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Welcome back to Season Six of Happy Porch Radio. 

Today, we are joined by Julia Venn from Bii, a social enterprise which fights against food waste, and food insecurity by helping businesses repurpose their own food in order to help people in need.

We talk to Julia about the importance of distinguishing between contexts across Africa’s diverse countries, and how she came to leave Germany to co-found Bii Mauritius, Morocco, Ivory Coast, and Madagascar. 

She unpacks the important work that Bii does and how it ties in with the circular economy, and shares the powerful insight that we can’t talk about Africa in the homogenous way we do about Europe.

You’ll also hear about her experience navigating cultural differences, and why she believes that there is something to be learned from each culture, even if they don’t use the same terminology.

We hope you tune in today to hear all this and more!

Julia Venn

 

Julia Venn is German, multilingual and a social entrepreneur in food with a focus on the African market. 

As food waste warrior, she co-founded ManzerPartazer, Anakao, FoodWise and Sustainable Food Solutions that are fighting food waste, food insecurity and malnutrition in Mauritius, Madagascar, Ivory Coast and Morocco.

She also has experiences in CSR management for corporates, as well as in project development and management of sustainable solutions tackling problems such as plastic waste or air pollution.

 In addition, she is engaged in several associations and civil society groups promoting sustainability, green economy and entrepreneurship where she took important board roles.

Listen to the episode

Tune in to find out:

 

  • An introduction to today’s guest, Julia Venn, co-founder of Bii(Foodwise).

  • The importance of distinguishing between contexts in Africa’s diverse countries.

  • Work Julia put into co-founding Bii(Foodwise) in Mauritius, Morocco, Ivory Coast, and Madagascar.

  • How Bii connects the food industry, eg. supermarkets, to food receivers. 

  • What is meant by ‘food receivers’: charities taking care of children in need.

  • Food transporters as the third party working with them: for example, delivery services.

  • How Bii embodies the circular economy by connecting the surplus food from the food donor to the food receiver without creating additional carbon or costs.

  • The story of how Julia co-founded Bii(Foodwise), starting with reaching out to global NGOs.

  • Why we can’t approach conversations about Africa in the same way we talk about Europe.

  • Food waste is an equally important topic of conversation in Africa as food loss.

  • Navigating cultural differences in approach to recycling, excess, and waste. 

  • How, in Madagascar, recycling is ingrained into everyday life due to limited resources.

  • We learn a lot from every culture, for example, most cultures have zero-waste recipes.

  • The work Bii does to mitigate food waste and how it differs between countries.

  • What the ultimate goal of Bii is: to get surplus food onto the plate of a child without extra costs.

  • Challenges Bii faces: digitizing its system and introducing tech innovation. 

  • The other side of Happy Porch Radio, Too Good to Go.

  • Bii’s efforts to optimise the system so that it works without the founders.

  • What their larger focus is: developing sustainable food systems where less, better quality food is produced, which respects the environment, is waste-free, and accessible to all.

  • Food transformation as a new focus, turning food loss into value-added produce.

  • How food waste equates to money, energy, human resources, labor, water, and land wasted.

  • And much more!

[00:00:04] BO: Hello, and welcome back to Happy Porch Radio, Season 6. In this season, we're talking about the circular economy across the continent of Africa. Today, I'm delighted to be joined by Julia Venn, who is the Co-Founder of Bii(FoodWise). Bii (FoodWise) fights against food waste, and food insecurity by helping businesses repurpose their own sold food in order to help people in need. I really enjoyed the conversation with Julia today. There were several things that stood out for me. One of them we were talking about just there, is how clearly Julia was able to talk about the differences that we can't treat the continent of Africa as one. It’s not homogeneous.

[00:00:48] ES: Yeah, of course. It's such a huge place. Yeah, Julia talks about how she works across different countries in Africa, in really different contexts. I think that that is something that we can't really highlight enough to say that we talk about African context. That's just so weird to say, because there is no such thing as one African context. That's, obviously, really important to bear in mind all the time when we're talking about this.

