<aside> 💡 These are takeaways and highlights from smaller group conversations

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• Differences between France and US's relationship to wasting food

“On the government side, two laws significantly reduced food waste in France. The first law mentions that recycling is mandatory for all businesses, including those in the hospitality and food service industry, producing at least 10 tonnes of organic waste annually. Failure to comply with the legislation could result in fines of up to €75,0000. The second obliges supermarkets to donate surplus food to charities and food banks. In addition, supermarkets are no longer allowed to throw away good quality food approaching its “best-before” date.”

On the more visible side of the consumer, we find the service of excessively large portions in private or collective catering less often in France than in the US. In addition, French people don’t respect the “best-before” date principle as strictly as Americans do. Finally, they have easy access to farms, mainly due to the country’s size, so they have a better sense of the whole life cycle to produce food and why we shouldn’t waste it.

Laure Thibaut

• When we’re thinking of marketing, we think of marketing to individuals vs. institutions or larger retailers and purchases, that actually can shape markets in a way that individuals can’t. When we are thinking about movements and looking to drive change in systems, it’s often not the end user who will make the biggest impact.
• The concept of social diffusion, which is the idea that our own voices as advocates can be powerful in motivating and influencing others to adopt climate-friendly behaviors.
• The need for systemic access to tools, such as composting programs, to make sustainable practices more accessible to the masses.
• The issue of class-based differences and condescension in sustainable practices. The cultural values around food and how wasting food became a status symbol, similar to carrying around bottled water.
• A personal experience from a participant:
  • By starting to compost weekly, raised his own family’s awareness of how much food waste they generate – ex. some weeks it’s 1 bag, other weeks it’s 3 bags – that raised awareness, which makes them want to take action

This conversation echoed the voices of food waste haulers we talk to everyday. They, and we, also believe that a systemic approach is the way forward. Being a part of this conversation solidified my belief in our need for society to revert “back to the basics” to fight climate change. We used to waste less because we put our food correctly back into the soil. Food for thought ;)

Tace Loeb - Head of Brand at Poplar

Institutions purchase and serve food at a scale far greater than individual consumers. The decisions that our hospitals, schools, employers, etc. make about what food they buy, from where and whom, can shape and change markets. Transforming our food systems to produce food that's good for people and the planet will require shifting our mindsets to see change as a collective act with space for organizations as well as individuals at the table. Here are a few concrete examples of how changes in institutional purchasing have shaped markets:

• LA Schools
• Google

John Spangler - The Rockefeller Foundation

As a real world example of a simple yet effective solution to waste reduction, when I first moved to San Francisco 10 years ago, I was shocked at how small the garbage pickup bins were. How was it possible to have 1 bag of garbage a week for a household? But really what was shocking was how easy it was to adhere to the limitations of these small bins and create real behavioral change.