The Taskforce Circular Economy in Food was launched on Thursday 26 January during the National Food Summit in The Hague. Milgro, along with 24 other members, is part of this initiative of Wageningen University & Research, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Alliance for Sustainable Food. The Taskforce's ambition is to prevent and reduce food waste, and to become an international leader in extracting maximum value of its agrifood residual flows.
The organizations behind the task force conclude that the initiatives in the Netherlands are now too fragmented and that forces must be joined to actually bring about change. In doing so, they are responding to the call from the European Court of Auditors to come up with a coherent, ambitious policy with concrete objectives. The task force also wants to contribute to the implementation of the Raw Materials Agreement signed this week.
Laurens Groen, CEO Milgro: “With our expertise and tools in the field of reliable data and comprehensive insight into waste and raw material flows, we want to contribute to the Taskforce's joint ambition to reduce food waste and make optimal use of raw material value. This joining of forces makes it possible to take major steps and put the Netherlands in a leading position internationally in this field. ”
In the second half of 2017, the Taskforce will publish a national strategy and roadmap to jointly achieve a circular economy for food: an economy in which waste does not exist, agrifood residual flows are optimally reused and raw materials retain their value. The roadmap contains concrete goals and actions for the short and long term. The task force also functions as a think tank and source of inspiration, and challenges companies to innovate faster. Actions and best practices, tools and progress reports, and innovative business cases are developed within the Taskforce network. Over the next two years, dozens of actions and projects will be launched and supported.
Companies are welcome to join the initiative as signatory member or supporter. The Taskforce aims for at least 100 active members from the business community in 2018.
