I have an idea and that is for your
generation to take issue with food waste
and food insecurity because they’re
actually quite interrelated my
generation hasn’t really done that good
a job to some degree we’ve tried but we
haven’t really been able to get there so
that’s all I want to start my talk a
couple of years ago I had the
opportunity to work with the new
brunswick food security Action Network
when I was working with them I got the
chance to visit all 59 food banks in New
Brunswick it’s kind of scary isn’t there
59 we have 59 food banks in New
Brunswick and through that visit two
things came to me one of them was that
why do we have food banks and I started
really trying to figure out why we have
that food insecurity issue in our
society but the second thing that I
found out that really bothered me was in
those food banks there was very little
and I mean very little healthy
nutritious accessible and affordable
food and the reality is it is actually
out there and that’s what brought me to
today’s discussion because today’s
discussion is really about food waste
but it’s interrelated with food security
so I’m going to talk to you about that a
little bit now I’m really against
technology so what I did was I got the
folks here with TEDx to install a
prompter inside my finger so when I go
like that the slide will change
are we good okay so let’s look at the
issue right now
food has an incredible impact on the
environment
and I don’t know if you guys realize
where the mean greenhouse gases came
from right a lot of it actually came
from what goes into our landfills
creates an immense amount of greenhouse
grasses in fact as equally terrible for
our environment as cars so you can
imagine we have a real issue with the
environment and food waste more
importantly let’s look at agriculture
agriculture also has a huge impact on
food waste and it’s it’s somewhat of an
unfortunate unfortunate situation for us
we’re dependent on globalization now for
a group
in the 1950s here in New Brunswick 85%
of the food consumed here was grown in
New Brunswick now it’s actually the
opposite
85% of food that we consume here is
imported and New Brunswick’s become a
larger exporter of food than we actually
domestically use and that’s kind of a
scary situation but how does that
contribute to food waste well when you
start thinking about the transportation
of food right you’re talking about the
use of gas you’re talking about use of a
lot of things you’re also talking about
food that’s moving from its direct
source through a process where there’s
small percentages of food waste all
along the way and by the way at the end
of the day that turns into roughly
twenty percent of what you pay for at
the store is actually for food waste not
food that’s in the store we got one more
to look at and that’s you consumers and
consumers actually make up the largest
contribution to food waste in our
society us in our daily habits in the
way we consume food and the way we
demand food directly or indirectly
consumers make up 47% of the food waste
in our country that’s an incredible
amount and with that brings me to why we
should have this discussion there’s one
element that I think we can take some
control over and that is how we deal
with food waste right because if we’re
responsible for 47% of it as consumers
what could we possibly to move to move
it forward so I’m going to take you to
the next slide with my finger like that
there we go
so how can we change behaviors right
because we are a society of behaviors
we’re actually food wasters and I don’t
know how many of you honestly
consciously think about food waste think
about what you waste on the rent of a
day or a little week in the runt of a
month and how you contribute to it so
what we need to do is we need to take a
look at the situation with food waste we
need to make some changes so as a
consumer let’s look at the first thing
that you can do and your change right so
you can change how you shop I don’t know
how many of you shop right now but we
have spontaneous buying habits right we
go into a store we think we know what
we’re going there for but we
by extra this or something’s on sale or
whatever but what happens is sometimes
we end up with too much food and the way
we shop actually affects food waste
because it ends up affecting quite often
what you end up throwing out either way
gives too much and a pet peeve of mine
but the way stores are they’re marketing
to us like crazy when I get to the
checkout line and I’m to type type two
diabetic and there it is right in front
of me as I’m walking up to the cash all
the chocolate bars a person could ever
imagine
right right there at the checkout but
actually when you think about it it’s
all done that way in the store they’re
trying to get you to buy buy buy but as
consumers it’s affecting what we waste
so let’s look at it as another level I
can’t even see my own slides I’m going
like this and I can’t see them that’s it
think of who you support think of who
you support is really important because
I’m a huge fan of by local how many of
you buy local or try to nice because
that’s actually part of the future
remember I said in the opening comments
about food import and globalization how
it’s affecting food security by local is
the right thing to do when it comes to
food security because what you’re doing
is you’re supporting local economy which
is good you’re supporting local farmers
which is good you actually have a
shorter period of time between the
farmer and the local economy to you the
shopper and at the end of the day you
are doing something that will help
people that are in need because my
experience is farmers are a lot better
with the food banks and the stores are
truthfully because they live here and
they care more now hopefully we will
change the mentality with the stores but
the last thing you really need to look
