Every year, $31 billion of food ends up in a landfill in Canada alone, but a 17-year-old BC student wants to change that by forcing grocery stores to be more proactive.
Justin Kulik says this isn't just stale bread and mouldy produce but good to eat food of all sorts...produce, dairy, grain, and protein.
Yet, nearly one million Canadians rely on food banks each month, and about four million Canadians are "food insecure", of which 1.5 million are children.
In 2015, the French government passed a law forbidding supermarkets from wasting and deliberately destroying food that can still be eaten. Instead, supermarkets have since been required to donate all unsold food products to a charity such as food banks.
Kulok wants a similar anti-food waste law implemented in Canada, nationwide.
His petition. which would require supermarkets to donate still-good to eat food to charity food banks, has reached over 200,000 supporters on Change.org.
“The way the system currently works is irresponsible. A third of food in Canada is wasted, while nearly 800,000 Canadians rely on food banks every month. It’s dumbfounding,” said Kulik. “$31 billion worth of food wastes away in landfills contributing to climate change. Much of that could provide meals to the four million Canadians who are food insecure. The only food policy that makes sense for Canada is one that addresses this wasteful practice.”
Kulik’s petition calls for a federal program that will:
- Bar supermarkets from intentionally destroying and wasting unsold, still edible food
- Require Canadian supermarkets to give unsold, still edible food to Canadian food banks
- Require Canadian supermarkets to give wrongfully packaged or damaged, still edible food to Canadian food banks
Real-time signature count, comments and petition updates can be found here.
