‘The food system is posing one of the key threats to nature today. It uses most of our natural resources, with 69 per cent of our water and 34 per cent of our land,” asserted WWF-Pakistan Director General, Hammad Naqi Khan, on Friday.
He said this while speaking on the first day of the environment-friendly food festival, ReFest, held here at Beach View Park.
He added we do not even eat all the food we produce as around one-third of it is lost in the supply chain or thrown away.
Our goal is to create sustainable food systems that safeguard the variety of life on Earth while ensuring food security, now and in the future, he added.
Khan explained, “To achieve this, WWF works to improve how our food is produced, to change the way we eat, and to ensure food goes in our bodies, not in the bin.”
To discourage single-use plastics and promote sustainable food consumption, WWF-Pakistan and BrandLogics were said to have partnered to organise the country’s first environmentally friendly food festival in the city.
Pak wastes 36 million t food every year, despite shortage faced by 43 % citizens
The event aimed to reduce food waste and raise awareness about eating food in a responsible way on top of adopting sustainable practices, including the usage of paper plates and cups.
WWF believes that if food is produced more sustainably, distributed fairly and consumed more responsibly, humans and planetary health can be improved.
A total of 70 food stalls was set up during the festival, which was thronged by a large number of Karachiites.
The participants not only enjoyed food but also music. The concept behind this event remained to revisit the idea of organising food festivals, reducing food wastage, recycling what we can and reusing creatively.
In an effort to make zero waste to landfills, a number of steps are being taken at the venue. Only eco-friendly cutlery is available during the festival. Single-use plastic containers and straws are discouraged, however, if any food stall uses them they are being collected for recycling.
WWF-Pakistan encourages people to use paper plates and cups as well as aluminium plates and packaging.
Moreover, tickets used during the event were made from recycled paper. To reduce carbon emissions, carpooling is encouraged, and tree plantations will also be carried out after the festival.
As a part of the eco-friendly festival, ReFest teams incentivize consumers to collect bottles at the venue. Further, all waste generated during the event is properly collected and segregated for recycling. The festival also hosted a recycled art exhibition.
Finally, all surplus food not sold at the end of each day at the festival was collected by Robin Hood Army and distributed to less privileged people in the city.
Talking about the festival, WWF-Pakistan Head of Communications and Marketing, Asma Ezdi, noted that we need to increase people’s awareness of where food comes from, and change our behaviours to ensure the proper functioning of our food system. As a part of this festival, WWF-Pakistan, in collaboration with different partners, is also organising clean-up drives across key public places in the city.
“The event will help create awareness about how people can change their ways to eat and reduce plastics that damage our environment and biodiversity,” she added.
BrandLogics CEO, Ali Hassan, said, “Through this partnership with WWF-Pakistan, we are demonstrating our commitment to changing the event management space in the country.”
“The ReFest food festival aims to showcase that it is possible to have fun while being responsible and promote environment-friendly habits in our daily lives,” he maintained.
According to the Global Hunger Index 2016 report, Pakistan was ranked as a country with a serious hunger level.
Approximately 40 per cent of the food in the country is wasted, which amounts to round 36 million tonnes of food wasted per year in the country.
This level of wastage is alarming especially when compared to the 43 per cent of the country’s citizens that remain food insecure while 18 per cent are facing severe shortages.
Furthermore, it is estimated that each year, the world throws away over one trillion plastic bags that kill animals, clog rivers and pollute oceans. A total of 50 billion bottles of water is bought annually and 80 per cent of them end up in landfills. At least eight million tonnes of plastic leaks into the ocean every year. It is estimated that, in Pakistan alone, 80 per cent of the total litter is single-use plastic.
This three-day event will be open to the public at Beach View Park, Clifton till Sunday, April 7.