France has become the first country to ban supermarkets from throwing away unsold food. The new law, which was passed, requires supermarkets to donate unsold food to charities and food banks. If supermarkets do not obey the law, they face a $4,000 fine. Each year, France throws away about 7 million tons of food. That is one-fifth of the amount of food bought each year. Along with individual consumers, restaurants and stores add to the food waste.
Other European countries are also making efforts to reduce food waste. In Denmark, a new “waste” supermarket has opened, where customers can buy leftover food at cheaper prices.
Arash Derambarsh is a municipal councilor (市议员) in Paris. He started a petition (请愿书）to the French parliament to adopt the supermarket food waste law. “The situation is very simple,” he said. “On the one hand, we have supermarkets that throw away kilos of unsold food every day. On the other, we have millions of poor people in France.”
Derambarsh published a book called Manifesto Against Waste. In the book, he wrote about his experience as a poor student barely able to pay for rent. “I was hungry and ashamed of admitting it. I wanted to turn it into a positive experience so others would not end up in this situation.” Derambarsh is now campaigning for the European Union to adopt similar supermarket waste laws. He is urging the United States and other countries to adopt such measures, too.
Some people welcome the new law. Louise Saint-Germain is president of a small non-govemmental organization. She said the increase in donation will allow her group to “feed more people and provide a more diversified food basket.’’ But others are worried the law will lead to more donations than they can handle. Aline Chassagnot manages a Salvation Army store. “We simply don’t have the technical and logistical (后勤的) ability to hand out more food to more people. And we’re not the only ones,” she said.
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