Thematic area: Climate, Environment and Energy. Sector: Sustainable Food Systems

No Food Waste: Youth, sustainable comsuption & contributing to fighting climate change

Partners:    Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation  /    Directorate-General for the Environment.  

Year: 2019

Project Overview:

This follow-up project aims to give sequence of the initiatives carried out by the project “Food waste reduction campaign” (AGRI0121), conducted between 2017 and 2019. In the first project, among other actions, a national survey was conducted with 1.760 Brazilian families about food consumption habits. The survey was made possible due to the support of national partners and the EU. 

Based on the outcomes of the survey, a communication strategy about food waste and sustainable consumption will be focused on students from elementary and high school levels of Brazilian public schools. In order to be aligned with the actions and activities address by the EU during the Climate Diplomacy Week, this project is enclosed within the Environmental Dimension of Sustainable Development Dialogue. 

To enhance the impacts on the current project, it is foreseen to involve several research units from Embrapa, located in the North, Northeast and Midwest regions of Brazil, and in the interaction with young students on the broad theme of sustainable consumption and healthy eating. It is expected to hold three face-to-face field days to launch this initiative in three Embrapa units, being one in the Northeast region (Embrapa Coastal Tablelands, Aracaju-SE), one in the Midwest region (Embrapa Vegetables, Brasilia –DF) and one in the North region (Embrapa Acre, Rio Branco -AC). The topic “food losses and waste” will be included in activities with students, and in the final phase they will have mentorship sessions conducted by the Brazilian and European teams.

Apart from the engagement of Embrapa units, WWF Brazil will be involved in this initiative and will be responsible for hiring, financing, briefing and following up with the media agency that will create content to be regularly posted on the #SemDesperdicio (#NoWaste) platform and social media, as well as for reaching out and engaging social media influencers through approaches such as workshops and a field trip. In addition, the costs associated to the event at Embrapa Acre unit will be funded by WWF.

Besides, a partnership with “Instituto Mauricio de Sousa” will be set up so as to produce educational materials with characters well known by the target audience. A special edition of the comic books “Turma da Mônica” will be tailored to young students to help them comprehend the food waste problem and adopt environmentally and socially responsible behaviour. 

Furthermore, teachers will also be involved and given a guide with suggestions for extra-class activities related to the topic. The guide will be produced by the institution Comida & Cultura, under the content supervision of Embrapa and WWF. Both the comic books and the guide will be printed and will also be available for free download on the website semdesperdicio.org and the Embrapa website. 

Annexes:

News: