Stop Wasting Food (Danish : Stop Spild af Mad) is a Danish consumer organization that works for the reduction of food waste in society. It was established in 2008 by Selina Juul, who acts as the movement's day-to-day leader and spokesperson. The organization is run by volunteers and does not count on a permanent membership. [1]
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in Denmark and in the region of Southern Schleswig in northern Germany, where it has minority language status. Also, minor Danish-speaking communities are found in Norway, Sweden, Spain, the United States, Canada, Brazil, and Argentina. Due to immigration and language shift in urban areas, around 15–20% of the population of Greenland speak Danish as their first language.
Denmark, officially the Kingdom of Denmark, is a Nordic country and the southernmost of the Scandinavian nations. Denmark lies southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and is bordered to the south by Germany. The Kingdom of Denmark also comprises two autonomous constituent countries in the North Atlantic Ocean: the Faroe Islands and Greenland. Denmark proper consists of a peninsula, Jutland, and an archipelago of 443 named islands, with the largest being Zealand, Funen and the North Jutlandic Island. The islands are characterised by flat, arable land and sandy coasts, low elevation and a temperate climate. Denmark has a total area of 42,924 km2 (16,573 sq mi), land area of 42,394 km2 (16,368 sq mi), and the total area including Greenland and the Faroe Islands is 2,210,579 km2 (853,509 sq mi), and a population of 5.8 million.
Consumer organizations are advocacy groups that seek to protect people from corporate abuse like unsafe products, predatory lending, false advertising, astroturfing and pollution.
The goal of Stop Wasting Food is to spread the message that it is economically irresponsible to dispose of edible food at any point in the food-production chain, from producers to shops and restaurants to homes. [2] The Danish Agriculture and Food Council has estimated that Denmark wastes over 700,000 tons of food annually, at a cost of DKK 11.6 billion. [3]
Stop Wasting Food, and its spokesperson Selina Juul, has received support from Danish politicians such as Eva Kjer Hansen, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, Ritt Bjerregaard, Connie Hedegaard, Bertel Haarder, Frank Jensen, Dan Jørgensen, Karen Ellemann, Henrik Høegh and Kirsten Brosbøl, as well as food industry figures such as Rema 1000 [4] and Coop Danmark. [5]
Eva Kjer Hansen is a Danish politician. She was the Danish Minister for Food, Agriculture and Fisheries as member of the Cabinet of Anders Fogh Rasmussen II, III and the Lars Løkke Rasmussen I Cabinet from 12 September 2007 until 23 February 2010, and she was Social Minister and Minister for Women's Rights from 2 August 2004 to 12 September 2007, as member of the Cabinet of Anders Fogh Rasmussen I and II. As part of the Lars Løkke Rasmussen II Cabinet she was Minister for Food, Agriculture and Fisheries from 28 June 2015 until 29 February 2016. She has been Minister for Gender Equality and Nordic Cooperation since 2 May 2018.
Poul Oluf Nyrup Rasmussen, was Prime Minister of Denmark from 25 January 1993 to 27 November 2001 and President of the Party of European Socialists (PES) from 2004 to 2011. He was the leader of the governing Social Democrats from 1992 to 2002. He was a member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2009.
Ritt Bjerregaard is a former Danish politician. She is a member of the Danish Social Democrats, and was Lord Mayor of Copenhagen from 1 January 2006 to 2010.
In part due to the Stop Wasting Food movement, Denmark was able to reduce its food waste by 25% in the five-year period of 2010–2015. [6] [7] [8] [9]
