UN serves lunch made from food waste to 30 world leaders

In a lesson on practicing what they preach, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon served lunch made from food waste - like “Landfill Salad” - to about 30 world leaders here for the global summit on sustainable development agenda.

The vegetarian menu on Sunday was designed to dramatise the fact that more than a third of all produced is wasted even as the UN launches an ambitious agenda to end hunger and protect the environment.

“Our lunch was produced from food that would otherwise end up in landfills, emitting methane, a potent greenhouse gas,” Ban told reporters.

French President Francois Hollande was among the guests, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was away in California, was not there.

“Food production and agriculture contribute as much to climate change as transportation,” Ban said.

“Yet more than a third of all food produced worldwide - over one billion tonnes of edible food each year - goes to waste. That is shameful when so many people suffer from hunger.” The “Landfill Salad” was made from unwanted vegetable scraps, stalks and outer leaves salvaged from the waste of big food producers, and liquid drained from a can of chickpeas.