Food for the Planet

Tackling the climate and nature emergency through sustainable food and farming and an end to food waste.

We believe that tackling the climate and nature emergency is the single greatest challenge of our time and will require a radical shift in our food and farming system towards agroecological production, sustainable diets and an end to food waste. By changing what we, as individuals and institutions, choose to eat, we can transform what, how and where food is produced and thus help to minimise any negative impacts on climate and biodiversity. At the same time, by tackling the tragedy of food waste, we can balance the need to feed a growing global population while remaining within planetary boundaries.

Promote sustainable food production and consumption and resource efficiency.

Examples of local authorities declaring climate emergency and making specific commitments to act (mainly on energy, transport and infrastructure so far).

Sustain have published a declaration of a Climate and Nature emergency

Brighton & Hove Council with the support of the Brighton & Hove Food Partnership adopted a Food Growing and Development Planning Advice Note in 2011. The PAN made provisions for the incorporation of community food growing into new commercial and residential developments.

A 10 year Allotment Strategy was agreed and signed off by both Brighton & Hove City Council’s Environment Committee and the Allotment Federation in March 2014, laying out a framework for managing allotments over the next ten years. Whilst there is an aspiration to find more allotment land to meet the substantial waiting list demand, the strategy focuses on protecting and enhancing the existent.

Brighton & Hove City Council is in the unusual position of holding (in public ownership) 11,923 acres of ‘downland’ farmland. A City Downland Advisory Board has been established (includes representatives from farmers, City Council, wildlife specialists and Brighton and Hove Food Partnership) to develop policy which supports a viable local farm economy; to support diversification such as eco-tourism; to reconnect farmers and city residents; and to promote sustainable food production.

Bristol City Council Parks and Open Spaces (which includes allotments and smallholdings) led an internal resource assessment mapping exercise to identify all available land for food growing. The team are also working with Bristol Food Producers to link up with people seeking land for food growing. They have provided free ‘set-up agreements’ and early years peppercorn rent on larger areas of land for community growing projects. (see evidence in Bristol Method 18: How to encourage food production in the city– https://www.bristol2015.co.uk/method/food-nature/)

Croydon’s Local Plan (p56) uses the concept of ‘productive landscapes’, recognising the wider benefits of food growing. The policy a) protects, b) supports temporary use and new provision in major residential developments, and c) looks for flexibility in landscape design.

Brighton & Hove City Council is developing a 3-year plan to become glyphosate-free in 2022 affecting parks, open spaces, pavements, verges and housing land.

Brighton Permaculture Trust offers a permaculture design course which looks at how to design resilient, abundant human 'ecosystems'.

Capital Growth is the main project through which the Greater London Authority and the London Food Board have supported training and advice for farmers and growers in London, including explicitly promoting the adoption of low ecological impact production and management techniques such as organic, permaculture and pesticide-free production, involving a wide range of partner organisations that provide specialist support on these issues.

Islington Council adopted a Parks and Urban Green Spaces Habitat Action Plan concerned with the conservation and enhancement of biodiversity. This plan is seen as a way for the borough to mitigate the impacts of climate change. One action relates to the reduction in pesticide use.

Leicester Transition group offers various permaculture courses, from a simple introduction to design courses.

Manchester based Kindling Trust runs a Commercial Organic Horticulture Course for those wanting to develop a career and business in organic growing.

Cambridge Sustainable Food (CSF) is helping restaurants, catering businesses and food outlets across the city to measure and reduce their food waste as part of its ‘Taste Not Waste’ programme.

North East Lincolnshire Council produced a handbook to help businesses reduce waste including food waste and packaging.

North London Waste Authority's 'Waste Less, Save More. A guide for North London Businesses' provides top tips, how to measure success, useful contacts and case studies.

Refill Bristol aims to reduce the amount of plastic that ends up in the sea by discouraging the consumption of single-use plastic bottles.

Sustainable Food Places Network members are delivering local Sustainable Fish Cities and Veg Cities campaigns.

