A CULINARY tour of Europe offers copious delights: a perfectly thin pizza slice from Naples, a glistening paella on Valencia’s beachfront, a fresh Parisian croissant. Indeed, the continent seems to turn out more treats than its people can eat. The latest estimates say Europeans threw out 88m tonnes of food in 2012—173 kg per person. The wasted food was worth €143 billion ($162 billion).
Such wastefulness is bad for the planet. Europeans pride themselves on being green, yet in fact they squander only slightly less each year, per head, than North Americans or Australians. Throwing away food means wasting the resources used in its production, such as water. This is especially foolish in dry countries such as Spain. The problem is set to get worse as climate change makes rainfall patterns less predictable.
Governments are now trying to help. In Italy, until recently, a supermarket that tried to donate items to a charity would find itself entangled in red tape as thick and twisted as a plate of spaghetti. But on August 2nd lawmakers made it far easier by passing reforms to tax incentives. In February France passed legislation to fine shops for...Continue reading
from Europe http://ift.tt/2bJwdXF
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment