Chefs usually fret over what to serve world leaders at the United Nations, but for this group discussing hunger and climate change, a fitting menu was prepared from food scraps, leftovers, and produce that normally end up at the dump–a “Landfill Lunch” that provided food for thought.
Landfill salad? Eco-friendly menu at high-level working lunch on climate change included dishes made from food waste pic.twitter.com/zSJZF6iG8i
— UN Spokesperson (@UN_Spokesperson) September 27, 2015Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, French President Francois Hollande, and Peruvian President Ollanta Humala were among 30 leaders Sunday who dined on a lunch made entirely from food that would have been thrown away by stores or restaurant.
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Former White House Chef Sam Kass and fellow Chef Dan Barber cooked up the vegetarian spread featuring a salad made out of vegetable scraps, veggie burgers made from leftover pulp from juicing, and a “cocoa husk custard” dessert created with parts of cocoa beans usually discarded when making chocolate.
The meal was designed to call attention the problem of food waste as leaders met for the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit, emphasizing importance of agriculture as an often overlooked aspect of climate change.
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Roughly a billion tons of edible food waste, about a third of the food produced worldwide every year, is discarded — some of it simply because it doesn’t look good on store shelves or on a restaurant’s plates. That wasted food ends up in landfills where it produces greenhouse gases.
“Food production and agriculture contribute as much to climate change as transportation,” Ban told reporters after the lunch.
He said the dinner conversation revolved around ideas to fix climate change and poverty.
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Ban said the consensus among diners was that the UN must “strengthen resilience to climate impacts, with a focus on the poorest and most vulnerable.”
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