Tomio Kobayashi, a professor at Japan Women’s University and scholar on food system theory. He was referring to a trial project vy the Consumer Affairs Agency in FY2025 to offer convenience store food that is still edible but no longer sellable, free of charge to those who cannot afford to buy amid rising prices.
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We can expect it to do well as a system to provide food assistance to those in need while at the same time reducing food loss.
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JeffLee
Seems a like a collusal waste for a combini to offer edible food and not sell it. Why don't they introduce knocked-down clearance prices instead of throwing it away? I expect that would do a lot more help the poor as well as fix the food waste problem, given that this project is only a trial.
MarkX
Eons ago when I was a university student, I had a job at good old K-Mart as a stock clerk. I remember on Halloween night we had to start to put away the unsold Halloween candy, and there was also lots of breakage, bags dropped and opened etc. We put all the candy into a box, as it couldn't be sold or returned. I said to the manager why don't we put it in the entrance and let people take some for free as they leave. His response, "if we do that, then they will just wait for free stuff and not buy anything". We workers could take what we wanted and then destroyed the rest. I will always remember what he said!