FOOD WASTE IN ITALY

Food waste it’s well known to be one of the greatest problems the countries in the world have
to live with, especially the richest ones.
But why only in the last 30 years did it become such a serious problem? Well, the answer is
because of globalization that led to problems like food waste, hence obesity and air pollution.
This problem is becoming more serious especially in the more developed countries, like the
United States or our country, Italy.
We, Italians, are known worldwide for our delicious food and we consider it as one of the
“pleasures of life”, however, an Italian citizen waste an average of 100kg of food every year,
which makes us one of the greatest food wasters in the world.
So, what are we supposed to do? Give up our traditional dishes or a nice dinner out with
friends? Of course not! 
But, if we learn how to manage the quantities of food and not to abound, we will decrease the
kg wasted per year and eventually, almost get rid of it.

To achieve this goal, we are proposing a law against food waste, and our aims are:
promoting the donation of food for charitable purposes, using firstly for human consumption,
then for animal consumption and finally for composting.On this point, the purposes are noble,
because we want to promote charity for the ones in need, which is always a good cause.
Actually, we politicians followed the example of France but, unlike them, in our law tax
benefits are also provided, because we have not foreseen penalties for those who do not want to
donate their food, unlike the French.
At this point, you may think: ok, these are good solutions, but what if I don’t want to donate or
I am unable to donate food?
Well, the other solutions we thought about of are actually pretty simple and, unfortunately, we
rarely think about them.
These are the reuse and recycle of left-overs by eating them at dinner or take home leftovers
from the restaurant when we don't finish.
I personally feel that if we want to make a real change, we should integrate these actions in our
routine by making them habits.
Of course, next to these, we politicians ask for the help of the restaurants to improve the food
chain efficiency but, most of all, the awareness of customers on this problem that is food waste
and hence, promote sustainable consumption with the use of local and simple products.
In conclusion, I think that if we all want to defeat this giant problem that has become food
waste, we have to start somewhere and take little steps and do it together, because unity is
strength.