An Environmental Consultant says we have a ‘duty of care’ to cut down on food waste.
Colm Gibson from the Clean Technology Centre, at MTU in Cork is working on a scheme with Kilkenny Leader Partnership to encourage more of us to start a compost heap at home.
Research shows that the average family could saved €700 a year if they use up more of the food they buy.
Speaking on KCLR’s Follow the Leaders programme, Colm said we owe it to our farmer and grower to be more conscious of what we use; “We do have a duty of care, our agricultural industry has an awful lot of meat and dairy but also we produce lots of, say for example, carrots so we’re working in Kilkenny at the moment with Kilkenny Leader Partnership at the moment on a project promoting home composting”.
He adds “So we’re doing that with community groups and we’re also looking at some of the great, sortof, community initiatives around food that are happening in the county so I think we, especially when it comes to Irish produce, I think it’s important that we take care of our food because there’s a whole industry behind it and the more efficient we are, the more resilient that industry will be into the future”.
And he says “We all have a part to play, we can do it every day when it comes to food, don’t despair and do what you can but you have to be aware of the issue first then just take small steps and the other thing as well is we’ll all slip, you might be good this week and next week have a bad week, don’t beat yourself up but that duty of care when it comes to food is crucial”.
