POLICY BRIEF - TOWARDS AN INCLUSIVE, LOW-CARBON FOOD SURPLUS SECTOR: RECOMMENDATIONS FOR

Put in place the regulatory, • To prioritise food waste prevention, enshrine the food use hierarchy into law fiscal, and enforcement regime and operationalise it through regulatory and fiscal policies that expand funding to operationalise the food use for activities that focus on food waste prevention and disincentivise activities at hierarchy, in accordance with the lower levels of the pyramid. [...] Integrate education on food waste • To capitalise on the opportunities presented by youth activism and reduce the and the social economy into schools burden of knowledge sharing on advocacy organisations, school curricula, and curricula and public awareness public awareness campaigns should incorporate topics related to food waste campaigns across the UK and social business. [...] This accounts potential to both increase measures to prevent food waste for approximately 5% of the UK’s total GHG emissions.4 in the first place and support organisations to employ vulnerable workers to repurpose surplus food that does The food sector is a key part of the economy. [...] 4.1 million people in 2019 (amounting to 13% of total UK The scale of food they move is significant: In 2020, nearly employment).5 In 2019, over half of the jobs in the food 740,000 tons of food surplus from manufacturing, retail and sector were part-time, and women accounted for 56% hospitality, and food service (HaFS) was redistributed by of positions in food retailing.5 It also employs many non. [...] 4 TOWARDS AN INCLUSIVE, LOW-CARBON FOOD SURPLUS SECTOR WHAT IS THE ROLE OF THE SOCIAL ECONOMY AND SOCIAL ENTERPRISE IN DELIVERING A CIRCULAR FOOD ECONOMY AND BETTER JOBS? The social economy is the sector of the economy that includes social enterprises, as well as cooperatives, mutual societies, non-profit associations, and foundations.