Food Waste in Australia - Essay Sample 

• Subject Name : Essay

Essay Sample 

One of the concerns that the modern society is dealing with is food waste. The problem of food waste is persistent because the economy is over producing than the prevailing demand level for food in the economy. In the current essay the research area of food waste will be studied from three secondary sources. The findings of the studies will be compared and contrasted to draw quality conclusion.

According to the article written by Lang (2013), majorly the societies are dealing with financial crisis because the economies are unable to estimate the actual demand level. The decline in the purchasing power of the individuals is leading to further downturn in the prevailing level of consumption level in the market. Waste food management is the actual problem because it becomes difficult for an economy to decompose the collected waste. According to the author, the food industry is aware about the issue of over producing and accelerating food waste (Lang, 2013). Several initiatives have been taken by organizations named Wrap in order to create awareness about the issue of food waste. The organization organized a campaign named Love Food, Hate Waste. The idea of the campaign was to spread awareness that food waste is inefficient. However, it had no impact on the quality of food waste generated. The economic forces that are leading to this waste include product standardisation and consumer de-skilling which eventually leads to over supply of food in the market. However, the author also argues that the individuals who generate most of the waste actually belong to the developed part of the world. Another important finding that can be retrieved from the article is that a specific framework and policies are required in order to deal with the issue of food waste.

Another perspective about food waste can be drawn from the report of Australian government on food waste, the food is decomposed on landfills it produces greenhouse emissions. It can be understood that Lang (2013) regarded food waste an inefficient because it had consequences like greenhouse gases associated with it. The reports stated that Food Waste is one of the biggest concerns for Australian economy. It becomes difficult for an economy to deal with food waste issue because of the presence of various types of food chains and policy frameworks. A consultation also took place in the year 2017 for the development of National Food Waste Strategy in which it was identified that the collaboration from state and territory government will be required in order to effectively work on food waste reduction programs (Australian Government, 2020). Some of the already did initiatives by the government include food education and awareness initiatives along with grants programs.

Some of the substantial changes taking place in the food industry are adopting different type of packaging style that can help in dealing with the issue of food waste. Another initiative is trying to convert the food waste into edible food by animals. Therefore, it can be evaluated that government with the help of education and awareness programs and the industry with the help of changes in the packaging technique is trying to get rid of the problem of food waste. The report by Verghese & Lockrey (2019), is a reporting of a project that was undertaken in Australian economy for quantifying the food waste generated over the entire food supply and consumption chain. The project was undertaken in accordance with the Target 12.3 of Sustainable Development Goals.

This project was an initiative taken after the implementation of National Food Waste Strategy discussed in the report by Australian government. As discussed, the goal of the strategy is to halve food waste by the year 2030. One of the challenges that can hamper the effectiveness of this policy is that every country has its own approach and framework to deal with the issue of food waste. The approach that every country has adopted for quantifying the level of waste they produce is also different. Under the strategy a contextual model has been developed that incorporates 12 destinations (Verghese & Lockrey, 2019). These 12 destinations are either categorised as food outcome or food waste outcome. This model can be adopted in order to identify the activities that can be avoided for controlling generation of waste.

On the basis of the above discussion it can be concluded that food waste is a serious concern. In order to effectively deal with the issue of food waste a defined framework is required. However, it has been identified that every country has adopted its different framework and policy to deal with the issue of food waste which further increases the complexity of the issue. Several programs and initiatives have been implemented in order to deal with food waste including education and awareness programs along with changes in the packaging and decomposing methods.

References for Food Waste in Australia - Essay Sample

Australian Government. (2020). Working together to reduce food waste in Australia. Retrieved from https://www.environment.gov.au/protection/waste-resource-recovery/publications/food-waste-factsheet

Lang, T. (2013). Food waste is the symptom, not the problem. The conversation. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/food-waste-is-the-symptom-not-the-problem-15432

Verghese, K., & Lockrey, S. (2019). NATIONAL FOOD WASTE BASELINE-Final assessment report. Retrieved from https://www.environment.gov.au/system/files/pages/25e36a8c-3a9c-487c-a9cb-66ec15ba61d0/files/national-food-waste-baseline-final-assessment.pdf

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