As well, Julia coming from European background, and then now working in different countries across Africa. She has a specific lens on this as well that some of our other guests, who are born and raised in the region where they are now working have a different view of it, too. There's all these different important things to note, when we're thinking about the conversations that we have together on this season.

[00:01:49] BO: Yeah, that's it. Exactly. The story of Bii itself and Julia's work is also where I was thinking as she was talking in our discussion, how perfectly she picks out what I think some of the – she demonstrates, how perfectly she demonstrates some of the key things that I think are important for circular thinking, circular, circular economy. Looking at the system as a whole, and not making things more complicated than they need to be, end up causing problems when you're trying to causing problems, when you're trying to solve one problem. Really getting involved with people and the social aspect, as well as the material flows, in this case, food. I just thought it was really brilliant.

[00:02:31] ES: Yeah. I was really impressed by that as well, the complete from start to finish, we are working in a system. How is that system affected by the fact that we're inserting ourselves into it? How can we do that in a way that is impactful positively and not negatively? I was really impressed by that, too.

[00:02:51] BO: Without further ado, let's meet Julia.

 

[00:03:00] JV: Thanks for inviting me and for being interested in Bii. Yeah, my name is Julia. I'm German. This is where the accent is coming from. I'm currently based in Ivory Coast, and co-created Bii(FoodWise) in Mauritius Island, in Morocco, in Ivory Coast, and in Madagascar.

[00:03:20] BO: Awesome. Thank you so much. Welcome to Happy Porch Radio.

[00:03:22] JV: Thank you.

[00:03:23] BO: I'm interested in your own story about how you ended up in these countries doing this work. Let's start at the beginning. I guess, what exactly for the listener, can you say what exactly is Bii? What do you do?

[00:03:38] JV: Bii is a social enterprise fighting food waste and food insecurities for children. Basically, what we're doing is we connect the food industry, which means for example, supermarkets, restaurants, suppliers, but also cooperatives of agricultures with what we so called food receivers. Food receivers are the charities taking care of children need. This could be an orphanage, an NGO, or daycare center. The third-party working with us is Food Transporter, so delivery services and other.

Basically, what we're doing is we really, really inside the circular economy, using the most of the resources of these three actors by connecting the surplus food from the food donor to the food receiver without creating additional carbon, and without creating additional costs.

[00:04:36] BO: One of my favorite parts on your website, you have these big numbers of kilograms of food served, meals distributed, two and a half million is that? It looks like, I can't imagine, I mean, it's such a big impact in the work you're doing. Can you tell us a little bit about, or I'm really interested in anyway, in the history of where did it start? How did you end up in a position where you're co-creating, as you just said, this social enterprise into three different countries?

[00:05:06] JV: Well, it wasn't planned. Actually, I left my country after studies in order to do a voluntary year, with a vision to go to three countries, to three different NGOs, the developing world. Basically, I didn't had anything secured one month before I wanted to leave. I actually sent standard mail to the whole world, changing the name of the NGO and the name of the responsible person. It's like this, that I ended up in Mauritius, because they were really quick in answering me. Two weeks later, I arrived there and I told myself, “Okay, I will stay two and a half months, and then I would go back.” Would go to the next country.

Actually, when I was there, I started because I was working for a food sharing organization in Germany before, because I got really interested into the subject back at home through my mom. When I was in Mauritius, I finally ended up staying a year, and then going to Madagascar and Ivory Coast and so on. Because I just started to knock on the doors of hotels, of NGOs, even as ministries and yeah, and this little by little, the project created. At the time, it was under another name, and with another co-founder. Yeah, it has been already six years now. First version of Bii was six years ago.

[00:06:47] BO: There's so many things in a story, like you just shared there. Was it difficult at the start? You talked about literally going around and knocking on doors? Was it difficult? Or did you feel you were pushing uphill, or did you always feel like this is going to work? There's going to be something here?

