The Valencia Conference Centre hosted an international debate on urban policies to combat food wastage.
The aim of the event was to establish links and provide a space for dialogue for all those involved in the fight against food loss and waste.
Did you know that approximately one third of all food produced in the world, equivalent to 1.3 billion tonnes per year, is wasted? This problem is further exacerbated by the multitude of people suffering from food shortages around the world. According to FAO’s State of Food Security and Nutrition Report (SOFI) 2022, some 760 million people went hungry in 2021, equivalent to 9.8% of the world’s population.
The meeting, organised by the World Centre for Sustainable Urban Food in Valencia (CEMAS), in collaboration with the European Food Information Council (EUFIC) and local representatives from Valencia, linked and provided a platform for all stakeholders committed to reducing food waste.
The conference brought together practitioners and stakeholders, universities, community groups, municipal, regional, national and European governing bodies, networks and the FAO.
The occasion, which takes place in the context of the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union, will be attended by eminent personalities such as Dr. Felicitas Schneider (Institute for Market Analysis, Thünen Institute), Sanne Stroosnijder (Food Loss and Waste Prevention Programme, Wageningen University and Research) and Gyula Kasza (Hungarian National Food Waste Prevention Programme).
In the morning, the global and European perspectives, the various national policies related to food waste and the importance of city networks in this respect were discussed. In the afternoon, Sylvia Andrés, Managing Director of the Valencia Conference Centre, explained to working group 7, “City Networks”, the achievements of the congress centre as a testing ground for food waste prevention schemes, in the framework of various sectoral discussions.
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