​French Food Waste Law Changing How Grocery Stores Approach Excess Food

April 2, 2018 - NPR
(In France)... giving leftover food to charity is no longer just an act of goodwill. It's a requirement under a 2016 law that bans grocery stores from throwing away edible food.
Stores can be fined $4,500 for each infraction.

Djerbrani checks food donations from a French grocery store before driving it across town to a church, which will distribute it to poor families.

        Read More...
Food waste is a global problem. In developing countries, food spoils at the production stage. Well-off nations throw it away at the consumption stage. Grocery stores are responsible for a lot of that waste. France is trying to change that with its 2-year-old law.

Comment - FVC: Canada could benefit from a similar law. Make this idea a topic of discussion in your fraternity and community; tell your government representative. 

​Wasted! The Story of Food Waste

March 19, 2018 - CBC - The Passionate Eye
What if every time you opened your wallet, a third of your cash fell out – and you did nothing about it? Consider the fact that one-third of the food grown annually for human consumption is never eaten – for one reason or another, it ends up in the garbage. In the U.S., that’s $218 billion – or 1.3 billion tons – of food annually. Yet at the same time, 800 million people around the globe are starving. It’s a problem – but one with no shortage of solutions.
Watch any of 3 short videos about 1 minute long or the full documentary. It will change your attitude about our food and its wastage. We can spread this important message to our families, friends, communities, towns, cities.... - it's a powerful message and worth the time to watch.- FVC

Confronting the perfect storm - how to feed the future

Nov. 16, 2017 - CBC - Ideas
Douglas Rasugu farms French beans in Kenya. Up to 60 per cent of his crop goes to waste because it doesn't meet aesthetic standards for the international market. Footage gathered by Joseph Mwihia, edited by Sinisa Jolic
We're facing what could be a devastating crisis—how to feed ourselves without destroying the ecosystems we depend on. We already produce enough food to feed everyone on the planet. Yet 800 million people are undernourished, while another 2 billion are overweight or obese. And at the same time, almost one third of the food we produce goes to waste. In partnership with the Arrell Food Institute at the University of Guelph we seek out creative solutions to a looming disaster.
This is worthwhile listen. Learn what we in the west can do to help. - George Guimond, editor 

Argentina's vegan Monday

​Some countries are considering ways to get people to stop eating meat
Nov. 1, 2017 - The Economist
The introduction of meatless Mondays to the Casa Rosada adds Argentina to the list of countries investigating ways to limit meat consumption. The countries of Latin America and the Caribbean are in the middle of an obesity crisis. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates that a majority of people are overweight in all but three countries of the region. Argentina has particular grounds for 
concern. The rate of obesity among its boys is the highest in Latin America, and among girls it is the third-highest. This has been linked to various causes, including excessive eating of beef. Daily consumption per person in Argentina—150g—is over double the recommended amount.
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And health concerns are not the only ones cited by those looking to reduce meat consumption. The livestock sector accounts for 15% of the world’s greenhouse-gas emissions–the equivalent of all the vehicles in the world. Animal pastures have been blamed for 90% of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. Beef is a particularly voracious user of water, with 15,000 litres of water needed to produce a kilogram of the meat.   READ MORE

Food Insecurity and Agribusiness - there's a better way

What we need is a profound and radical transformation, or dare we say, conversion of the world food system. Around the world, people are migrating within and across borders, and for many of them, hunger and food insecurity are driving them. We know that climate change, conflict, and political instability are adversely affecting food security, but if communities are still facing hunger today it is because of the flawed and damaging way in which we produce and distribute food around the world. Indeed, at the heart of the problem, and perhaps the solution, is our very relationship to food and the land it grows on.
Food insecurity is largely driven by a food system that is highly controlled by agribusiness, believed to be the only model capable of producing large volumes of food – and waste. But more food is not the same as less hunger!  
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      READ MORE & Take Action 

Wangari Maathai & The Green Belt Movement

October 18, 2017
Wangari Maathai is a Kenyan environmentalist and political activist. In the 1970s, Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental NGO focused on environmental conservation and women's rights. In 2004, she became the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for her contributions to sustainable development, democracy, and peace.

​The Green Belt Movement (http://greenbeltmovement.org) organizes rural women in Kenya to plant trees, an effort that combats deforestation while generating income for the community and promoting empowerment for women. Since Maathai founded the Movement, over 40 million trees have been planted and over 30,000 women have been trained in forestry, food processing, beekeeping, and other sustainable, income-generating activities.
September 26, 2017 - Yes! Magazine

How to Feed Ourselves in a Time of Climate Crisis

Here are 13 of the best ideas for a just and sustainable food system, from saving seeds to curbing food waste.
Changing the food system is the most important thing humans can do to fix our broken carbon cycles. Meanwhile, food security is all about adaptation when you’re dealing with crazy weather and shifting growing zones. How can a world of 7 billion—and growing—feed itself? Here are 13 of the best ideas for a just and sustainable food system.   Learn More

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Sept 8, 2017

Helpful tip for meat eaters

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