Cambridge Sustainable food challenges are designed to get community residents talking and thinking about reducing our carbon footprint.

FoodFuture Bridport campaigns to ‘Spend a Tenner Locally’ on locally and sustainably produced food, independently retailed. Their local research found that every £10 spent locally is actually worth £17.60 to the local economy because money is re-spent locally and retained much longer. In other words, if the 9000+ households in Bridport shifted just 10% of their weekly food shop to independent retail outlets this would inject £2.6 million a year to boost the local economy.

Our Every Mouthful Counts report aims to support places to respond to the climate and nature emergency through food system change and making the case for local action on food.

Carbon Trust provides advice to businesses throughout the food chain on how to cut their carbon emissions and save energy, including specific advice for the agricultural industry.

Garden Organic provides advice and guidelines on organic growing as well as training through their Master Gardener programme.

The Global Calculator is an open-source model of the world’s energy, land and food systems that allows you to design your own version of the future up to 2050 and see the implications for the climate.

Global Justice Now's policy briefing Silent but Deadly - Estimating the real climate impact of agribusiness corporations.

The Permaculture Association offers a wide range of courses on permaculture design and approaches and has a network of support groups.

Pesticide Action Network provides guidance on Integrated Pest Management for farmers, growers and land managers to help reduce their use of pesticides.

The Soil Association provides training, advice and support to farmers and growers on all aspects of organic production.

The Soil Association’s Innovative Farmers programme supports farmers and growers to undertake field labs and develop innovative organic farming techniques such as using natural predators to keep pests down, composting, planting companion crops or using green manures to fix nitrogen from the air. This support to farmers enables them to reduce their ecological footprint as well as increasing their yields in an ecologically sustainable way.

Sourdough September, run by the Real Bread Campaign, is a series of events promoting small bakeries and home baking of sourdough bread.

Organic September is an annual campaign run by the Soil Association to encourage more people to try organic as a way to promote and educate people about organic food and farming.

Meat Free Monday is a campaign to promote vegetarian food one day a week.

FairTrade Town and the annual Fairtrade Fortnight campaigns run by the FairTrade Foundation encourage commitments from Councils, communities and individuals to buy only Fairtrade products.

Sustainable Fish Cities is a national campaign run by Sustain to persuade restaurants and caterers to adopt sustainable seafood policies and practices. They have already reduced the impact on fisheries by changing the fish procurement policies of millions of meals served every year thanks to local campaigning.

The British Dietetic Association's One Blue Dot project brings together information on healthy diets and sustainability to tackle the “urgency of change” that is needed in how people eat.

Download our Good Policy for Good Food Guide

The local authority can encourage developers to incorporate food growing into planning policies.


Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council’s Planning for Health Supplementary Planning Document increases the protection of existing allotments and community food growing space and provides for the creation of new spaces (p15) arguing that they ‘provide opportunities for outdoor recreation, contributing to physical and mental wellbeing’ and ‘provide a place for people to interact and to produce healthy locally grown food, which can help to improve the diet of residents.’

Croydon Council applies a presumption in favour of development provided applications assist in the delivery of a Green Grid which includes:

  • Protecting and enhancing allotments, community gardens and woodland.
  • Supporting food growing, tree planting and forestry, including the temporary utilisation of cleared sites; and encouraging major residential developments to incorporate edible planting and growing spaces at multiple floor levels.
  • Ensuring landscaping is flexible so that spaces may be adapted for growing opportunities.

The policy derives from the London Plan (p323) which includes several strategic policies promoting productive landscapes and encourages boroughs to identify other potential spaces that could be used for commercial food production or for community gardening, including allotments and orchards.

Hull City Council’s Local Plan Policy 46 supports the use of land for local food growing. This covers the temporary use of vacant or derelict land or buildings as well as housing estate greenspace and any new development.

