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Speaker 1: The old food wasted argument is back. We're throwing away

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Speaker 1: three point two billion dollars in food every year. Government

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Speaker 1: being issued twenty seven recommendations to reduce the waste, including

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Speaker 1: formulating a national plan of action and a reduction target. Now,

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Speaker 1: the executive director of New Zealand Food Waste Champions, Caitlan Dawson,

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Speaker 1: is with this Caitland morning to you.

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Speaker 2: Good morning.

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Speaker 1: Do you reckon? We're ever capable quite intro that? Well,

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Speaker 1: I'm figuring if you're going to call yourself instead of

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Speaker 1: calling yourself New Zealand Food Waste you know incorporated, and

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Speaker 1: you're going to throw champions on the end, it deserves

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Speaker 1: a bit of bit of.

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Speaker 2: Umpha and absolutely I'll take it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, good on you. So how do we get around

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Speaker 1: this because this is not new three point two but

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Speaker 1: it's billions every year, has been for years, isn't it.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely? But I will just say that that number you're

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Speaker 2: talking about is actually just at the household level, So

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Speaker 2: that's not the amount of food waste that is occurring

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Speaker 2: up and down the supply chain from farm to fork.

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Speaker 2: That's just what we waste at household. So it's a

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Speaker 2: lot more money than three point.

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Speaker 1: Two billion, I reckon if we actually got our act together,

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Speaker 1: we wouldn't have a cost of BLO crisis, would we

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Speaker 1: Because it seems we have no money and yet we

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Speaker 1: can throw three billion dollars worth of food away.

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Speaker 2: That's exactly right. And so food waste is really it's

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Speaker 2: a system problem, and we've never taken a system view.

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Speaker 2: We've had quite a focus on household like you've just

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Speaker 2: been talking about, and so these reports are providing us

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Speaker 2: with the evidence to tackle it in the system way.

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Speaker 2: And so what I mean by that is that you know,

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Speaker 2: there's waste on farm, there's waste in manufacturing and retail,

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Speaker 2: and often decisions that are made at one of those

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Speaker 2: stages affect waste in another part. And so, like you've

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Speaker 2: just said, food waste is costed in at every single

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Speaker 2: part of the food system. And so if we just

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Speaker 2: look at it in that way and get everyone pulling

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Speaker 2: in the same direction, we'll actually be able to shift

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Speaker 2: the dial.

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Speaker 1: How much is not our fault? I buy four bananas,

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Speaker 1: one turns out to be a bit dodgy, I throw

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Speaker 1: it out, So that this sort of wasn't my fault,

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Speaker 1: or it was my fault, you know what I'm saying

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Speaker 1: it's not like I buy a big roast. I only

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Speaker 1: have one meal or four others, and I think, oh, well,

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Speaker 1: it can't be bother that it's in the bin.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, so much of what we do at

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Speaker 2: home is impacted by what we see on the retail

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Speaker 2: shelves or what we see on the packaging. And you know,

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Speaker 2: you might be buying four bananas because we'll probably not bananas,

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Speaker 2: but you might be getting two for one specials and

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Speaker 2: that kind of thing, which seem like a good idea

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Speaker 2: at the time, but then when you get home, you

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Speaker 2: actually don't need, say, two heads of broccoli. So sure,

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Speaker 2: there are mechanisms that are in place that might influence

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Speaker 2: waste at home, and I wouldn't say it's necessarily anyone's fault.

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Speaker 2: It's just a behavior that's that's kind of baked in,

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Speaker 2: just like in business processes upstream and manufacturers, the processes

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Speaker 2: are baked in and it's not even identified until they

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Speaker 2: start measuring or looking at it, which is why these

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Speaker 2: sorts of directives are so integral.

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Speaker 1: I've enjoyed talking. Do you have a great weekend. We'll

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Speaker 1: talk next year, shall we. Caitlin Dawson, executive director of

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Speaker 1: the New Food New Zealand Food Waste Champions. For more

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Speaker 1: from the mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to news talks.

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