Every year New Zealand food industry sends 103,000 tonnes of food waste to landfill. Some 60% of that food going to landfill is edible. Burying food (often in its plastic and foil packaging) is an environmental disaster. It needlessly contributes to greenhouse gas emissions – and squanders the resources used to produce and transport that food, including water, land, energy, labour, and capital. If that sound outrageous to you, then thank goodness Deborah Manning is doing something about it. Deborah is a qualified lawyer and physiotherapist, who founded KiwiHarvest in 2012. The charity collects edible food destined for landfill and distributes it to food banks and social agencies to share with those who need it most. She spoke to Vincent about the need to redesign the food system.

About Deborah and Kiwi Harvest

Deborah has worked in the public health system, various law firms and is an invited lecturer at the University of Otago as well as a member of the Board of Advisors of the University of Otago Legal Issues Centre (UOLIC). Deborah is the co-chair of New Zealand Food Waste Champions 12.3 – a coalition of 12 Champions from New Zealand’s food supply chain who are committed to halving food waste by 2030 (Sustainable Development Goal Target 12.3) and being a leading voice in advocacy, strategy and education on food waste issues.

Find out more about Kiwi Harvest here.

And discover some mind-blowing data about food waste at Love Food Hate Waste