We Have the Power

Avoid food waste, address food poverty
'The WI calls on all supermarkets to sign up to a voluntary agreement to avoid food waste, thereby passing surplus food on to charities thus helping to address the issue of increasing food poverty in the UK.' 

Voluntary;  Given, or acting of one's own free will. This can be changed at any time.
Mandatory;  Required by law or mandate; compulsory. This is law.

Your email stated that you felt that changing the words would inherently alter the meaning of the resolution, but wasn't that the point?

The request from Audlem members came about after long discussions within our group (over 50 members were present) and we voted unanimously against the resolution in its present form since it was felt it did no more than re-state what is in fact the present situation. 

All the supporting evidence shows that a large number of supermarkets and suppliers have already signed up to avoiding food waste, (including Morrisons, Aldi, The Co-op, Lidl, M&S, Asda, Sainsbury's, and Waitrose) and have pledged to drive down food and drink waste by a fifth within the next decade.

'Fareshare,' and 'Courtauld 2025' were contributing in a variety of other ways.
   
One of your own arguments against our suggested amendment states that;

"The WI has already undertaken significant work on food waste. Additionally, while national work on food poverty has not been possible due to a lack of mandate, (my Italics) a number of WI's have been working locally to support Food Banks." This seems to argue that a mandate is required.

Audlem WI, and I am sure, many other groups strongly believe that a national mandate is not only necessary, but we demand that the WI organisation takes steps to ensure the Government is aware of our strength of feelings – 'voluntary' just does not indicate this.

The Labour MP Diane Abbott has already tabled a motion calling on the government to introduce legislation which would ban supermarkets from throwing away food that is approaching its best before date, and instead make it available to charities.

You indicate on your web site that the WI believes if the motion is passed that the resolution will become mandatory, but where is the solid evidence to support this? 

Nevertheless, if the wording had been changed, the resolution would be intrinsically more effective thereby challenging our Government to legalise food waste – as France has done – and as our WI members nationally have embraced a diverse set of challenges and built a reputation for the WI as a practical and ambitious organisation that doesn't shy away from tricky issues, we felt that this was an area of such great importance that we should stand firm.