Event in connection with new report: Let's talk about food waste

On Friday 27 September 2024, in connection with the annual food waste week, the research project Fighting food waste – navigating values, choices and habits organised an event at the University library in Fiolstræde. 

With the newly published report Let’s talk about food waste as the point of departure, the event consisted of presentations by researchers from University of Copenhagen representing each of the three academic disciplines involved in the project – sociolinguistics, law, and economics – as well as a concluding debate between project participants from Stop Spild Lokalt (non-profit organisation for the prevention of food waste), Forbrugerrådet TÆNK (independent consumer advisory council), Salling Group (largest convenience store group in Denmark) and the University of Copenhagen. The debate was followed by a reception with the opportunity to meet researchers as well as practice partners for a chat about the project and the fight against food waste.

The project's ongoing research shows that when Danes are asked to prioritize the most important reasons to avoid food waste, the climate scores notably low. Camilla Falk Rønne Nissen, one of the authors behind the report that served as the focal point of the event, says 

- Participants say that they strongly agree that the climate is an important reason to reduce food waste. However, when asked to prioritize between different reasons to reduce food waste, it turns out that, surprisingly, climate has a relatively low priority: Only 10 percent choose “I want to protect the climate” as the most important reason, while 27 percent choose “I want to save money” as the most important reason.   

She adds:  

- The study suggests that we may need to approach the problem from a different angle when we want to motivate consumers to reduce food waste at home. We need to have a thorough conversation about what really matters to us if we are to change the habits that lead to food waste. The climate issue motivates some consumers, but not all.  

The research project Fighting food waste - navigating values, choices and habits is funded by the VELUX FOUNDATION (2021-2025) through the HumPraxis program. The project is hosted by the Centre for Internationalisation and Parallel Language Use at the University of Copenhagen and is part of the Fighting Food Waste portfolio at UCPH's Green Solutions Center.  

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