Launched the ?EU Platform on Food Losses and Food Waste?

The European Commission has launched an ?EU Platform on Food Losses and Food Waste? which will gather 70 member organisations to try to help achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of massively reducing global food waste and losses by 2030. Its 70 members, announced on 1 August, include all EU national governments, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and private sector organisations including FoodDrinkEurope, the European Consumers? Organisation (BEUC), the European Federation of Food Banks (FEBA), Copa-Cogeca, the European Dairy Association (EDA) and European Fruit and Vegetables Trade Association (EUCOFEL). The EU Platform has been set up to support the achievement of UN SDG 12.3 ? to halve per capita food waste at the retail and consumer level by 2030 and reduce food losses along the food production and supply chains. The SDGs for 2030 agreed last autumn, build on the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The 17 SDGs and 169 associated targets include many agriculture-related commitments: SDG 2 is ?to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture? and 14 of the 17 goals implicate farming. SDG 2 includes pledges to double agricultural productivity for small farmers and strive towards ?sustainable food systems? by 2030, while SDG 12, on ensuring ?sustainable? consumption and production patterns, includes the ambitious food waste/food losses target. To help achieve the target, the Commission announced, as part of a wider ?circular economy? strategy put forward in December, that it would create a platform to help define the EU?s contributing actions. The compositionThe composition of the EU Platform on Food Losses and Food Waste was announced on 1 August: the 70 members include 33 public sector members and, following a call for applications, 37 private sector organisations. The 33 public members are the 28 governments of the EU member states, the EU Committee of Regions (CoR), the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), the UN FAO and UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The 37 private sector organisations (see full list here) are a mixture of industry associations, civil society groups and academic institutions, with the Commission stating that members were chosen ?based on their experience in food waste prevention, capacity for stakeholder outreach and coverage of activities and interests in the food value chain?. Non-governmental organisation (NGO) members include Slow Food, the Waste and Resource Action Programme (WRAP) and Scotland?s ?Zero Waste? organisation, while academic members include leading agri-food research institution Wageningen University & Research, based in the Netherlands. The first gathering of the EU Platform will be held in Brussels on 29 November. The Commission has estimated that 88 million tonnes of food are wasted in the EU each year. It says the platform will ?support all players? to define actions needed all along the food value chain, promote inter-sectorial cooperation, share best practice and evaluate progress. Member state callsEU governments recently adopted Council Conclusions on food losses and food waste last month, calling on the Commission to consult with member states to define food waste and decide how to quantify it at each stage in the food supply chain, among other things. Governments also recently adopted Council Conclusions on the wider circular economy package, calling for a ?governance structure at EU level? with a monitoring framework to gauge progress, including on food waste. The Commission had initially planned to include an EU-wide target for 2025 for reducing food losses and food waste, but this was removed from the strategy when it was eventually revised and put forward.More information