pathway for companies and everyone else to contribute to reducing food waste. There has been a strong uptake of the charter. Collectively, we will continue driving this forward while also putting out the message, as the Deputy is doing today, about the importance of respecting food and the work that farmers in Carlow and elsewhere put into producing it and of ensuring it ends up nourishing people in our country or anywhere else in the world. People need it and the work that goes into it deserves to end up on their plates.
The Minister spoke about the hard work done by our farming community. The same applies to hoteliers and everyone else across the board. Food is important to us. According to the EPA’s 2021 report, the Government funded the efficient food project, which estimated the amount of food waste and loss in primary production in Ireland for the first time. It is important that the Government has recognised this issue.
I pay tribute to my farmers in Carlow-Kilkenny. I see the work they do. I met them at the rally two weeks ago in Carlow, but we will discuss the concerns they raised another day. I know the Minister will meet them.
The Department of agriculture is aware of this issue and I know the work the Minister is doing. He spoke about farm to fork. The strategy is important. All I can do is highlight that this is about information, communication and everyone working together. If we do that, it will go a long way towards getting this issue sorted.
We will keep up the work and continue to fund the many organisations that are doing great work in this area. A large part of addressing the issue involves talking about it and ensuring there is an awareness of it. For the average family household, food going from the fridge to the bin instead of from the fridge to the plate costs approximately €800 per year. It is a sin to see that food and all that went into getting it that far wasted. Each of us can do more in this regard. Everyone throughout the supply chain has to play his or her part if we are to halve the amount of waste in the system by 2030.
Questions Nos. 55 and 56 taken with Written Answers.