Thank you, Chair.
Thank you for coming today to be our witness.
My parents were brought up in Europe during the war and they also had the Depression, so they always instilled in us that we weren't wasting any food, with us being farmers. But sometimes when you have societies that are well off compared to others you see this waste, and I guess there are many reasons why we have waste. You alluded to some of them even in the grocery supply chain, when they have these loss leaders and the large proportions and sizes.
Everybody has a bit of responsibility here, from the farmer all the way to the children sitting around the table, to eliminate some of the waste.
It's hard to regulate the food industry, especially at the retail level, to change their sizes. Maybe in packaging it would be good to try to entice these companies to have smaller packages. A lot of families are smaller, and there are seniors and just individuals in the household. I think that is a market-driven process, and packaging, of course, is important.
But how can we do more education on the consumer side? We often talk in the produce industry of the supply chain, the cold chain we call it, where you maintain the right temperature all the way through but then all of a sudden a consumer gets the groceries in a plastic bag and they are sitting in a warm car and then the fridge is not working right in the summer. All of sudden, there is a big gap. I think a promotion, starting in the schools and all the way through, about the waste of food...but how do we do that?
Are there any other countries you know of that promote that at the consumer level, at the household level? Even with transporting the groceries from the retailer right to the home, there is a loss right there. Are there any other countries doing programs to promote that? What could we be doing in this country?