at is how you address food yourselves
how many of you throw at food right it
happens it’s not something you want to
do it happens it could be a piece of
cheese you bought that you left in the
fridge maybe stayed there too long got a
little bit of moldy throw it away
however you can affect things like that
by how you package your food right use
of freezers use of freezer bags properly
storing your food planning your food
planning your menu getting involved in
things like
all sorts of ways for you to take issue
with how you take care of your food
so let’s look to the next level because
this is where it gets really important
so did you know that the average
consumer in Canada is responsible for
one pound of food now that’s taken the
whole thing using you as a ratio one
pound of food per day so if you added
all of that up and you put it into a
model in Canada we could fill sixty
tractor-trailers in a row that would go
1,000 kilometers so that’s how much food
has just wasted and a lot of that food
can be recovered so let’s keep going
the business level is one of the ones
that I really think we can see change
I’m now getting introduced to the
presentation we need to see change the
business level a few years ago actually
Sodexo which was one of the food
suppliers here in the university
actually came up with a strategy to get
rid of trays and some people had said to
me well that strategy was because people
were stealing them to slide down the
hill
actually was no part of strategy getting
rid of this chase led to a 20% decrease
in food waste right and that’s because
the way the mind works tray food and if
anything is left on it you can’t return
it right gets dumped but on your plate
it’s a little bit different your
behaviors different so there’s an
example how businesses can take issue
stores can take issue if we start
looking at how stores deal with food and
I’ll look this next one because this is
important you know that one out of seven
trailer loads of food that arrive at
stores gets put into landfills that’s
insane and that’s because of food
spoilage that’s also because of some of
our buying habits and it’s also because
when you see that best before date some
of us think that’s a scientific date
it’s actually not a scientific date
that’s the best before date that we use
for actually for the store to use it
this will be fresh up until that date
after that it’s not so fresh doesn’t
necessarily mean it’s bad if you travel
any the food bags I
you’ll find that their freezers are full
of bread that’s because they get bread
donated thankfully and they immediately
put in the freezer so it lasts longer
because people don’t come there everyday
right so there’s ways of dressing us but
the truth is if you take one or two
seconds someone in a 7 tractor-trailer
loads we have a serious issue serious
issue with that we’ve got to address
that one of the ways you can address it
as a consumer so when you walk into a
store to buy ask a store what they do
with their excess food and ask them if
they work with food insecurity if they
work with the food banks because we need
to make some changes so how can we
affect public policy that’s probably one
of the big ones in the whole discussion
Canada is actually now looking at a
national food strategy it’s about time
but in that strategy what you as a
generation need to put front and center
is food waste because food waste right
now we have really very little
regulation one of the reasons why all
that food ends up in landfills is
because the regulations allow for its $8
a ton right makes business sense so it’s
easier to get rid of the food than
trying to address the food unfortunately
that’s the challenge we’re up against in
France two years ago they introduced
legislation where it’s like a sin tax
right so if you dispose of food that
could have been distributed you’re
getting charged an astronomical amount
of money as a sin tax basically what’s
happened in France more money
redistributed to the food banks more
people going into stores and when that
breads almost ready it’s like 10% of its
value that’s because it would cost them
that much to send it to landfill so we
get it there’s lots of chance for change
your generational you have to start
making food security and food waste an
issue let’s keep going so now we got
hope we got lots of cool things that are
going on I don’t want to talk about some
of them one of the first examples we can
use is things like composting right now
students a lot of students have said to
me well you know where I live I’m an
apartment or a building I really wanted
the opportunity to compost but actually
you do just like your blue box right you
can keep all that stuff and there’s
places you can take it if you go in
behind greener village here in
Fredericton there’s large large
compost bins just dump it on there make
your contribution composting is one of
the ideas community gardens get involved
in food security volunteer with your
food banks help to work with your
community help to distribute food more
and there’s other cool ideas the next
one is actually one of my most serious
serious concerns and it’s starting to
happen I’m so excited I don’t know how
many of you familiar with the to food
rescue but food rescue is basically
after harvest and what happens is you
might go out there you might see an
apple tree that’s just sitting there and
all the apples on the ground that’s
because it wasn’t market apples or
whatever well you pick those apples up
you can make apple jelly like they
actually can be used for something so
food rescue is one of the ideas that you
can start thinking about wow we can do a
lot and actually access in a rescue of
food the next one is I don’t know how
many of you are familiar with the term
gleaning okay so gleaning is something
is actually gaining popularity and it’s
getting the popularity for a number of
