No more food waste! In the path towards a more sustainable lifestyle can not miss a reflection on the food waste. Today tons of fruits and vegetables around the world are wasted because they are considered ugly. In Europe, 50 million tons of fruit end up in the trash every year. Yes, aesthetic canons guide our purchases, even in the purchase of foodstuffs, and these criteria condemn primary goods to waste before they even reach the shelves of our supermarkets. Some are fighting to counter this situation. Here's how the initiative Bella Dentro! UGLY FRUITS AND VEGETABLES When we buy fruits and vegetables in bulk, how many times we happen to choose only those beautiful? Very often, even too much. Unfortunately there are many agricultural products that are discarded by consumers just because they have small dents, superficial scratches or have a shape that does not perfectly correspond to the canons we have in mind. What happens to those products? They end up in the slaughterhouse. Even European bureaucracy contributes to this food wasteIt has defined aesthetic standards that lead to the elimination of 33% of vegetables and fruits. fruits that are produced in Europe. Why? Because we are bound to stereotypes and during the purchase we are guided by those. But are we doing the right thing when we discard a product because we find it ugly? FOOD WASTE IN SUPERMARKETS Often vegetables that simply do not have a perfect shape are discarded, for example potatoes with unusual shapes are thrown away. But what are the consequences of this behavior? In Europe, between 3.7 and 50 million tons of food are wasted. wasted because it is considered ugly. Of this it seems that about 4.5 million are thrown away in Britain alone. 17% of fruit and fruit and vegetables is wasted before it even ends up on supermarket shelves. Among the vegetables that are selected more rigidly are carrots and potatoes, where up to 10% of the harvest is thrown away. A bleak panorama if we think that in the world more than 800 million people suffer from hunger. UGLY FRUIT BUT BEAUTIFUL INSIDE Starting from the awareness of this enormous waste of fruits and vegetables in 2017 Camilla and Luca set themselves the goal of returning value to products that are discarded just because they are ugly. So in 2018 their project "Bella dentro" (Beautiful inside) starts. They buy only the products that do not correspond to conventional aesthetic canons and resell them to all those who want to contribute to the cause. The couple started going around Milan with a bee and a banquet shouting to the world "No more waste". Did it work? It sure did. Between 2020 and 2021, the first two Bella Dentro stable stores will open. In their factory, L'Officina Coop Sociale in Codogno, they transform the products into jams, juices, dried products, etc., all employing autistic or fragile children. A commitment against waste, but also for social issues. The initiative is expanding, the Ape continues to tour the city and online you can find their e-commerce. And other initiatives like these were born. Babaco Market has set up a network of Italian producers who love their land and take care of their fruit even when it is not accepted by traditional channels, such as supermarkets, and therefore typically destined for waste. Instead, they are placed on the market and brought directly to our tables. AGAINST FOOD WASTE Saving some of those fruits and vegetables that are thrown away is the goal of Bella Dentro, but the issue of food waste is very much felt in this period where humanity must change course to move towards a more sustainable development. One example of a commitment to combating food waste is the Too Good To Go app created by a movement that offers merchants a space to "sell off" their food at the end of the day before throwing it away. As the initiative is driven by ethical and philosophical principles. Too Good To G explains very well the extent of food waste in the world, here we can find all the information about food waste on the planet. We at R5 are also on the side of those who want to put an end to waste and for Christmas we have planned a partnership with a company that produces veggie bags and reusable bags. With these bags we want to encourage the habit of buying fruit in bulk and also to learn to choose it, perhaps recognizing that the ugly fruit is also better.Food waste must also be seen from the point of view of CO2 equivalent emissions into the atmosphere and consumption of other natural resources, because fruit and vegetables need land, water and work to be produced. Stopping food waste helps to mitigate the effects of climate change and could enable virtuous circles of fair redistribution of food. A small contribution towards a greater good!
