#WASTENOT

I was watching a documentary about food waste and by the end of it I was quite upset about the amount of unnecessary food waste we, as a country, have.

One of the things that I learnt was that tonnes and tonnes of fresh produce is rejected by supermarkets because it doesn't fit the cosmetic bill that supermarkets say customers are looking for. Due to this farmers who have spent time, energy, resources and rely on this income, have no choice but to throw perfectly edible food away. We're not talking a few boxes full we are talking hundreds and thousands of shopping trolleys full in just a week.

This really pains me, when we think about all those families who are really struggling to put food on the table for their children and loved ones, all the people who have to make massive sacrifices or go hungry just because the supermarkets won't sell a wonky carrot and so it is binned.

This is a hard one to tackle as it has become so normal for big companies to do this and because we as consumers don't have a direct connection with the people who grow our food, it feels like there's little we can do...I mean why would a multi-million or even a multi-billion pound company be bothered what the average layman has to say...what little old me has to say?

But I have a business plan...the plan probably isn't for me right now..but perhaps someday. Or maybe someone can use my idea to do something that will help us to waste less and help put food on more peoples' tables at a reasonably cheap cost.

People should get in touch with the farmers who have to throw away all this produce. They should then buy it off them at a reasonably cheap price and then go on to sell this to the public at less than supermarket prices. Initially they could perhaps sell on market stalls. Market stalls are inexpensive to hire out and every ones got to eat so food would sell. All you would need is a place to store the food and a van to transport it. Anything you can't sell can be donated to a local shelter.

That is my very simple plan...which has no copyright...we need to do this and we need to do it quickly. I'm sure I've over-simplified it but this squandering of our food supply can not and must not go on and maybe, just maybe once supermarkets have a drop in profits because of this, they'll decide a wonky carrot isn't such a bad thing after all.

#WASTENOT