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea has included food growing in the Infrastructure schedule of its Local Plan 2019 (p275) stating that ‘To improve underused and neglected areas of open space [the RBKC will] provide food growing facilities for residents, schools and community groups’ by ‘Installing food growing gardens (community kitchen gardens)’ with a budget of £50 to £100K per year.

The Borough has also introduced planning policies (36.3.13) that recognise the role that locally grown food plays in reducing food miles.

The local authority can protect/re-establish vital food infrastructure, such as Grade 1 and 2 land, local processing and wholesale businesses, small independent retailers, food hubs and distribution networks.


Breckland Council ’s Core Strategy (p52) aims to protect the best and most versatile agricultural land: ‘Development should nevertheless avoid the unnecessary loss of high-grade agricultural land which is a finite resource and is important to the rurality of Breckland’.

The local authority can adopt a city-wide cross-sector action plan to reduce the ecological footprint of the food system.


Bath and North East Somerset’s overarching Environment and Climate Change Strategy 2016-2020 fully recognises food as a key issue and aims to secure and promote a local, healthy, sustainable and ethical food supply.

In Brighton and Hove, the corporate plan for 2020-2023 includes becoming a carbon neutral city by 2030 and includes support in the bid to become a Gold Sustainable Food City.

The local authority can introduce a requirement in planning policy that all urban green space and productive land be managed in an ecologically sustainable manner.


Islington Council adopted sustainable policies for grounds maintenance which include increasing the use of ground cover planting to reduce weeds and water loss and to create habitats for wildlife; reducing the use of pesticides; increasing the use of organic mulch to increase soil fertility, improve soil structure, increase soil fauna and increase water retention; and protecting wildlife and biodiversity with the Parks Habitat Action Plan.

Sustainable Food Places. Oct 2019. Every Mouthful Counts: Food in city-based responses to climate and nature emergency. https://www.sustainweb.org/publications/every_mouthful_counts/

This report includes a review of scientific and policy documents that make the case for the role of food in city-based responses to climate and nature emergency.

Graziano da Silva, José. Speech delivered at the third meeting of mayors of cities of the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact. Valencia. 20 October 2017. http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=57930#.We2k14hrwdU

The Director General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) called for innovative partnerships of local actors, civil society, private sector and academic and producer organisations to develop food strategies to overcome food waste and ensure a healthy and nutritious diet for all. He added the need for greater coordination between food and energy policies, and those regarding water, health, transport and waste in line with the New Urban Agenda, adopted in October 2016.

Sustain. April 2014. ‘Planning Sustainable Cities for Community Food Growing’. Sustain. 46 pages. https://www.sustainweb.org/publications/planning_sustainable_cities/

Shows how community food growing spaces contribute to mitigating and adapting to the effects of climate change by reducing food miles, improving air quality, sustainable drainage, reduction of the urban heat island effect (p9).

Laughton, R. 2017. ‘A Matter of Scale: A study of the productivity, financial viability and multifunctional benefits of small farms (20 ha and less)’. Landworkers’ Alliance and Centre for Agroecology, Coventry University. 60 pages.

https://landworkersalliance.org.uk/2017/07/small-scale-agroecological-farms-attract-uk-workers-produce-high-yields-of-vegetables-and-deliver-multiple-environmental-and-social-benefits/

The report makes the case for access to land for small farmers. It highlights how a diverse and vibrant sector of small farms is providing employment, attracting new entrants and incubating entrepreneurs. It provides a preliminary insight into the diversity, productivity, financial viability and multifunctional benefits offered by such farms. These include: reducing the trade gap for fruit and vegetables, providing employment for local people, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and food waste and better financial viability with 78% of the sample not receiving any farm subsidy.

Pesticide Free Towns. “Why make public areas pesticide-free?” via website Pesticide-free towns.info. Accessed on 5th July 2016  http://www.pesticide-free-towns.info/stories-principles#node-19

Lists the multiple benefits of adopting pesticide-free practices in local areas including: reducing air, ground and water pollution and associated costs for the local authority, protecting biodiversity, protecting the health of the most vulnerable groups and the quality of life for all residents, protecting the health of civil workers exposed to the pesticides.

