The Good News: France is First Country to Mandate Donation of Unsold Food
Last Wednesday, the French Senate voted unanimously in favor of a law that will make it illegal for grocery stores to throw out unsold food.
This has been a long time coming; activists have been working for quite a while to address food insecurity.
The law comes with penalties on grocery stores that attempt to purposefully spoil food early, and also says that stores which are 4,305 square feet or larger sign distribution agreements with charities in their area.
"There's an absolute urgency — charities are desperate for food," Yves Jégo, an assembly center-right deputy, told the Guardian. "The most moving part of this law is that it opens us up to others who are suffering."
I'm sure that there will be people who politicize this new law, but I don't automatically defer everything to politics and government. Personally, I can't see how this is a bad thing - to help our fellow man. Food waste is a gigantic, terribly wasteful problem, and it's refreshing to see somebody stepping up to fix it.