Cosmetic Standards

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by Nic Lizzy0 views·Updated Feb 21, 2021
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  1. each year, Australia is wasting 7.3 million tons of food.
  2. Over two million tons of this waste is generated at
  3. the farm level.
  4. This equates to 31% of total food waste across Australia.
  5. Coles and Woolworth's hold over 60% of the grocery market
  6. share in Australia.
  7. They enforce cosmetic standards on farmers that stipulate the accepted
  8. appearance, size and structure of each piece of fruit that
  9. is sold in their stores.
  10. Bananas that are too straight or mangoes that are too
  11. small will not be purchased from farmers on will ultimately
  12. end up in landfill.
  13. Information on the negative effects of committing food waste to
  14. landfill has been collected through this investigation.
  15. Project Food waste in landfill is contributing to large amounts
  16. of greenhouse gas is being released into the atmosphere.
  17. The Australian economy is losing over $20 billion each year
  18. and there are over five million people experiencing food insecurity.
  19. If foodways continues to be sent to landfill, we will
  20. see an increase in the production of the greenhouse gas
  21. methane. Currently, food waste already accounts for 5% of Australia's
  22. greenhouse gas emissions.
  23. Growing processing and disposing of food waste is costing the
  24. Australian economy $20 billion each year.
  25. Precious resources such as fuel and water are wasted on
  26. food that ends up in landfill, while greenhouse gasses affect
  27. air quality, which can have a negative impact on public
  28. health, creating unnecessary costs to the community.
  29. More than one in five Australians have encountered food insecurity,
  30. and at least three and 10 of these people go
  31. one day a week without eating.
  32. This is happening while major strain supermarkets are rejecting between
  33. 20 to 40% of projects before it even leaves the
  34. farm. They're always governments and businesses and the community contribute
  35. to the reduction off food waste Consumers compression major supermarkets
  36. to change their high cosmetic standards by consuming mawr ugly
  37. fruit Walking into a supermarket, consumers are faced with perfectly
  38. looking fruit.
  39. They have become desensitized to how fruit looks in nature.
  40. Although supermarkets have introduced a range of ugly fruit, it
  41. still remains a small part of their revenue.
  42. Increased consumer sales would raise the demands for these items.
  43. The Australian government is helping by dedicating funds to identify
  44. companies that can isolate and redirect organic waste from landfill
  45. to sustainable treatments such as composting and bio digestion in
  46. 2000 and 15 by our gas renewables, opened the Jan
  47. Dukat Bioenergy plant in western Australia.
  48. This facility receives between 85,000 tons off food waste per
  49. year, which is converted to electricity, with an estimated five
  50. million Australians experiencing food insecurity yearly.
  51. Organizations such as Food Bank Australia and Fair Share are
  52. partnering with farmers to rescue produce that it was rejected
  53. due to cosmetic standards.
  54. These organizations donate and repurpose food to charities across Australia.
  55. Thes recovery service is play an important role in the
  56. reduction of food waste.
  57. In Melbourne alone, during 2020 1 million 4574 kg of
  58. food was rescued and 723,580 kg was redistributed to those
  59. in need.
  60. Thes organizations not only contribute to the environment by reducing
  61. food waste, they also contribute to the economy by saving
  62. on water, energy and greenhouse gas emissions.
  63. We only have one planet.
  64. Let's do our best to look after it