//TACKLING FOOD WASTE IS BECOMING A BIG ISSUE


AROUND THE WORLD.//


OzHarvest Market goes against the supermarket buy-in-bulk ethos, which drives a lot of wasted food. Instead it encourages shoppers to take no more than enough to meet their short-term needs, thus leaving something behind for other shoppers. There are frequent messages encouraging customers walking around the store to consider the extent of food waste and how their own habits could be contributing to it. OzHarvest sees the store as a model that is replicable around the country. In Australia, food waste is a hot-button


issue following the ABC TV War on Waste series. One episode investigated bananas that were discarded on cosmetic grounds before consumers


ever saw them. The average Australian household bins about a thousand dollars worth of food annually, amounting to the equivalent of twenty percent of food purchases. Meanwhile, every year more than two million Australians receive food relief at some point. Amid this mixture of glut and scarcity, OzHarvest is working to bridge the gap. Run by a woman named Ronni


Kahn, OzHarvest operates around the country in larger population centres, collecting food from more than two thousand commercial outlets, and delivering to more than nine hundred charities. Australia has introduced ‘Good Samaritan’ legislation, ensuring that the donation of unwanted food carries no


risk of liability if people later become ill. The goal of OzHarvest is to reduce food waste by fifty percent by 2030, and its work is complemented by other charities such as Foodbank and SecondBite. l


RESOURCES OzHarvest Market www.ozharvest.org/market


Connect with other readers & comment on this article at www.livingnow.com.au


Martin Oliver is a writer and researcher based in Lismore


SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2017 63


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