International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems. June 2016. ‘From Uniformity to Diversity: A Paradigm Shift from Industrial Agriculture to Agroecological Systems’. IPES-Food. 96 pages. http://www.ipes-food.org/images/Reports/UniformityToDiversity_FullReport.pdf

The report highlights the multiple environmental, social, health and economic benefits of agroecological farming systems as opposed to industrial farming and calls for all stakeholders at a global, national and local level to support the transition (policy incentives, food policies, peer-to-peer action research, procurement, short-supply chains etc).

Get involved in a campaign

SFP members

Manchester City (Manchester Food Board)

Oldham (Oldham Food Solution Network)

Buckinghamshire (Buckinghamshire Food Partnership)

Organisations

Vegetarian Society works with businesses, government agencies, policy makers and professionals to promote vegetarian lifestyles.

Pesticide Action Network (PAN) campaigns against hazardous pesticides and promotes safe and sustainable alternatives.

Biodynamic Association provides training and distance learning opportunities on biodynamic principles and practice and support through a network of advisers.

Friends of the Earth holds a wealth of information on the impact of farming on the environment.

Compassion in World Farming campaigns to improve animal welfare and put an end to factory farming. They award caterers for sourcing higher animal welfare products including Good Egg, Good Chicken, Good Dairy and Good Pig Awards.

 

Reduce, redirect and recycle food, packaging and related waste

Bristol’s Mayoral Food Conversation on Surplus Food and Waste involves city food and waste experts exploring how to reduce, redistribute and recycle food waste.

Lambeth’s waste strategy, which lays out their approach to applying the waste hierarchy, aims to reduce food waste, run Love Food Hate Waste campaigns, link with food growing projects to encourage community composting and subsidise home composting.

London’s FoodSave follows the principles of the Food Waste Hierarchy, helping businesses reduce, redistribute and recycle waste and surplus food.

The University of York has developed a Food Waste Strategy based on the waste hierarchy to divert as much food waste away from landfill as possible.

North East Lincolnshire Council produced a handbook to help businesses reduce waste including food waste and packaging.

WRAP has published case studies on food collection from individual NHS organisations.

Bath and North East Somerset Council provides a weekly food waste collection service for homes, schools and catering businesses. Collected food waste is taken to an anaerobic digestion plant near Warminster where the gases produced generate renewable energy and digitate is made into fertiliser for local farms.

More than 300 Manchester restaurants have signed up to a local food waste collection scheme in a bid to make Manchester's hospitality sector the greenest in the UK.

Canterbury has introduced a bus service powered by biofuel made from used cooking oil and waste lard.

Croydon Council is working with Proper Oil to collect used cooking oil from local food businesses.

Lewisham Council introduced food waste collections in 2017 to boost recycling rates and without increasing the overall cost of their waste and recycling collections.

Plymouth City Council has introduced a home composting scheme to make it easier for residents to dispose of organic waste also runs a food waste recycling service (p16) that takes food waste from the local authority, food processors, pubs, schools, hotels, restaurants and colleges to an anaerobic digester at Langage Farm outside the city. Energy and bio-fertiliser from this award-winning AD plant are then used at Langage Farm to create a ‘closed loop’ system.

Brighton's Community composting scheme has over 30 sites and 1000 households taking part.

North Ayrshire Council encourages home composting by providing advice on what, why and how to compost.

Bristol’s ‘Slim My Waste – Feed My Face’ city-wide campaign encourages residents to put their black landfill bins on a ‘no food diet’.

Brighton, Croydon, Dorset and Oxfordshire  amongst others are running Love Food Hate Waste campaigns locally to encourage residents to reduce their food waste.

Bath & North East Somerset Council runs a series of campaigns (p25) to increase food waste recycling (see section above) increasing food waste recycling rates to 47% in 2015- higher than the national average. Total collected food waste has decreased from 4,296 tonnes in 2011/2012 to 3,832 tonnes in 2014/2015.

