Tristram Stuart is an international award-winning author, speaker, campaigner, and expert on the environmental and social impacts of food production. His books, The Bloodless Revolution (2006) and Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal (2009), have been described as “a genuinely revelatory contribution to this history of human ideas” (Daily Telegraph) and his TED talk has been watched over a million times.
The environmental campaigning organisation he founded, Feedback (www.feedbackglobal.org), has spread its work into dozens of countries worldwide, working with governments, international institutions, businesses, non-governmental organisations, grassroots organisations and the public to change society’s attitude toward wasting food. Its campaigns and events include Feeding the 5000, a free public feast using food that would otherwise be wasted; the Pig Idea, which seeks to change laws that restrict food waste being used to feed pigs; and, the Gleaning Network of volunteers that harvest surplus produce that would be left to rot and redistributes to UK charities.
Tristram was also the winner of the international environmental award, The Sophie Prize, in 2011. He is an Ashoka Fellow, a National Geographic Emerging Explorer and a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader.
“I first proposed a 50 percent reduction target for food waste in my book in 2009. It is immensely satisfying that the global outcry against food waste, echoing throughout the supply chain, from farmers down to citizens, has now been amplified and crystallised by the United Nations in the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals. It is ambitious; it will be challenging but achievable; above all else, if we strive to work together, we can make the solutions to this colossal problem delicious and nutritious, helping to feed the world and save the planet in the one swoop.” — Tristam Stuart
Tristram Stuart and Feedback’s Work to Reduce Food Loss and Waste
Tristram Stuart is an international award-winning author, speaker and campaigner on the environmental and social impacts of food production. His books, The Bloodless Revolution (2006) and Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal (2009), have been described as “a genuinely revelatory contribution to this history of human ideas” (Daily Telegraph) and his TED talk has been watched over 1.3 million times.
Tristram was the winner of the international environmental award, The Sophie Prize, in 2011. He is an Ashoka Fellow, a National Geographic Emerging Explorer, a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and a Champion 12.3 for the UN Sustainable Development Goal of halving food waste and reducing food loss globally by 2030.
Tristram founded the environmental campaigning organisation, Feedback, in 2009. Through its various campaigns, it has spread its work worldwide, working with governments, international institutions, businesses, non-governmental organisations, grassroots organisations and the public to change society’s attitude toward wasting food.
- Feeding the 5000, Feedback’s flagship campaign, is a free public feast cooked by top chefs using food that would otherwise be wasted from farms, retailers and restaurants. The events have fed people at 38 events in 19 countries in every continent except Antarctica! Approximately 172,000 have attended events and millions more have been engaged through surrounding media.
- The Pig Idea is working to change EU laws that restrict food waste being fed to livestock and is encouraging legally permissible waste food that is not suitable for human consumption to be used as pig feed. Feedback has galvanised support from key academics in the UK and the US, got government bodies to research the issue in detail and produce more adequate guidance for the food and feed industry, and ensured that kitchen left-overs are in the mix of solutions proposed by environmental NGOs concerned with the impact of our meat-based diets.
- The Gleaning Network salvages produce from farms that would otherwise be wasted and redistributes to food poverty charities. Between 2012 and 2015, 188 tonnes were harvested by over 1,000 volunteers across the UK.
- Feedback’s Stop Dumping campaign investigates the supply chains of some of Europe’s leading retailers and uses the shocking results to campaign against unfair trading agreements and strict cosmetic specifications. The campaign has succeeded in changing policies, such as the unnecessarily wasteful topping and tailing of green beans, and raising awareness through high profile TV campaigns with celebrity chefs Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Jamie Oliver.
- The Food Surplus Entrepreneurs Network supports food waste entrepreneurs and aspiring innovators by giving them visibility, opportunities for exchange and learning, and by facilitating collaborations.
In 2016, Tristram launched Toast Ale, a beer made with surplus fresh bread that would otherwise be wasted that donates all profits go to Feedback. As at August 2016, over a tonne of bread has been saved in brewing 11,000 litres of beer. Toast ale is in the process of setting up a U.S. company, and a series of franchises around the world.Contact Tristram at http://www.tristramstuart.co.uk and on Twitter @tristramstuart