Speech on food waste

Thèmes abordés

Food waste, throwing food, feeding humans, environmental situation, food buying, natural resources, food produced, Western countries

Résumé du document

Dear members of the jury, ladies and gentlemen in the audience. I seek neither to lecture nor to scold, but I am addressing you to raise concern regarding food waste. I will not be talking about GMOs, fast and junk food, or meat consumption, or anything like that; everyone can eat whatever they want. But throwing food away is another matter.

Extraits

[...] But throwing food away is another matter. This issue and its consequences are real, and if we do not make a change, we will pay a high price. The longer we wait to settle our debt, the bigger it grows. We may live in an opulent world, at least in rich, developed, Western countries, and we may personally have the financial means to give in to our slighest craving; yet money does not buy everything. I hope not to give ideas to some sick mind, but can you imagine a multi-billionaire purchasing the yearly harvest of wheat and burn it for his own perverted pleasure, just because he can afford it, while his actions is starving off millions of families? [...]

[...] And let's not speak about the animals that are raised and slaughetered for nothing. Can we allow such a waste in our environmental situation? I don't think so. Of course, there is no zero waste; that is quite impossible to reach. But when we see reality, I guess we have a vast margin of progress, and there are lots of solutions, so long as you have the will to use them. If you prefer to remain an idle, mindless consumer, too bad for you? [...]

[...] Think twice before you buy food. If you, as a person or as a company, have leftovers, give them to someone who will make good use of it. And if you want to go further, why don't you and your neighbors and local friends take a rational, organised approach to buy food from a wholesaler, which is cheaper, and decide what products to buy regardless of marketing? If you share these ideas, feel free to join with me so we can build up such a project. [...]

[...] What on Earth is going on? We have on one side people who gorge on food and then go on diets or make themselves throw up, while on the other side, others literally starve to death and die in agony. Isn't something wrong? Well, part of that food may be destroyed by bad weather, such as hail or drought, and we are much powerless before that. But it is quite are fault if the rest rottens and goes to the bin because we did not store it in appropriate conditions or waited too long to eat it, and worse than that, because we initially wanted it and suddenly lost interest in it. [...]