Waste not, want not

'That's wonky so that can't go in... That's too big... That's too short, far too short. These are all too small...' Debbie Hammond works on Tattersett Farm in Norfolk, and she is giving the TV chef and food campaigner Hugh Fearnley-WhittingstallIn 2010, the chef's 'Fish Fight' campaign changed EU laws after highlighting the high number of edible fish which were killed and then thrown back into the sea. a tour.

In total, she is forced to throw away 30-40% of her parsnip crop for being 'imperfect' - not bruised or deformed, but not fitting the 'cosmetic standards' of the supermarkets - sometimes by only a few millimetres. That amounts to 40 tonnes of vegetables each week: enough to fill 300 trolleys and feed 100,000 people. This is then multiplied over the 40 or so weeks that parsnips are in season.

Last night, Fearnley-Whittingstall used his new BBC television series Hugh's War on Waste to launch a campaign to reduce the wastage of food by supermarkets and consumers. In total, Britain throws away around 15 million tonnes of food each year, and around half of this is thanks to households over-buying food, or rejecting it as soon as it passes its sell-by date.

The waste is 'catastrophic' in an era when more than one million people relied on food banks last year, said Fearnley-Whittingstall. But he argued that the waste goes beyond food - it also involves wasting the energy resources used to transport and manufacture it, even the land which could be used to grow other crops. We live on a planet of 'limited resources', he said. It is time to produce the same amount of food using less energy.

Supermarkets are becoming more aware of the issue. Over the weekend, MorrisonsWith more than 500 stores around the UK, the supermarket chain said the 'challenge' of the scheme will involve finding the 'right community partners' to work with, as the leftover foods will vary. announced that it would begin donating all of its unsold food to charity. In France, such practice is required by law, after the government banned supermarkets from throwing away edible food as a matter of 'absolute urgency' earlier this year. The same law also bans the retailers from deliberately spoiling unsold food to prevent 'scavengersIn the years running up to the decision, French media had highlighted the plight of poor families who 'foraged' for food disposed of in supermarket bins.' from fishing it out of bins during the night.

It's all well and good criticising supermarkets, said a spokesperson for Morrisons on Radio 4's Today Show yesterday morning. But customers do not buy it - they are looking for the perfect parsnip to adorn their Sunday roast, and they are not interested in something which looks 'wrong'. Until customers embrace the ugly, supermarkets will continue to supply the 'perfect' parsnips which they know will sell.

'Ridiculous!' cry campaigners. Customers cannot buy what isn't there, and many of the vegetables which do not make it into the shops are rejected on the grounds of a few millimetres here and there. In times of food shortages, supermarkets relaxed their guidelines and saw no decline in sales. It is ridiculous not to even give people the choice.