reasons so gleaning is the concept of
food rescue but from a different
perspective let’s say three or four of
you got together and you said why don’t
we put together a gleaning team and what
I mean by that is you will go to a farm
and you would glean food out of the
ground after it’s been harvested because
every farm has additional food extra
tato is extra vegetables extra whatever
but you go up to the farmer before you
do that and you say excuse me do you
mind if me and my friends go into your
field and we glean your field for food
and the farmer will say what some of you
might say what’s gleaning you explain it
to them but to the farmer here’s what
you say we’re gonna glean the food we’re
gonna give you a third of it because
it’s your farm good idea we’re gonna
keep a third of it for each other we’re
gonna distribute good idea we’re going
to take the last third and we’ll give it
to those that are food insecure great
idea a way to contribute back to society
a great be part of the change right and
so gleaning is a new idea maybe it’s new
to a lot of you but you can set up
gleaning teams anytime and go out and
harvest season anywhere and farmers will
likely let you do that and food
insecurity by the way happens right here
on campus right I don’t if you know the
University of Moncton has a food bank I
mean a lot of students are also hungry
and could use extra food so think about
those opportunities for you to get
engaged oh how many of you received one
of these in your delegate kit really so
you’re wondering why you got that in
your delegate kit I got one so this is
the ugly carrot and this is actually a
symbol of why you need to get engaged
with change if you went up to a person
that was food insecure here’s what they
say to you that’s a character except in
our modern market economy it’s a b-grade
carrot what it means is it can’t be sold
stores won’t buy it because it’s ugly
and consumers won’t buy ugly food looks
like a carrot it’s ugly
tastes like a carrot cooks like a carrot
and so this is example of where we come
as consumers because all of these
carrots actually quite often get put
back into the ground they’re not
redistribute it again because the farmer
doesn’t have a market for them can’t
sell them but the ugly carrot actually
is a movement and there’s actually
people all over the place are starting
to embrace this as a constant well but
it’s still a carrot so here’s what I
want to challenge all of you to do let’s
take that carrot take it home make it
into a soup make it into a stew cut it
up and eat it with some hummus it’s a
statement that says it’s a carrot and I
value food and I value food security and
it’s a start for all of you to start
thinking about getting engaged you have
to get engaged in this issue it’s a very
serious issue and your generation can
affect policy can affect how we address
things and hopefully I will never have
to visit 59 food banks again thank you
very much [Applause]
generation to take issue with food waste
and food insecurity because they’re
actually quite interrelated my
generation hasn’t really done that good
a job to some degree we’ve tried but we
haven’t really been able to get there so
that’s all I want to start my talk a
couple of years ago I had the
opportunity to work with the new
brunswick food security Action Network
when I was working with them I got the
chance to visit all 59 food banks in New
Brunswick it’s kind of scary isn’t there
59 we have 59 food banks in New
Brunswick and through that visit two
things came to me one of them was that
why do we have food banks and I started
really trying to figure out why we have
that food insecurity issue in our
society but the second thing that I
found out that really bothered me was in
those food banks there was very little
and I mean very little healthy
nutritious accessible and affordable
food and the reality is it is actually
out there and that’s what brought me to
today’s discussion because today’s
discussion is really about food waste
but it’s interrelated with food security
so I’m going to talk to you about that a
little bit now I’m really against
technology so what I did was I got the
folks here with TEDx to install a
prompter inside my finger so when I go
like that the slide will change
are we good okay so let’s look at the
issue right now
food has an incredible impact on the
environment
and I don’t know if you guys realize
where the mean greenhouse gases came
from right a lot of it actually came
from what goes into our landfills
creates an immense amount of greenhouse
grasses in fact as equally terrible for
our environment as cars so you can
imagine we have a real issue with the
environment and food waste more
importantly let’s look at agriculture
agriculture also has a huge impact on
food waste and it’s it’s somewhat of an
unfortunate unfortunate situation for us
we’re dependent on globalization now for
a group
in the 1950s here in New Brunswick 85%
of the food consumed here was grown in
New Brunswick now it’s actually the
opposite
85% of food that we consume here is
imported and New Brunswick’s become a
larger exporter of food than we actually
domestically use and that’s kind of a
scary situation but how does that
contribute to food waste well when you
start thinking about the transportation
of food right you’re talking about the
use of gas you’re talking about use of a
lot of things you’re also talking about
food that’s moving from its direct
source through a process where there’s
small percentages of food waste all
along the way and by the way at the end
of the day that turns into roughly
twenty percent of what you pay for at
the store is actually for food waste not
food that’s in the store we got one more
to look at and that’s you consumers and
consumers actually make up the largest
contribution to food waste in our
society us in our daily habits in the
way we consume food and the way we
