Farmers are calling for volunteers to salvage thousands of tonnes of fresh fruit and vegetables that are wasted on UK farms every year.
Farmers across the country often have no choice but to leave tonnes of their crops unharvested and either let it rot in the field or plough it back in the soil.
These crops cannot reach the market either because they fail to meet strict cosmetic standards set by retailers or because of overproduction. At the same time, more than 5.8 million people suffer from deep poverty in the UK and cannot afford a decent diet, and this number is on the rise.
The Gleaning Network UK has approximately 48 tonnes of produce already salvaged.
New hubs sprung up in Manchester, Bristol, Brighton, Cambridge, London and Kent. Apples, pears, plums, strawberries, cauliflower, cabbages, lettuces, pumpkins and parsnips are just some of the produce already gleaned. On one day alone on 9th November 2013, over 11 tonnes of pumpkins were saved from waste on a farm in Southampton. In 2014, we plan to do far more, and we are also expanding at the European Union level including France, Spain, Poland, The Netherlands and Belgium.
"In the last few months we’ve stopped more than 500 tonnes of food from going to waste each year. Working with UK charity Sustain on the brilliant FoodSave* project we’re linking up food businesses in London with local farmers hungry for feed for their even hungrier livestock," the group said.
"We simply can’t keep chopping down rain forests to grow crops, that could be fed to humans, to feed animals. Feeding food waste to farmed animals makes sense on so many levels.
"Right now, millions of tonnes of good food fit for animal feed, like bread-crusts from sandwich factories, brewer’s grains and nutritious whey from cheese makers, end up in bins across Europe."
