World renowned chef and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Goodwill Ambassador Massimo Bottura invited UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen to dinner last week at Refettorio Harlem, a community center in New York that feeds the unhoused, asylum seekers and those living with food insecurity.
Bottura treated Andersen and locals to a nourishing meal made from repurposed and discarded ingredients. The dinner was part of the Every Plate Counts Challenge, a global effort to raise awareness about the damaging environmental effects of food waste. The initiative is supported by UNEP and Food For Soul, a non-profit that Bottura started to build healthier and more equitable food systems.
Every year, 570 million tons of food is wasted at the household level and 931 million tonnes of food – or 17 per cent of all food – ends up in the trash without being eaten all the while over 800 million people globally go hungry.
Global food waste is a major contributor to the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste and is responsible for an estimated 8 to 10 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions. To cast a spotlight on the issue, 29 September has been designated the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste.
