Metropolitan municipalities of Turkey show support to Save Your Food campaign
Ankara/ Istanbul - FAO held a series of meetings with Ankara and Istanbul Metropolitan Municipalities, pioneers in food waste prevention and reduction. The meetings aimed to expand collaboration with the Municipalities as part of the project: “Reduction of Food Loss and Waste in Central Asia”, which is implemented jointly by FAO and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Turkey.
During the meeting the parties explored issues ranging from strengthening local food value chains to improving food security and preventing and reducing food loss and waste. Both, the Mayor of Ankara Metropolitan Municipality and the Mayor of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality expressed their deep concern about the alarming signs of increasing food insecurity in the world. And while the food produced is enough to feed everyone,each year nearly a third of it is squandered or lost. It is estimated that 18 million tonnes of food is lost or wasted in Turkey annually. As the Mayor of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, Ekrem İmamoğlu, highlighted, the amount of food waste in Istanbul alone equals the number of hungry in some countries.
A considerable work to be done to curb the issue. Viorel Gutu, Subregional Coordinator for Central Asia and FAO Representative in Turkey, noted that actions to tackle these troubling trends would have to be accelerated and scaled up in terms of cross-sectoral and multidiciplinary collaboration. “Under the Save Your Food campaign we are looking to establish strong partnerships to broaden the reach and impact of our efforts in preventing and reducing food loss and waste at local and national level.”
The Municipalities of Ankara and Istanbul committed to support the campaign through the dissemination of relevant messages and informational materials. In addition, the implementation of relevant actions of the National Strategy for Prevention, Reduction and Management of food Losses and Waste in Turkey would be considered.
The national Save Your Food campaign was launched in Turkey by FAO and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry to raise public awareness and understanding of the issue and promote good practices to prevent and reduce food loss and waste.
Funded by the Government of the Republic of Turkey, the project “Reduction of Food Loss and Waste in Central Asia” aims to assist Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan in developing measures to reduce food loss and waste. In particular, the project will support the recipient countries to develop national strategic policy and action plans to reduce FLW; improve knowledge management and capacities; and raise awareness and understanding of food loss and waste among the actors.