The UK Government is aiming to tackle the scourge of food wasted on farms by committing £15m in funding to help surplus food reach those in need.
An estimated 330,000 tonnes of edible food is either wasted or repurposed as animal feed before leaving farm gates every year, according to Defra, an issue partly resulting from a lack of infrastructure for getting food from farms into people’s homes.
A new scheme will see grants starting from £20,000 made available to strengthen the links between farms and food redistribution charities, and increase the capacity and capability of the redistribution sector to take on farm surplus.
The funding could go towards enabling successful applicants to buy new equipment, such as balers or hoppers, to allow bulky food items to be collected or processed into parcels, and technology to help donors and food redistribution charities work more closely. Money could also help provide more training to staff, to enhance their IT and food safety skills.
Defra said information on when the fund will open and full eligibility criteria for applications will be confirmed in the new year.
The new government funding was welcomed by food redistribution charities. In a joint statement, Charlotte Hill, CEO of The Felix Project, and Kris Gibbon-Walsh, CEO of FareShare, said: “After years of campaigning by food redistribution charities, we are thrilled to see this fund come to fruition.
“We look forward to acting quickly with the government, the charity sector, and farmers to maximise the impact of this initiative during British growing season, ensuring surplus food reaches as many people as possible.”
Some charities, such as Waste Knot, already work with farmers to find a home for surplus produce within the hospitality sector and communities, however a 2022 report by WWF found that 25% of food waste in the UK is likely to occur on farms, more than retail, manufacturing and hospitality and foodservice put together.
In April last year, WWF announced the launch of a new global farm loss tool for growers of all sizes to more easily measure and report on farm-level food loss.
Leave a Reply