Gove has an opportunity to do something special on waste

As we have been reporting in recent weeks, the heatwave is proving a boon for some produce but for others a real burden, with warnings that field crops in particular will deliver significantly smaller yields, and significantly lower sizes and weights. In other words, all those ‘wonky veg’ lines that the supermarkets have introduced in recent years may need to become, simply, ‘veg’.

It’s a measure of how far the industry has come in terms of food waste in recent years that I am confident supermarket buyers will be flexible when it comes to relaxing standards (and it would be great to see them also communicate the reasons in store). Let’s also hope they offer some help to farmers on price because they’re having a ‘mare.

Talking of food waste, there was also some good news on surplus redistribution this week, with new figures showing volumes increased 51% over the latest two-year period (2015-17). In theory that should have meant The Grocer’s Waste Not Want Not campaign target of 100,000 tonnes had been reached, give or take. However, it turns out that of the 1.9 million tonnes of food wasted, the volume of food and drink redistributed in 2015 had to be revised downwards. It was not the paltry 47,000 tonnes (or 2.5%) as Wrap originally estimated. It was an even more lamentable 28,000 tonnes (or 1.5%). So forgive me for not bringing out the bunting that it’s now increased to 43,000 tonnes. It’s not even back to where we thought it had started.

Wrap also revised downwards its figure for the amount of food surplus that was technically fit for human consumption to 250,000 tonnes. But the truth is these figures don’t include the MILLIONS of tonnes of perfectly edible food that is thrown away, or dug back in the ground, on farms. So the picture Wrap is painting is STILL flattering.

Wrap’s response was to announce £500,000 in funding for eight food waste charities via its Food Waste Reduction Fund. But this is yet more tinkering round the edges of the problem.

Instead of cash handouts, the government should be offering proper subsidies to further change industry behaviour, to cover the cost of transportation and thereby level the playing field against anaerobic digestion subsidies.

As we’ve explained previously, these subsidies won’t encourage waste (like the French system), because the subsidy would be based on the cost of the transport, not a percentage of the value, whether it’s standard tomatoes, fillet steak or caviar. And crucially these subsidies would be risk-free: if the industry chooses not to take advantage of any government subsidy, it won’t pay out a penny. And for every pound it does pay out, that will relate to an extra tonne of food waste being redistributed. It’s a win-win.

That’s why we have likened our subsidy proposals to a form of alchemy. For a risk-free investment of £10m, it could increase food waste redistribution to the tune of £150m.

So I have a message for Secretary of State Michael Gove. Do you want to be remembered for banning plastic straws (a drop in the plastic-filled ocean), or for dramatically increasing food waste redistribution for a minimal cost? We live in a society where coffee shop staff are told to pour bleach on to edible food to prevent homeless people from eating it. And where food retailers and manufacturers still choose to use perfectly edible food to generate electricity. Mr Gove: you can fix that. Risk free.