Food waste is a huge problem in Western society. You know what else is a huge problem? Food insecurity, hunger, poverty and food deserts. You would think that a major figure – someone like the king of England – would be able to figure out a solution which would combine these issues – food waste becoming the answer to food insecurity. Alas, it does not sound like King Charles cares too much about the food insecurity of his people. He cares more about all of the wasted food. To be fair to Charles – ugh – this problem is almost too big to handle.
The King is preparing to launch his first major personal project as monarch – an initiative that aims to bridge the gap between food waste and food need. The initiative, which will be unveiled in the autumn, will build on the Coronation Food Project, a national scheme created to tackle food insecurity and waste.
It is a subject about which the King is passionate. He has previously voiced support for “use up” days, which can reduce food waste by up to a third, while his personal efforts to save resources include feeding kitchen food scraps to his chickens and converting his Aston Martin sports car to run on surplus wine and whey from the cheese process.
Such is his dedication to the cause that the King is no stranger to unveiling fridge freezers, as well as plaques. Earlier this year, he unveiled a freezer at the Felix Project, a food redistribution charity in east London, and made a personal donation to a £1 million fund providing fridges and freezers to other food banks and community groups, allowing them to store more food.
An estimated 1.3 billion tonnes of food are wasted every year around the globe – around a third of all food produced – and more than half of it is thrown away at home. The King has insisted that “informed choices” can help cut the “colossal” amount of waste. He also believes that tackling the issue could reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by up to 10 per cent as farmers would be under less pressure.
[From The Telegraph]
Here’s the thing: there’s nothing wrong with tackling food waste, and he’s right that food waste contributes to pressure on farming, the environment and agriculture. But!! It comes across as out of touch to tackle “food waste” during a time of such economic insecurity in Britain, right? When people have been trying to figure out if they can pay for their groceries AND their electricity bill, they probably don’t want to be lectured about food waste. During a time when there’s also an increased pressure on and need for food banks, figure out a way to actually meet the needs of your “subjects.” It’s also crazy that during a time of such economic insecurity, Charles demanded and got such a crazy-expensive coronation, an event which was such a snooze that barely anyone spoke about it 24 hours later, and it didn’t stimulate the economy whatsoever.
Maybe this is also all about the eggs. Charles was getting eggs thrown at him a lot during his first year as king. Such food waste!
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Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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