A good 20 years ago, the Austrian cult show "Who wants me?" stopped broadcasting. Back then, it was about finding homes for animals without a home. Would we need a similar format for leftover food today?
With perseverance and compassion, Edith Klinger also sold one-eyed old cats back then. We would like to see a similar icon for food today: "These poor celery tubers are no longer the youngest and have seen better days. Nevertheless, they deserve a good home. Give them the chance to end up in the cooking pot after all!"
Of course, a problem of the magnitude of food waste cannot be solved by one person alone(see article Worth knowing). Let's take a look at the ever-increasing number of rescuers who have dedicated themselves to precisely this mission: Giving food a second chance.
Obviously, all approaches to solving the issue of food waste revolve around one of the following three challenges:
1. harvest (much) more thoroughly
Saving food starts in the field. Today, almost a third of the vegetables grown are sometimes left in the field (e.g. carrots). Harvesting more thoroughly is the order of the day. After all, a lot of energy goes into growing this food.
Some initiatives are therefore focusing on the utilization of harvest residues. In France, the right to "post-harvest" (French: glanage) has even been enshrined in law since the Middle Ages and is currently being revived. In England, a dedicated network - the gleaning network - has been set up to create an exchange between farmers and post-harvesters. 561 tons of food have already been saved in this way.
But people in Austria are also tackling this issue. The start-up "Unverschwendet" ("Unwasted") is bringing unsellable or unharvested fruit and vegetables - preserved - to the people in a second attempt.
2. eat and let eat (what works)
Away from the fields, a number of platforms and initiatives are also targeting retail chains, restaurants and private customers with their food rescue campaigns. The food banks in Austria are undisputedly a heavyweight in food rescue. According to the Association of Austrian Food Banks, around 5,500 tons of food are passed on to people living in poverty here alone every year.
However, there is also a sustainable business model behind many a rescue operation. The start-up "Too good to go", which is established in Germany and has now also arrived in Austria, kills three birds with one stone: the associated app helps businesses to find customers for food that would otherwise go to waste. Delicious food packed in "surprise bags" can be collected by customers at reasonable prices. Which also benefits the climate and the environment.
For the past eight years, people have been able to share their private fridges online and find buyers for leftovers or things they have bought too much of. The "foodsharing" platform currently has over 200,000 users in German-speaking countries.
In our own four walls, however, our food-saving know-how is also crucial. It depends on our leftover recycling skills, our cooking creativity and our wealth of experience in preserving food. In order to motivate consumers to consume food in a 'completely happy' way, the German company of the same name, for example, offers cooking courses (also online) that are entirely dedicated to avoiding food waste.
Leftover cookbooks are also gaining more and more space in the culinary corner of bookshops. Online you can find more and more recipes that come up with some crazy ideas for using up leftover food, e.g. sliced meat / bread / vinegar made from banana skins . This idea of 'leaf-to-root' recipes is about to grow into a movement that aims to put even the smallest scrap of peel to tasty use: for example in the form of miso vegetable broth made from cuttings and peelings, spice puree made from pumpkin leaves or kohlrabi leaf potato chips.
3. return (unavoidable) waste to the cycle
All these rescue attempts are enormously important and can set a lot of positive things in motion in terms of global nutrition, climate and the environment. Where rescue attempts do not take effect in time and food exceeds the zenith of hygienic and safe edibility - a rescue idea of a different kind should come into play: red in peace. And of course this does not mean rotting away unworthily in a landfill, but composting. The return ticket, so to speak, to the lap of all life-giving processes. As befits a healthy cycle.
About the author
Dr. Sybille Chiari is part of the editorial team at "Nachhaltigkeit. Neu denken" (Rethinking Sustainability) and has been researching and writing about sustainability and climate communication for many years. She is part of the Scientists for Future movement and chairwoman of the Bele Co-Housing association (a community housing project with organic, regenerative agriculture www.belehof.at).
