The terrible problem of food waste

This does seem like a problem which we should do something about really, doesn't it?

Household food waste reduction targets under the Courtauld Commitment 3 (CC3) – a voluntary agreement aimed at improving resource efficiency and reducing waste within the UK grocery sector – have been missed, despite £100M of business savings being delivered by reducing food waste elsewhere in the supply chain over three-year period, results released today (January 10) have shown.

Targets have been missed - voluntary targets at that - heavens to Betsy, alert the media!

The Waste Resources & Action Programme (WRAP) is described as a charity. Oh yes?

The majority of WRAP’s income from charitable activities in 2015/16 was in the form of grants. Grant income from central government reduced to £14.8m from £19.6m following the expected reductions in the Defra programme. Following the 2015 Spending Review the Defra programme has been confirmed at £12m for 2016/17 and is expected to continue thereafter with funding in the range of £9m – £10m per annum. Funding from other UK governments was £9.2m compared to £13.2m in 2014/15.

They are civil servants by any reasonable definition therefore.

And why is it that targets have been missed? 

It was attributed to a combination of factors, including UK population growth, falling food prices and increased personal earnings. These have reduced the pressures for people to avoid wasting food, claimed WRAP.

A richer populace spends less time conserving something getting cheaper. A result so shocking that you could slap us down with a wet haddock over that. Who knew that people consume fewer potato peelings as they get better off?

So, clearly, we do have a problem here and one that we should do something about. Our minds turn to the immediate cessation of grants, the redundancy of all of the people and the organisation itself and, just be to be on the safe side, to be sure, the ploughing of the land where WRAP once stood with that salt we're not allowed to eat any more.

After all, we don't want to be extreme about this, only to produce a sensible solution to an obvious problem.