Dr. Liam Hanrahan:

As the Senator outlined, food waste is a serious problem from economic and environmental perspectives. As Ms Houlihan said, every person in the world can influence that. It is a serious issue and if people are serious about taking climate change in their own hands, the first thing they can do is monitor the amount of food they are eating and contributing to food waste. Obviously, we will need buy-in from the public. This is an opportunity that could be easily grasped through engagement with, and education of, consumers. This will require funding, however. I was disappointed to see the agriculture budget was reduced in the budget yesterday. Further investment will be quite difficult in a reduced budget.

One of the ideas I suggest goes back to prioritising Irish growers, who can produce a very fresh produce, going from the growing stage today and onto the supermarket shelf tomorrow. Whereas if we are buying from abroad, produce may spend one or two weeks in a container, require inhibitors, and, therefore, by the time it gets to the shelf, it is not as fresh and does not last as long in one’s home. That is a serious issue. Prioritising Irish growers would be an easy thing to do.

On food waste, we will never eliminate it 100%. We could possibly change our attitudes around it. We have had a “reduce, reuse, recycle” campaign going on for many years on the use of plastics and many other materials, but food seems to have fallen through the cracks. The food waste that seems to happen could be used for anaerobic digestion, AD, energy. The opportunity is staring us in the face but we are not taking it up. Food is possibly too cheap – or is too cheap – in the supermarkets. Below-cost selling is no doubt contributing to food waste as consumers are not respectful of the food they are buying. It has to go back to engagement with growers and the ability to have locally-grown fresh food on the shelves that will last longer in one’s home. We need to engage with consumers on how Irish produce is environmentally sound.