Highly distinguished speakers from the FAO and UNEP and from leading private sector companies show how to reduce food loss and waste
Three years after its establishment at the first SAVE FOOD Congress, the SAVE FOOD Initiative has already grown into a broad-based international alliance with over 110 members. The second SAVE FOOD Congress takes up this idea and provides a network of representatives from the field of politics, the food and packaging industry, business, research and civil society. In a wide-ranging programme with competent and distinguished speakers, diverse aspects of the problem will be highlighted and solution approaches outlined.
The Congress offers participants a forum for the mutual exchange of ideas, for work projects and the identification and analysis of best practices. The two-day Congress begins the day before interpack and therefore will take place on 7 and 8 May 2014 at the exhibition grounds of Messe Düsseldorf.
Each day of the Congress will have a different focus. On the first day, the spotlight will be on the major political and civil society approaches. Toine Timmermans, Coordinator of the EU project FUSIONS, and James Lomax, Programme Officer Agri-Food at the UN Environment Programme UNEP, will present the activities of the major international organizations in relation to the issue of food waste and loss. Robert van Otterdijk, Agro-Industry Officer of the Food and Agriculture Organization FAO, will demonstrate, based on case studies from Kenya, how food loss in developing and emerging countries can be effectively combated. Tristram Stuart, founder of the campaign "Feeding the 5000ˮ will explain how food, which would ultimately have ended up on the rubbish tip, can still feed many people. Panel discussions will include speakers such as Steven T. Sonka, Emeritus Professor of the University of Illinois, who will be talking about loss-free agriculture, Jeffrey D. Klein, President of the Global FoodBanking Network, who will be discussing the positive work of the Die Tafeln e.V. initiative, and Selina Juul, initiator of "Stop Wasting Food", who will be speaking about the opportunities for consumers to act against food waste. Solutions for Africa will be presented amongst others by Adrian van der Knaap from the UN World Food Programme and Wafaa El Khoury from the International Fund for Agriculture Development .
The second day of the Congress will deal with best practice cases from industry and individual companies. Primarily business representatives will be given the opportunity here to comment and will participate in panel discussions. Speakers from industry partners such as Tetrapak, Dow, Maersk and Nestlé will be presenting their successful case studies. The programme of lectures will be supplemented and diversified, as on the first day, with several panel discussions. In addition, director and movie maker Valentin Thurn will be showing clips from his movie "Food Saversˮ which focuses on practical approaches to reduce the mountains of wasted food.
Apart from the Congress, visitors can see Innovationparc Packaging, a unique signature feature of interpack and the trade fair's own forum for future-oriented special topics. Concrete practical solutions will be shown including current innovations from different companies to reduce food loss.
The full programme for 7 and 8 May is available on the web site www.save-food.org at "Congress 2014".
"As a meeting point for international decision makers from all relevant areas, it is the intention of the SAVE FOOD Congress to pool expertise, encourage dialogue, exploit synergies and give new impetus. I am certain that the Congress will have a decisive impact on promoting our common objective," said Werner M. Dornscheidt, President and CEO of Messe Düsseldorf GmbH.
SAVE FOOD is a joint initiative of the FAO, UNEP and Messe Düsseldorf.
About one third of all food produced for human consumption is thrown away or lost worldwide: that amounts to approx. 1.3 billion tons each year. One out of 8 people are starving worldwide. Less than a quarter of the food currently lost worldwide would be enough to feed these people. The intention is to take a further important step in the right direction on 7 and 8 May 2014.