Oxford, Lewisham (p27), Lancaster (p36) and many more cities have held Disco Soup events to raise public awareness of the problem of food waste and how to reduce it.

Bristol, Edinburgh and London have organised Feeding the 5000 events to divert tons of food waste and feed thousands of people.

Bury St Edmunds' Best Before Project works to prevent food waste by campaigning about the real meaning of Best Before labels and distributing unwanted food to people in need.

London’s Stepney City Farm is rearing pigs on a healthy menu of food waste following the Pig Idea Campaign.

Norfolk County Council’s Master Composters programme raises public awareness of the benefits of composting through a network of volunteer advisors.

Food Durham have organised a number of Pumpkin Rescue events to turn carvings and leftover pumpkins into delicious meals. Since Pumpkin Rescue was conceived in 2014, it has nationally delivered nearly 200 events and workshops attended by over 12,000 people in which 17,000 pumpkins have been diverted from landfill.

Bath and North East Somerset Council signposts to organisations redistributing edible surplus food.

Bath’s Thoughtful Bread Company encourages its customers to bring them their surplus fruit and veg from the garden which they reward in bread.

Brighton’s Scrumping project picks fruit from private gardens, public spaces and derelict orchards and uses them to make juices, chutneys and preserves.

Brighton’s Food Waste Collective coordinates a network of volunteers to get surplus food from local businesses to local food charities and puts on public feasts and other awareness-raising social events.

Leeds’ Food Revival CIC intercepts food destined for landfill and redistributes it via Pay-As-You-Feel cafes and market, Revival Box scheme, Food Revival Catering and health holiday programmes.

Cumbria Councty Council has produced a document to inform and encourage local communities to organise the collection and redistribution of surplus food locally.

Liverpool’s FareShare Merseyside redistributes surplus food to over 100 charities and community organisations working with vulnerable people in the region.

London’s Plan Zheroes’ mission is to find, support and inspire food businesses who are willing to donate their surplus food to local charities and people who need it.

Feedback have produced a Food Use Hierarchy guide to inform producers and other food businesses on how they can save resources by avoiding unwanted surpluses, diverting surplus food to charities or livestock feed and avoiding landfill.

The Sustainable Restaurant Association’s FoodSave initiative presents case studies on restaurants working to implement a Food Waste Hierarchy approach.

Sustainable Restaurant Association has a toolkit for restaurants interested in reducing spoilage, plate waste and prep waste.

Sustain’s Reducing food waste: Advice from chefs and catering professionals highlights professionals’ practical experiences of what works best in reducing food waste.

WRAP provides guidance to local authorities and food and drink businesses to reduce food waste across the supply chain.

WRAP has developed a Food Waste Reduction Roadmap, a grower’s guide to measuring in-field food surplus and waste.

The Environmental Protection Agency (Ireland) has a guide to minimising food waste in the catering sector.

Love Food Hate Waste has a resource pack and provides free training sessions on reducing food waste for businesses in the hospitality and food service sector.

WRAP has developed a guide for local authorities collecting food waste from households,  as well as for commercial food waste collection.

WRAP provides guidance on food waste recycling for businesses including a savings calculator and search tool for collection schemes.

WRAP provides an analysis of home composting and signposts to organisations that can supply composting bins and other materials.

Garden Organic provides information on home and community composting and runs a Master Composter programme.

Disco Soups are events in which people come together to dance, cook and eat soup made with vegetables that would otherwise go to waste. Eden Communities have produced a how to guide for running a Disco Soup.

Feedback have produced toolkits and reports on how to run a Feeding the 5000 event, organise a Disco Soup and run The Pig Idea campaign.

How to run a Pumpkin Rescue, a comprehensive free guide made available by Hubbub.

The Gleaning Network toolkit provides resources to help connect volunteers, local farmers and food redistribution charities in order to harvest more food from fields and direct it to those most in need.

WRAP’s Food and Drink Surplus Network helps to coordinate those who have surplus food with organisations who can make use of the surplus in your area.

