Campaign success! We delighted to say, that this week the EU adopted targets to halve EU food waste by 2030! There’s pros and cons, but it’s mainly a huge step forward, and we couldn’t have done it without you. Read more to see how we’re celebrating together at World Disco Soup Day on 28th April, and prepare for the next step in the battle https://bit.ly/2HiGRnq HUGE CAMPAIGN WIN! It’s been a bumpy ride, but this week the European Parliament voted to formerly adopt the revised Waste Framework Directive including targets to halve EU food waste by 2030 – a landmark move! It isn’t perfect, but it’s a huge step in the right direction – so a huge well done everyone, we couldn’t have done it without you! You might have our coverage of this in the Evening Standard yesterday, and there’s more coverage here with quotes from This Is Rubbish in Fresh Produce Journal: https://bit.ly/2HiGRnq and Reuters: https://reut.rs/2HLY2Pr Over the next 2 years, EU countries will now need to transpose the Directive into their national law (including the UK as it falls within the Brexit transition period), and this is a huge opportunity and a challenge. Our achievements with the EU mean they’re now obliged to act, but because the EU targets were not binding, and not clearly farm to fork (see below), that means how ambitiously our governments choose to act will be in large part shaped by YOU. We’re celebrating our victory by backing World Disco Soup Day on 28th April, and invite you to get involved! – there are events all around Europe and the world – see our video, and get involved here: https://www.facebook.com/thisisrubbishmovement/videos/2018699561704469/ World Disco Soup Day are joining our call on national governments to set targets to halve food waste across Europe and around the world – read more here: https://www.slowfood.com/sloweurope/en/making-food-waste-history-a-call-to-action/ Can you help us take the campaign to the next level, to ensure European government’s act on food waste? Donate to the campaign – we’ve been running this campaign on zero budget, and any support you can give would hugely help us halve the 88 million tonnes of food wasted in the EU every year: https://www.thisisrubbish.org.uk/donate/ We’re looking for organisations and individuals who have an appetite to set up a campaign to halve food waste in their own country, as the vital next step in this campaign. We’re working on our own UK campaign (we’ll keep you posted on this) but if you’re outside the UK and want to campaign for this in your own country, please contact martin@thisisrubbish.org, and we can help give you good advice, help link you up with each other, and empower you to start your own movements. Want to find out in more detail what was agreed in the new EU food waste targets? See our handy summary of pros and cons: PROS: The best piece of news is that from 2020 all EU member states (and that includes the UK during the Brexit transition period) will be obliged to measure and report their food waste annually from farm to fork (mostly, see below). This is a huge breakthrough, because up till now not knowing how much food waste there is and where has massively help back European action to stop it. Hurray! The other excellent news is that the EU have adopted aspirational targets to halve EU food waste by 2030! This is an amazing step forward, and all EU member states are being encouraged to set their own targets. EU countries will be obliged to come up with action plans to deal with food waste within the next 2 years, and also to incentivise food redistribution and clarify use by/best before dates to reduce food waste. All great news! CONS: The European Council blocked many of the European Parliament’s most ambitious proposals, mainly driven by the environmental ministries of Eastern European countries and Eurosceptic countries (including the UK). They wanted to scrap the targets completely though, and resist any deadline for measuring food waste, so all your efforts helped us limit the damage of the Council. The targets are not binding for member states, with EU member states only obliged to “reduce” food waste “as a contribution” towards the targets, and review of making the targets binding delayed until December 2023. However, the adoption of the EU target is symbolically important, and will still exert quite a lot of pressure on EU member states to set their own 50% reduction targets by 2030 (which can be binding if each country chooses to make it so), so now we need to build a mass movement in each European country to ensure our governments take action! The other problem with the target implies member states only need to halve food waste at consumer and retail level, and more vaguely reduce food waste on farms and in factories – even though we know this makes up up to 59% of Europe’s food waste. But again, individual EU countries can choose to halve food waste from farm to fork, and whether they choose to do so will be down to pressure from movements like ours! Finally the Council successfully opposed the introduction of a food waste hierarchy, to prioritise the reduction of food waste, then redistribution to people in need, then feeding it to livestock, and then sending it to anaerobic digestion/compost, with landfill a last resort. However, our individual countries will be free to adopt this. At the moment, much of food waste from farms may be excluded from the measurement ("harvest food waste")– but the methodology is going to be finalised by March 2019, so that’s still all to play for and we’ve been working hard to ensure it gets in there! So thank you again food waste warriors, let's all raise a glass in celebration, and plot for the next step in the food waste fight! Solidarity and soup, Martin and the This Is Rubbish team Like us on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thisisrubbishmovement/ Follow us on twitter: https://twitter.com/foodwaste Donate to support our campaign, which has currently been run on zero budget, here: https://www.thisisrubbish.org.uk/donate/