2019-11-27
"How are we going to get to kids, families, beloved cooks, all used to abundance, a table full of food, which is common in our culture, and say that a third of all this is being thrown away?", asked the cartoonist and writer Maurício de Sousa during the launch ceremony at Embrapa this Tuesday (26), in Brasilia, of a special edition of the (Monica's Gang) comic book and of a guide for teachers with tips to prevent food waste.
"All we need is creativity and to keep counting on information from Embrapa to introduce the theme in between stories," he said. Mauricio Sousa highlighted the importance of having teachers help raise awareness of the "crime" of food waste "when there are so many who go hungry and after all the research efforts to put quality food on the table of families.”
Speaking to the event's target audience of elementary and high school students, European Union Ambassador to Brazil Ignacio Ybáñez also put a question to the public: "Did you know that to make a piece of bread you need 1000 litres of water? That's a lot of water!".
He explained how food gets from farms to the table of families and spoke about the reuse of leftovers, also suggesting that people should better plan their grocery shopping and take notes of what is being thrown away to understand why that is happening.
"In addition, food rotting in landfills produces a very strong and harmful gas called methane. This means that food waste also damages the environment, even leading to climate change," added the ambassador.
The educational comic book and teacher's guide will be distributed to students and explain the negative impacts of food waste, from the family budget to the environment, and give tips on how to change unwanted habits.
President of Embrap, Celso Moretti, spoke about another important dimension of the "crime" of waste: one third of food production goes to waste, while 1 billion people starve in the world. "Another 3 billion suffer from poor nutrition and obesity due to lack of a balanced diet," he warned. Moretti pointed out that the involvement of children and the youth through education is a way to invest in the future of the country and the planet.
In this sense, WWF Brazil director of ecosystem conservation and restoration, Edegar Oliveira, emphasized the role of communication in this effort with the young public, recalling that "the distribution of publications in public schools will give scale and visibility to the agenda of sustainable food consumption among families, starting from their children".
School Garden Competition
At the event, organized by Embrapa and the European Union Delegation to Brazil as part of a project supported by the Sector Dialogues, the winners of the School Garden Innovation Competition held by the Company were also announced.
Warley Nascimento, head of Embrapa Hortaliças, said that historically the research centre has been fostering initiatives that engage students, aiming to encourage vegetable consumption as a source of fibres, mineral salts and antioxidants. According to him, vegetable consumption needs to triple in Brazil to achieve the levels recommended by the World Health Organization. Among the initiatives under development at Embrapa Hortaliças is the Science Fair: Researchers of the Future, and the School Garden Competition.
Gustavo Chianca, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Assistant, praised the initiative. He believes that the work with school gardens in the country has translated into great progress in the fight against hunger: "That's why the Brazilian experience has been taken by FAO to other Latin American countries," he added.
The School Garden Competition was introduced in the second edition of the fair by inviting schools in the Federal District and the surrounding areas to collaborate with innovative ideas. The action attracted partners like the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and the Delegation of the European Union to Brazil.
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