The Abundance Network Handbook helps people organise the harvest of unwanted fruit in their area.

Neighbourly Food is an online portal to match surplus food from businesses with community groups and charities to reduce waste and help alleviate food poverty.

Download our Good Policy for Good Food Guide

The local authority and individual public sector institutions can incorporate the Food Waste Hierarchy into relevant policies, strategies and services to reduce food waste and ensure surplus food and food waste are diverted to the most appropriate purposes. In England, the waste hierarchy is a legal requirement (p11), enshrined in law through the Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011. It requires that waste planning authorities apply the hierarchy wherever possible.


Towards a Zero Waste Bristol: Waste and Resource Management Strategy fully embeds the Food Waste Hierarchy. The strategy aims to prevent the amount of food wasted in the first place and, where there is inevitable food waste, encourages the composting of inedible food and the redistribution of good food that would otherwise be sent to a landfill. Work on this issue is co-ordinated with other plans and actions focused on reducing food waste, such as the work being undertaken as part of the Good Food Plan for Bristol and the priority to ‘achieve a healthier, more sustainable, more resilient food system for the city to benefit the local economy and the environment’ outlined in the Bristol Health and Wellbeing Strategy.

London Borough of Lambeth Municipal Waste Management Strategy 2011 – 2031 aims to reduce food waste, run Love Food Hate Waste campaigns, link with food growing projects to encourage community composting and subsidise home composting.

The local authority can introduce a food waste collection or community composting scheme for homes, restaurants and other catering, retail and manufacturing businesses that redirects this waste for composting, energy recovery (AD) or animal feed.


Bristol was one of the first cities to introduce doorstep food recycling. As a result, the amount of domestic food waste recycled were 10,487 tonnes in 2012/13 and 10,555 in 2013/14. Processing from domestic collections uses anaerobic digestion technology to produce energy from biogas and a ‘digestate’ which is used for land remediation projects. Biomethane injected into the energy grid is used to supply local homes, schools and businesses and provides vehicle transport fuel for the nationally acclaimed Bio-Bus. (p51)

Joint working between Brighton & Hove Food Partnership, Brighton & Hove City Council and members of the community has led to a successful Community Composting scheme being set up to divert food waste from landfill.

Plymouth City Council (p16) runs a food waste recycling service that takes food waste from the local authority, food processors, pubs, schools, hotels, restaurants and colleges to an anaerobic digester at Langage Farm outside the city. Energy and bio-fertiliser from this award-winning AD plant are then used at Langage Farm to create a ‘closed loop’ system.

WRAP. “Why take action: legal/policy case” via website of Waste and Resources Action Programme. Accessed on 22nd June 2016 http://www.wrap.org.uk/content/why-take-action-legalpolicy-case

Lays out the public and private sectors’ legal responsibilities in terms of minimising food waste, provides guidance and encourages organisations to sign up to the Courtauld 2025 Commitment on reducing waste and GHG emissions.

WRAP. “Why take action: the commercial case” via website of Waste and Resources Action Programme. Accessed on 23rd June 2016 http://www.wrap.org.uk/content/why-take-action-commercial-case

Lays out the evidence why businesses should incorporate food waste reduction policies arguing that food waste typically represents 4% to 5% of company turnover, provides ways of calculating it and support to implement.

WRAP. “Why take action: the environmental case” via website of Waste and Resources Action Programme. Accessed on 23rd June 2016 http://www.wrap.org.uk/content/why-take-action-environmental-case

Lays out the evidence why businesses should incorporate food waste reduction policies arguing that ‘preventing 1 tonne of food waste from going to landfill saves 5 tonnes of CO2 emissions.

Champions 12.3. Feb 2019. The Business case for Reducing Food Loss and Waste: Restaurants. https://champions123.org/the-business-case-for-reducing-food-loss-and-waste-restaurants/

The report finds that the average restaurant is saving $7 for every $1 invested in reducing kitchen food waste over a 3-year timeframe.

