CANBERRA -- To former Prime Minister Tony Abbott they just might be bite-sized snacks, but about 20 tonnes of fresh, delicious, raw onions have just had to have be saved from being dumped.
Their only crime? They are too small for the likes of us, the consumers. Have we all forgotten about cocktail onions?
Tony Abbott eats raw onion (With sound) https://t.co/xblK8c7cjk via @YouTube #dailyshowzen
— joel eschler (@swkotor) March 3, 2017
In a deal between an onion producer in the New South Wales Riverina and Australia's largest food relief organisation, Foodbank, those 20 tonnes of tiny baby onions will be going to the needy free of charge over the next three to four weeks, rather than wastefully being sown back into the ground or sent to landfill.
"As we know consumers can be a little fussy when it comes to fresh produce," Foodbank Australia's CEO Brianna Casey. "Unfortunately, in this case these onions would have been rejected."
"We were able to connect up with the grower and in three to four weeks we should see 20 tonnes of these not quite big enough onions being delivered to Foodbank. "
"From there, we will be distributing those to charities who can feed vulnerable Australians."
But this is not every food waste story.
Each year, $20 billion a year worth of food is wasted in Australia and Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg cites figures which show Australian consumers currently waste 20 percent of food purchased or "essentially throw away one in five shopping baskets of food".
Anthony Pratt declares war on food waste in Australia, saying it's costing economy $20bn a year. https://t.co/us2pAnHalT
— Blue Streak Advances (@BSAFunds) March 27, 2017
— Business Revie...
Frydenberg is attending a major roundtable in Melbourne on Wednesday, co-hosted by the Pratt Foundation, in a bid to do something about it, along with the National Farmers Federation, Foodbank and other industry and community leaders.
The Turnbull Government has a policy to reduce Australia's food waste by 50 percent by 2030 as part of an ambitious global goal to reduce per capita food waste and Frydenberg is working on developing a National Food Waste Strategy.
#Foodbank is leading Australia's approach to #foodrescue. Read more from CEO, @briannacasey1 here: https://t.co/jtBmjcPjnu #foodwaste pic.twitter.com/Euil6zfmKC
— Foodbank Australia (@FoodbankAus) March 29, 2017
Foodbank wants action.
"While we have this enormous food waste problem, we also have a food insecurity problem," Casey said.
"We know that at some point in the past 12 months, one in six Australians were food insecure. That means they did not have the means to put a meal on their table.
"We really need to see strong policies and programs that will incentivise the reduction of food waste in Australia."
A National Food Waste summit is due to be held in November 2017.
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