Tristram Stuart’s lifelong war for reducing food waste started from collecting unwanted food as an alternative to animal feed. He recalls: “I grabbed hold of this particularly tasty-looking bread, sat down and ate breakfast with my pigs. It made me realise how much perfectly good food was being wasted.”
Over the past 15 years, through freeganism – rummaging for food in supermarket bins – and campaigning against food wastage, Mr Stuart has exposed many food-waste scandals and their grave environmental impact.
In 2013, he founded a London-based charity, Feedback, to champion the end of food waste. And last year, he founded a brewery-cum-social enterprise, Toast Ale, which brews beer from surplus loaves of bread.
Mr Stuart was in Singapore recently to share about his food-wastage journey as part of National Geographic Live!, a series of events by leading scientists and explorers.
During his maiden trip here, he visited supermarkets and schools and met government officials, representatives from civic societies and retailers to understand what has been done to curb food wastage here and to offer his insights. He felt the “strong foodie culture” in Singapore bodes well with his cause.
Mr Stuart believes that taking a celebratory approach is vital in raising awareness of food wastage and changing society’s attitudes towards wasting food.
The Straits Times (ST) met up with Mr Stuart (TS) and below are excerpts of the interview:
(ST): What excited you most about Singapore’s efforts in reducing food wastage?
(TS): Upcycling food waste – the idea of turning it into animal feed – is much better than converting it to compost. At Nanyang Technological University laboratories, the scientists have used a yeast to ferment grain sludge from the beer-brewing process to make it into chicken feed that can be used in farms here. This is a good way of recovering food wastage and turning it into food.
(ST): What is the biggest problem that Singapore faces when it comes to reducing food wastage?
(TS): Most people here know that food wastage is a bad idea, but they do not use their consumer power by voicing their concerns.
(ST): What is an interesting practice here on reducing food wastage?
(TS): Like in many Asian countries, I like that offal is frequently eaten in Singapore.
(ST): Share with us the most devastating food-wastage scene that you have witnessed.
(TS): In Kenya, half of the vegetables and fruit, which are grown and exported to supermarkets in developed countries, are wasted. It is criminally shocking that there are mountains of rotting food in a country where millions of people face starvation.
(ST): What is the biggest misconception people have about food wastage?
(TS): People think food is wasted as there is something wrong with it. However, most of the food is wasted when it is still perfectly good to eat.
(ST): What are the biggest challenges that you face as a food-wastage activist?
(TS): One of them is correcting the false assumption of supermarkets that think they are saving costs by taking steps to reduce food wastage. Their efforts are wasted when they spend more money to maintain a visual display of an abundance of food in their premises that customers are wired to accept. Another challenge is getting brands to curb wastage even if it does not bring them direct savings. They will lose money in the long run as their public image will suffer if they continue wasting food.
Read more here.
Source: The Straits Times, 2 October 2017