INVITATION
European Parliament’s Sustainable Food Conference The Commission's imminent food policy: Sustainability or standing still? 2 April 2014, 09:00-11:30 European Parliament, Brussels, P5B001 Organised by EU Food Sense, the European Parliament’s Cross-Party Sustainable Food Steering Group in collaboration with Feeding the 5000, the global campaign against food waste. European Parliament Vice-President for Democracy and Human Rights Edward McMillan-Scott invites you to a conference to discuss the European Commission’s upcoming sustainable food communication and hear expert recommendations on how policy makers should act to bring about a balanced system, which respects health, environmental and agricultural concerns, with a special focus on the measures available to tackle food waste.
Farmers are currently forced to waste millions of tonnes of fruit and vegetables because of retailer policies such as inaccurate forecasts and overly fussy cosmetic specifications - can a European Ombudsman set up to police unfair and wasteful retail practices solve the problem? Belgian regions are now obliging supermarkets to donate unsold food rather than destroy it - should other countries follow suit? Why don’t supermarkets report how much food they waste and should this become mandatory across Europe? Forests are being destroyed to produce soy and other virgin crops that feed European livestock – why don’t we use food waste that can’t be used for humans to feed our livestock instead?
The event will be opened with a speech and Q&A from the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier De Schutter, followed by food waste campaigner Tristram Stuart and a panel of expert speakers, including European Commission representatives from DG ENVI and DG SANCO. For more information please see the attached agenda. If you wish to register for the event, please RSVP by 27 March to edward.mcmillanscott@europarl.europa.eu