demand food directly or indirectly
consumers make up 47% of the food waste
in our country that’s an incredible
amount and with that brings me to why we
should have this discussion there’s one
element that I think we can take some
control over and that is how we deal
with food waste right because if we’re
responsible for 47% of it as consumers
what could we possibly to move to move
it forward so I’m going to take you to
the next slide with my finger like that
there we go
so how can we change behaviors right
because we are a society of behaviors
we’re actually food wasters and I don’t
know how many of you honestly
consciously think about food waste think
about what you waste on the rent of a
day or a little week in the runt of a
month and how you contribute to it so
what we need to do is we need to take a
look at the situation with food waste we
need to make some changes so as a
consumer let’s look at the first thing
that you can do and your change right so
you can change how you shop I don’t know
how many of you shop right now but we
have spontaneous buying habits right we
go into a store we think we know what
we’re going there for but we
by extra this or something’s on sale or
whatever but what happens is sometimes
we end up with too much food and the way
we shop actually affects food waste
because it ends up affecting quite often
what you end up throwing out either way
gives too much and a pet peeve of mine
but the way stores are they’re marketing
to us like crazy when I get to the
checkout line and I’m to type type two
diabetic and there it is right in front
of me as I’m walking up to the cash all
the chocolate bars a person could ever
imagine
right right there at the checkout but
actually when you think about it it’s
all done that way in the store they’re
trying to get you to buy buy buy but as
consumers it’s affecting what we waste
so let’s look at it as another level I
can’t even see my own slides I’m going
like this and I can’t see them that’s it
think of who you support think of who
you support is really important because
I’m a huge fan of by local how many of
you buy local or try to nice because
that’s actually part of the future
remember I said in the opening comments
about food import and globalization how
it’s affecting food security by local is
the right thing to do when it comes to
food security because what you’re doing
is you’re supporting local economy which
is good you’re supporting local farmers
which is good you actually have a
shorter period of time between the
farmer and the local economy to you the
shopper and at the end of the day you
are doing something that will help
people that are in need because my
experience is farmers are a lot better
with the food banks and the stores are
truthfully because they live here and
they care more now hopefully we will
change the mentality with the stores but
the last thing you really need to look
at is how you address food yourselves
how many of you throw at food right it
happens it’s not something you want to
do it happens it could be a piece of
cheese you bought that you left in the
fridge maybe stayed there too long got a
little bit of moldy throw it away
however you can affect things like that
by how you package your food right use
of freezers use of freezer bags properly
storing your food planning your food
planning your menu getting involved in
things like
all sorts of ways for you to take issue
with how you take care of your food
so let’s look to the next level because
this is where it gets really important
so did you know that the average
consumer in Canada is responsible for
one pound of food now that’s taken the
whole thing using you as a ratio one
pound of food per day so if you added
all of that up and you put it into a
model in Canada we could fill sixty
tractor-trailers in a row that would go
1,000 kilometers so that’s how much food
has just wasted and a lot of that food
can be recovered so let’s keep going
the business level is one of the ones
that I really think we can see change
I’m now getting introduced to the
presentation we need to see change the
business level a few years ago actually
Sodexo which was one of the food
suppliers here in the university
actually came up with a strategy to get
rid of trays and some people had said to
me well that strategy was because people
were stealing them to slide down the
hill
actually was no part of strategy getting
rid of this chase led to a 20% decrease
in food waste right and that’s because
the way the mind works tray food and if
anything is left on it you can’t return
it right gets dumped but on your plate
it’s a little bit different your
behaviors different so there’s an
example how businesses can take issue
stores can take issue if we start
looking at how stores deal with food and
I’ll look this next one because this is
important you know that one out of seven
trailer loads of food that arrive at
stores gets put into landfills that’s
insane and that’s because of food
spoilage that’s also because of some of
our buying habits and it’s also because
when you see that best before date some
of us think that’s a scientific date
it’s actually not a scientific date
that’s the best before date that we use
for actually for the store to use it
this will be fresh up until that date
after that it’s not so fresh doesn’t
necessarily mean it’s bad if you travel
any the food bags I
you’ll find that their freezers are full
of bread that’s because they get bread
donated thankfully and they immediately
put in the freezer so it lasts longer
because people don’t come there everyday
right so there’s ways of dressing us but
the truth is if you take one or two
seconds someone in a 7 tractor-trailer
loads we have a serious issue serious
issue with that we’ve got to address
that one of the ways you can address it
as a consumer so when you walk into a
store to buy ask a store what they do