Champions 12.3. Mar 2017. The Business case for Reducing Food Loss and Waste. https://champions123.org/the-business-case-for-reducing-food-loss-and-waste/

Makes the economic case for companies, countries and cities to reduce food loss and waste. It finds that in 2012 an initiative with 6 West London boroughs showed that for every £1 spent to reduce food waste, the boroughs saved £8 in avoided waste management costs and households saved £84.

Laurentiisa, V, Hunta, D, Rogersa, C. Septembre 2017. ‘Contribution of school meals to climate change and water use in England’. Elsevier. Vol 123 pp204-2011. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1876610217328126

‘This study quantified the carbon footprint (CF) and water footprint (WF) of primary school meals served in England. The contribution to the total impacts of different food groups was analysed: meat dishes were responsible for 52% of the total CF and 38% of the total WF. Chocolate desserts contributed 19% of the total WF. One fifth of the impacts were associated with the production of plate leftovers. Win-win strategies that achieve a reduction in both impact categories were identified. These results have implications for policies promoting sustainability in the public food sector’ (abstract).

Graziano da Silva, José. Speech delivered at the third meeting of mayors of cities of the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact. Valencia. 20 October 2017. http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=57930#.We2k14hrwdU

The Director General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) called for innovative partnerships of local actors, civil society, private sector and academic and producer organisations to develop food strategies to overcome food waste and ensure a healthy and nutritious diet for all. He added the need for greater coordination between food and energy policies, and those regarding water, health, transport and waste in line with the New Urban Agenda, adopted in October 2016.

DEFRA. June 2011. ‘Applying the Waste Hierarchy: evidence summary’. Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. 45 pages https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/69404/pb13529-waste-hierarchy-summary.pdf

An evidence summary and overview of scientific research on the various ways of dealing with food waste ranked in order of environmental preference within the food waste hierarchy (p10)

Get involved in a campaign

SFP members

Manchester City (Manchester Food Board)

Organisations

Tapwater.org aims to reduce the use of environmentally damaging bottled water and provides advice on how to achieve it.

The Sustainable Restaurant Association runs various programmes and campaigns supporting positive change towards a sustainable foodservice.

WRAP undertakes research, produces guidance and works with professionals in the food and drink industry to reduce food waste and water consumption.

Feedback runs campaigns, pilots programmes and advocates for change across the food system.

Friends of the Earth holds a wealth of information on food waste and packaging and actions to take.

Plan Zheroes runs a food donation platform to facilitate businesses donating their surplus to voluntary organisations. They also run food market collections.

Love Food Hate Waste runs national and local campaigns to raise awareness on food waste and advise on how to reduce it.

The Pig Idea uses public events and media to campaign for a lifting of the ban on feeding food waste that is no longer fit for human consumption to pigs.

Veg Cities campaign asks organisations to pledge to increase veg consumption through food waste reduction.

Gleaning Network UK connects volunteers, local farmers and food redistribution charities in order to harvest more food from fields and direct it to those most in need.

FoodCycle collects surplus food from supermarkets that volunteers prepare into healthy meals in donated kitchen spaces and serve to those in need.

FareShare redirects edible food that would otherwise go to waste to front line charities such as breakfast clubs, women’s refuges and luncheon clubs for older people.

Resources

Latest resources

What you can do

Brighton & Hove City Council is developing a 3-year plan to become glyphosate-free in 2022 affecting parks, open spaces, pavements, verges and housing land.

Open

Guides & toolkits

Our Every Mouthful Counts report aims to support places to respond to the climate and nature emergency through food system change and making the case for local action on food.

Open

Local Policies

Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council’s Planning for Health Supplementary Planning Document increases the protection of existing allotments and community food growing space and provides for the creation of new spaces (p15) arguing that they ‘provide opportunities for outdoor recreation, contributing to physical and mental wellbeing’ and ‘provide a place for people to interact and to produce healthy locally grown food, which can help to improve the diet of residents.’

Open