Apparently in France it is. Is there any other country that has this type of law implemented? Mandatory donations or something of the sort?
No, and while less food waste is a positive, from what I can find even in France it is only illegal for fresh food retailers (who are only responsible for 14% of waste, and also get massive tax breaks for the pleasure of donating it), not manufacturers (agriculture, processing plants, restaurants, collectively responsible for at least 67% of waste), and for insight in to why, here is an excerpt from 1939 book The Grapes of Wrath:
“The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit- and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. And the smell of rot fills the country. Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out. Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into the earth.
There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate- died of malnutrition- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot. The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.”
In New York City, it is illegal for restaurants and food stores to throw away perfectly edible food. They are required to donate it, and the city even comes and picks it up.
That sounds great!
Composting is also strongly urged. They have special composting bins that are collected once a week placed around neighborhoods. I believe they also have composting pick up at apartment buildings, too. Like trash and recycling.
There is a movement to make it illegal, but the goal isn’t to feed the needy. It’s to help keep it out of landfills, incinerators, and waterways.
For example: https://www.bergmanndirect.co.uk/articles/new-food-waste-regulations-in-england
That would be great, here they use trash compactors to destroy the food to prevent hungry people from going through the trash and filling their bellies.
EDIT: Whole Foods in particular does this, and I think I’ve seen Walmart doing it as well. Also, I worked at a grocery store where I was instructed to destroy the food when I threw it into the dumpsters to prevent people from being able to eat it, though they were too cheap to actually buy and operate a trash compactor.
Where is “here”?
The southeastern U.S.
I hadn’t heard of that. I do know the US passed a law allowing restaurants to donate unused food at the end of the day without fear of lawsuits.
Also there’s a new app where restaurants can sell food at the end of the day at a discount rather than throwing it away called “too good to go”.
I’m lucky to live in a southern city where we have citywide composting as well. I wish more places would do that. It’s a waste to simply landfill food scraps when you could funnel it all to the farming industry as fertilizer.
That’s great (re the citywide composting)! Companies cite fear of a lawsuit as an excuse not to donate food. Of course the reality is that they’re just protecting profits, no one has ever been sued from donating food as far as I know, and as you mention there is a law specifically prohibiting doing so.
I’ve heard of many places where it’s illegal to give food out to people.
Where I live there is no composting, the city barely recycles even.
Years ago, I worked sales at an Apple Store (like 2005) and we were instructed to destroy marketing materials when they were retired. I would mark them up with a large black marker. I didn’t consider that problematic, but I don’t like the idea of food being destroyed.
yeah, destroying marketing materials seems reasonable; destroying food because you know hungry people will eat it is evil.
Well for me it’s simple, I’ve worked places where we had to destroy food and I just didn’t. I’m lucky enough that it’s always been pretty easy to find another food service job, and I’ve told any managers that I think food waste is the only true sin, and I’m willing to lose my job over it. I know not everyone can afford to walk away from a job, but all of my managers(in two countries) have thus far found a way to look the other way. Your middle manager almost certainly doesn’t want food to be wasted either, so if you tell them it’s a moral issue, that gives them plausible deniability for not destroying it.
Worth noting that the French law only deals with food waste from supermarkets as far as I know. Not households or agriculture. It’s a great start, though.
In America it’s encouraged. Why? cause “fUcK pOOr pEePlE” that’s why
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No, but for some reason taking food stores throw away is.
Tell us you’re German without saying you’re German
US too
If the food pantries in your area are well stocked like they are in much of the US it’s probably to ensure that homeless people are getting free non-expired food rather than free expired food.
No, but oddly the reverse is the case, where it’s illegal to feed the homeless. They’re afraid of poisonings.
Right, because here in America you have the right to be free… to starve to death.
Who’s throwing away perfectly fine food that could be donated? By which I mean, from one’s own home.
“Ugh, I bought two loaves of bread? In the bin with you!”
I think in Finland, food is rarely if at all donated from shops because it would create some opportunities for employees to effectively steal food by marking it as throw away. Same with other items. Also, expired food would be a liability hazard. Surplus or closer to the date stuff can be sold at heavy discounts, though. Unsold things finally just need to be disposed of somehow.
Some of our neighbours have received help with food from somewhere before, and it was all stuff that had reached its “best before” (parasta ennen) date. So I’m not sure if they somehow got around the liability thing.
Imo the best before date is mostly bullshit anyway, its a date until which the food’s quality is guaranteed by the manufacturer, but will still be edible for a while after the date has passed. It is in my opinion absolute insanity that this food is thrown away, it should be possible for food that has just passed this date to be donated to the needy.
Isn’t capitalism grand?
I hope not. I threw out a box of tins yesterday that I had forgotten about in a remote corner of the basement. On the other hand they were so many years past their “best before” date they might no longer qualify as food…
In South Korea, you have to separate food scraps before throwing them out. It’s then made into livestock feed.
Didn’t lots of countries stop doing that after mad cow disease?
No. It should be though. To be fair though a lot does get donated, just not enough. It doesn’t help that the “best by” date system is often inaccurate and somewhat arbitrary.
In Japan, it’s not illegal country wide but may against rules in some regions.
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Feeding the poor. It’s the law in several cities in the United States as well.
