After his successful campaign against food waste. Arash Derambarsh, a local councilor of the Paris commune of Courbevoie local councilor led to a new law, making it illegal for French supermarkets NOT to donate unwanted edible food. He wants a similar regulation to be adopted worldwide.
Arash started a petition against food waste that garnered 200,000 signatures in just four months. The councilor is persuading French MPs to follow the legislation.
The amendment of the law was approved. Last week, The "Loi Macron", unanimously submitted by the National Assembly, forcing supermarkets to donate to charity,food that are close to "best before dates" or those to be turned as animal feed.
Mr. Derambarsh said, it was "scandalous and absurd" that food is wasted. The 35 year old councilor also believed that in some cases, unsold food deliberately gets spoiled while the homeless, poor and unemployed go hungry.
Derambarsh told the Guardian "Food is the basis of life, it is an elementary factor in our existence." Now, the councilor wants the world to adopt the law.
The councilor became a public servant with the advocacy of coming up with regulations that will uplift the plight of the needy.He after all knows the ordeal of going through the day with an empty stomach.
"When I was a law student living on about €400 a month after I'd paid my rent, I used to have one proper meal a day around 5pm. I'd eat pasta, or potatoes, but it's hard to study or work if you are hungry and always thinking about where the next meal will come from," the councilor claims.
Derambarsh is working with "The One", founded by the famous lead singer Bono from U2. They want to take the issue later this year to United Nation. The organization's main goal is to stop poverty.
Estimated by France, 7.1m tonnes of food wasted in France each year, 67% is binnned by consumers, 15% of restaurants and 11% of shops. Each year 1.3bn tonnes of food are wasted worldwide.
