Independent Dialogue
Geographical focus:
No borders
Discussion topic outcome
The discussion topic of the Dialogue mainly focused on the issue of food loss and waste. Participants from the various stakeholder groups provided a great number of ideas during the discussions. Among the significant ideas include coming up with an economic definition of food loss and waste, establishing data, integrating the concept of food safety to the Zero Waste Act, extending advocacies, value-adding of commodities, improving postharvest handling, and developing metrics on food loss and waste. There is a basic definition of food loss and waste that is provided by the Food and Agriculture
... Read moreOrganization. According to the participants, it can be further supplemented with an economic definition of food loss and waste. This will resolve the dilemma on whether it will be more economical just to throw foods or there will be an economic benefit in redistributing foods. This will be highly applicable to the Zero Food Waste Act, and other initiatives involving food banks. Lack of data on food loss and waste is a major concern for all the stakeholders. Data collection on postharvest loss and food waste are very patchy and inadequate. The Philippine Statistics Authority can be requested to be involved in this initiative to include in their activities the data collection specific for food loss and waste. Subsequently, the stakeholders across the value chain must help identify the variables that must be gathered. One of the main components of the Zero Food Waste Act is the redistribution of edible food waste to the food insecure. This is a great initiative that must also consider the principles of food safety. The technical experts from the academe will be keen on working with the legislators to ensure that food safety will be incorporated in the draft bill. The RICEponsible campaign was an effective advocacy for reducing food loss and waste in the rice commodity. This program can serve as a blueprint to extend the advocacy to other commodities such as vegetables, fruits, livestock, and fish. Consumers shall also be educated to purchase food without having a bias on its physical quality/appearance. The government may lead this initiative in collaboration with other stakeholder groups. Value-adding of commodities is one of the strategies to extend the shelf life of commodities and increase their economic value. Making use of available technologies to value-add specific commodities will result in reduced food loss and waste. The academe in partnership with the private sector can lead this. The concept of a community-based food processing facility shall be further explored and amplified. Postharvest handling to reduce food loss and waste shall rely on postharvest technologies, storage facilities, and improved packaging to lessen food loss and waste. The government, private sector, and international organizations have expertise and resources to complement the proposed initiatives under this subject. Developing context-specific metrics in measuring how the Philippines is progressing towards the reduction of food loss and waste is also an important proceeding. The tool that will be developed must be useful to the policymakers, and program implementers. Read less
Action Track(s): 2
Keywords: Data & Evidence, Governance, Innovation, Policy