From May 14-17, the city of São Paolo will become host to activists, chefs, musicians, artists, DJs and young food activists. The occasion? The country’s third Disco Soup: a concept invented by the Slow Food Youth Network (SFYN) which sees people come together to highlight the problem of food waste by cooking up a soup from perfectly good vegetables and other products that would otherwise have ended up in the trash, always to the backdrop of music, socializing and a festive atmosphere. Quickly catching on around the world, these events vary slightly according to location. This most recent Disco Soupe for example will use street market leftovers.
Along with the soup, the Disco Xepa event, as it’s called locally, will see four days of film screenings, discussions, music, street art and activism events designed to address issues related to responsible food production and consumption, such as educational workshops on how to fully utilize food while cooking. The goal is to inspire visitors to take conscious action towards responsible food consumption in order to make food waste a thing of the past. Through the mediums of entertainment and awareness, the SFYN in Brazil is hoping to unite the vast number of creative groups focused on the subject of food waste.
Current hunger and food waste statistics are astonishing. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), around 1.3 billion tons of food are discarded annually while there are still millions of people suffering from hunger. Brazil is no different. The country, one of the world’s biggest food producers, discards 26 million tons of food annually while approximately 35% of Brazilian households struggle to put food on the table. Food is wasted from the initial stages of harvesting all the way to the dinner table and at every step in between.
The Disco Xepa Festival hopes to receive funds from its campaign on the Kickante crowdfunding website to reward the team’s work and to produce media material to continue activities to raise awareness. Click here to participate and help fund the campaign.
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