Germans throw away ~ 11 million tons of food per year while people in other countries die of starvation

And above all, this food took a lot of energy to produce, and that contributes considerably to global warming.

Basically Germans have access to food and also the quality of food is highly controlled (for example through the Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety, BVL), so there is no real food security challenge. Therefore I was surprised that the German agents often talked about “Die Tafel” in this mission. Ok… no doubt… “Die Tafel” and its idea to collect food and distribute it to poor people is great, but it was founded 1993… almost 20 years ago! And besides, if you complain about food shortage in Germany, have a look at the global hunger map ( global hunger map)

I think we should focus on accepting our responsibility for developing countries and collaborate with them through shared knowledge about innovative methods and technologies which could help to build self-reliance in their food industry. Nevertheless there are still some points which could be improved in Germany: health education, misleading food labels, misleading nutrition information and the surplus production of food.

 
According to a study on food waste (article about it):
Germans throw away almost 11 million tons of food per year, whereas 61 percent of this comes from private households. 65 percent of this food waste could be either partially or completely avoided. Germany-wide, the avoidable waste costs up to € 21.6 billion per year. The most common foods to end up in the bin are fruit and vegetables – they make up 44 percent of all avoidable food waste in private households.



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It’s hard to change an
affluent, throw-away society and I can’t see any long-term solution for this problem besides changing consumer habits and their awareness of the problem and the value of food.

I think Valentin Thurn, whose film "Taste the Waste" explores the topic of food waste, is right with this statement:
"The real solution is not in finding a way to distribute the excess; it's in preventing the excess," he says, adding that supermarkets would improve efficiency if they reduced the prices of products shortly before the expiry date and refrained from placing new stock on the shelves in the evening. […] "But the fear of losing customers is so great that supermarkets would rather throw away food items worth millions than risk disappointing people." (article with the interview )

Trailer "Taste the Waste": Youtube Video

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At the moment he tries to established a "Foodsharing" platform together with Sebastian Engbrocks and with the help of a crowdfunding platform: http://www.startnext.de/en/foodsharing

"Foodsharing" will be a platform on which you can share your food with others.

Trailer which explains the idea: (unfortunatelly only in german)