Her Royal Highness Princess Marie of Denmark gave a virtual opening speech earlier this week at the Anti-Food Waste conference in Beijing. The conference on food waste is organised by the Danish Embassy in China. The princess recorded her speech at the Danish embassy in Paris where the Princess lives together with Prince Joachim and their two children.
Her Royal Highness attended the conference on the basis of her great and many years of commitment in the fight against food waste, where the Princess has placed special focus on treating food with respect and on the importance of children learning to avoid food waste. The French-born Danish Princess said: “Respect for food does not come by itself. It is our responsibility as adults and as parents to show the next generation, through our own actions, that food must be treated with respect.”
In 2019, Princess Marie gave a interview about food waste to the magazine FEMINA. That year she also published a cookbook to counter food waste.
In her 2019 interview, Her Royal Highness said: “Almost three years ago, I got the idea to create not just a cookbook, but a concrete, useful and inspiring tool to help the Danes not only avoid food waste, but also save money and at the same time help the climate. The book is especially aimed at families with children, because it is those who have the most difficulty in avoiding food waste. It’s easy to use, there’s some really good, useful advice, and then there’s a little reading, it’s not just a cookbook.”
Danish Minister of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries Rasmus Prehn also attended a virtual greeting at the Anti-Food Waste conference in Beijing, which aimed to focus on solutions that can reduce food waste. One of the United Nation’s sustainability goals by 2030 is to halve global food waste and thereby reduce the environmental and climate consequences of food waste.
In China, around 35 million tons of food are lost or wasted annually, equivalent to 6% of China’s total food production. In August 2020, President Xi Jinping required to stop food waste, and stressed enhancing legislation and supervision, taking effective measures, and establishing a long-term mechanism. Reducing food waste will also accelerate to achieve China’s 2060 carbon neutrality pledge.
