Tristram Stuart is an English writer, food waste campaigner and winner of the international environmental award The Sophie Prize in 2011.

Why we love him

His book Waste, is eye-opening and shocking in its divulgence of just how much perfectly good food is wasted worldwide (apparently up to half!)

His organization, Feeding the 5000, highlights the importance of eating ‘ugly’ vegetables – and not only ones that conform to supermarket standards. It is the less-than-perfect looking fruits and veg that frequently get abandoned and left to rot – in astonishing quantities. Even though they were perfectly good to eat!

In December 2009, he fed thousands of people in central London on rejected food – serving them curries, smoothies and fresh groceries. This idea has since been reproduced in cities worldwide.

In his TED talk (below) he outlines how more and more land (such as vital rain-forests) is being cleared to make space to grow yet more food – food that is then wasted!

Did you know?

– 28% of the land that grows food is for food that is then wasted!

– 10% of rich countries’ greenhouse gas emissions come from growing food that is never eaten.

– UK Households waste 25% of all the food they buy.

– 24 to 35% of school lunches end up in the bin.

– And it’s been reported that between 30 – 50% of all food produced is never eaten. What a waste!

This is a particularly tragic statistic for us in India, with the knowledge that we have the highest rate of death to malnutrition in the world. All this food waste could have saved millions of Indian lives.

We say…

We agree wholeheartedly that the increasing rate that the earth’s forests are being cut down to grow food – that is then not even eaten, is WRONG!

More people should employ AQUAPONICS! Our method of food production takes up hardly any space or energy, food grows super fast, and does require any trees to be cut down.

We are all for cutting down on food waste, but the biggest problem that arises from this is the foolishness of destroying the planet to create food that no one is eating. Even if we continue to waste food on the scale that we do, aquaponics solves this problem.

Learn more

Check out Tristram’s website here.

Buy his book ‘Waste’ on Amazon here.

Watch his TED talk here:

Written by Pippa Woodhead
Being a health-nut, London born Pippa has struggled to adjust to the lack of availability of lettuce and kale since re-locating to India. Previously naive to the extent of the worlds food struggles, she has now become obsessed with sustainability in food production and especially in India where it needs it the most (plus she’s also hoping to get her hands on some kale any day now). When she’s not writing for Aquaponics in India, she is usually found with her head in a book or in the kitchen experimenting with new vegetarian recipes.