with their excess food and ask them if
they work with food insecurity if they
work with the food banks because we need
to make some changes so how can we
affect public policy that’s probably one
of the big ones in the whole discussion
Canada is actually now looking at a
national food strategy it’s about time
but in that strategy what you as a
generation need to put front and center
is food waste because food waste right
now we have really very little
regulation one of the reasons why all
that food ends up in landfills is
because the regulations allow for its $8
a ton right makes business sense so it’s
easier to get rid of the food than
trying to address the food unfortunately
that’s the challenge we’re up against in
France two years ago they introduced
legislation where it’s like a sin tax
right so if you dispose of food that
could have been distributed you’re
getting charged an astronomical amount
of money as a sin tax basically what’s
happened in France more money
redistributed to the food banks more
people going into stores and when that
breads almost ready it’s like 10% of its
value that’s because it would cost them
that much to send it to landfill so we
get it there’s lots of chance for change
your generational you have to start
making food security and food waste an
issue let’s keep going so now we got
hope we got lots of cool things that are
going on I don’t want to talk about some
of them one of the first examples we can
use is things like composting right now
students a lot of students have said to
me well you know where I live I’m an
apartment or a building I really wanted
the opportunity to compost but actually
you do just like your blue box right you
can keep all that stuff and there’s
places you can take it if you go in
behind greener village here in
Fredericton there’s large large
compost bins just dump it on there make
your contribution composting is one of
the ideas community gardens get involved
in food security volunteer with your
food banks help to work with your
community help to distribute food more
and there’s other cool ideas the next
one is actually one of my most serious
serious concerns and it’s starting to
happen I’m so excited I don’t know how
many of you familiar with the to food
rescue but food rescue is basically
after harvest and what happens is you
might go out there you might see an
apple tree that’s just sitting there and
all the apples on the ground that’s
because it wasn’t market apples or
whatever well you pick those apples up
you can make apple jelly like they
actually can be used for something so
food rescue is one of the ideas that you
can start thinking about wow we can do a
lot and actually access in a rescue of
food the next one is I don’t know how
many of you are familiar with the term
gleaning okay so gleaning is something
is actually gaining popularity and it’s
getting the popularity for a number of
reasons so gleaning is the concept of
food rescue but from a different
perspective let’s say three or four of
you got together and you said why don’t
we put together a gleaning team and what
I mean by that is you will go to a farm
and you would glean food out of the
ground after it’s been harvested because
every farm has additional food extra
tato is extra vegetables extra whatever
but you go up to the farmer before you
do that and you say excuse me do you
mind if me and my friends go into your
field and we glean your field for food
and the farmer will say what some of you
might say what’s gleaning you explain it
to them but to the farmer here’s what
you say we’re gonna glean the food we’re
gonna give you a third of it because
it’s your farm good idea we’re gonna
keep a third of it for each other we’re
gonna distribute good idea we’re going
to take the last third and we’ll give it
to those that are food insecure great
idea a way to contribute back to society
a great be part of the change right and
so gleaning is a new idea maybe it’s new
to a lot of you but you can set up
gleaning teams anytime and go out and
harvest season anywhere and farmers will
likely let you do that and food
insecurity by the way happens right here
on campus right I don’t if you know the
University of Moncton has a food bank I
mean a lot of students are also hungry
and could use extra food so think about
those opportunities for you to get
engaged oh how many of you received one
of these in your delegate kit really so
you’re wondering why you got that in
your delegate kit I got one so this is
the ugly carrot and this is actually a
symbol of why you need to get engaged
with change if you went up to a person
that was food insecure here’s what they
say to you that’s a character except in
our modern market economy it’s a b-grade
carrot what it means is it can’t be sold
stores won’t buy it because it’s ugly
and consumers won’t buy ugly food looks
like a carrot it’s ugly
tastes like a carrot cooks like a carrot
and so this is example of where we come
as consumers because all of these
carrots actually quite often get put
back into the ground they’re not
redistribute it again because the farmer
doesn’t have a market for them can’t
sell them but the ugly carrot actually
is a movement and there’s actually
people all over the place are starting
to embrace this as a constant well but
it’s still a carrot so here’s what I
want to challenge all of you to do let’s
take that carrot take it home make it
into a soup make it into a stew cut it
up and eat it with some hummus it’s a
statement that says it’s a carrot and I
value food and I value food security and
it’s a start for all of you to start
thinking about getting engaged you have
to get engaged in this issue it’s a very
serious issue and your generation can
affect policy can affect how we address
things and hopefully I will never have
to visit 59 food banks again thank you
very much [Applause]
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