Marcus Gover, CEO WRAP, “Henry Dimbleby has done a great job looking holistically at our food system. As he said in his reports, food is both a miracle in that we can feed our growing global population but also a disaster in that the way we produce it causes so much environmental damage. The way we feed ourselves feeds climate change - causing around 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions. We must change that, as we will not fix climate change if we don’t fix our broken food system.
“The Government Food Strategy has made some important recommendations. More than 200 large food businesses already measure their food waste as part of the WRAP-IGD Food Waste Reduction Roadmap and are realising both financial and environmental benefits by minimising that wastage. We welcome the proposal to extend this with a consultation on improved reporting for larger businesses. We estimate a further 400 food businesses could be brought onboard. The availability of robust data is core to businesses achieving climate and other environmental goals and WRAP welcomes the Food Data Transparency Partnership as a means of ensuring a consistent approach to measurement across the sector. Last month, WRAP published draft Protocols for measuring Scope 3 GHG emissions, which we are piloting with 15 food & drink businesses. We anticipate the new Partnership will provide the framework for wide adoption of these Protocols.
“If we want to tackle climate change, improve UK agriculture, help people eat more healthy food and drive the rural economy, we need to take heed of all the recommendations in the National Food Strategy. It is good to see policy measures being implemented as a result of the strategy, but food is critical in so many ways that we need to make sure we are doing all we can to drive system change and deliver a sustainable food system for the UK.”