[00:07:04] JV: I think, I was always thinking this will going to be worked one day. I think, it's the first thing when you start a project, you need to be convinced at least yourself, because this will never work out. There were definitely a lot of obstacles. For example, in Mauritius, I remember at the time, the government was saying that there is no poverty, that there is no food waste, because they were positioning themselves as a paradise island for luxury tourism part. Yeah, it didn't work out in the picture.

Today, actually did change a lot. I think, we were one of the organization planting the first seeds to go in this direction. Because today, they are really into circular economy, that even with the team and food waste in Mauritius that you've been working on anti-food waste laws, and so on. I think, it's always complicated in the – also, in the other countries where I grew up project, like in Madagascar, we were often the first into the field of food waste, because in Europe, food waste is really a subject, which is well-known in America as well.

I think in Africa, we don't talk about food waste, because there's unfortunately, still an image of, “Oh, yeah. Poor Africa. We should help,” which is not true. Basically, first we can’t talk about Africa, like we can talk about Europe. There are so many different countries and different cultures. Secondly, it's a really rich continent with so many dynamics going on. You have also luxury. You also have hotels. You also have supermarkets. You also have a good income society. You also have waste, because many, we talk in Africa about food loss, which is more on the cost records, so the agricultural part of the food supply chain. There's actually, also this food waste that people didn't talk about. I think, this is what made it really difficult for us to actually start the project, because you need to do this whole campaign about sensitizing people about the subject, which seems so innovative for the countries where we were. At the same time, it is not because it's existing elsewhere. I think, this was the biggest challenge to launch it.

[00:09:26] ES: Yeah, that's such an interesting story, Julia. Thank you for sharing that. Especially, what struck me as you said at the beginning, that originally in Mauritius, you were having trouble getting the idea to take off, because they were – I guess, authorities. I don't really know who was telling that story, but the story was that there are a luxury location for holidaymakers. That food waste and poverty, which is not a thing.

It's so interesting that there was this complete, I guess, denial of the problem, really. Then as you went on to say that, culturally, it's quite a difficult switch to make, because in certain regions, there is a real lack of food. Then, the idea there’s food waste as well, is actually quite a difficult thing to swallow. I'm interested to know, Julia, coming from Germany, as you say, and working in that different context, how did you approach that? What was your process there?

[00:10:37] JV: Sorry. I'm not sure if I get the question. How did I approached what this difficulty and that the politics weren't ready, or cultural-wise?

[00:10:46] ES: I think, culturally, I'm just really interested in this. I have grown up in Europe. I've lived my whole life in Europe. I have always understood that waste is a big part of our system. Waste in many different forms. The idea that we would deny that seems, I don’t know, almost impossible in some ways, from where I stand in my context. I'm just really interested to hear more about your journey of yeah, getting into that more in a different context, and I suppose,what you learned, and how you dealt with that.

[00:11:27] JV: Okay, thanks. Now I get it. I think, it depends also, on every country where I've been. For example, Madagascar, which is one of the first poorest country in the world. Basically, recycling is something which maybe the word is not often used, but it's so deeply, culturally rooted, because there are so many things which are not on access. Through another capitalistic society, so there's actually a lot of recycling being done on every corner of the streets.

For example, the plastic bottles are collected informally, to reuse for other purposes, to resell other kinds of products. Same for plastic bags, and so on. Then, you have other cultures like, now where I'm in Ivory Coast, which is really developed country. Waste can also happening on a consumer level, because there's a really rich society, and it's a new rich society, so we're not sensitised a lot about waste, as we are, for example, in Europe, where we already have passed this stage of development, or in Madagascar, where we know the importance of every grain of rice, because all the grain of rice of every family is the rice agriculture.

Every society is different, and so is the waste, which we have in the state of sensitization. Also, regarding the work of Bii, which changes is, for example, in Mauritius, we started a lot with hotels. Then, when I launched a project in Madagascar, I was starting to work more on supermarkets and on groceries, because I realised that there are no those huge luxury hotels with the buffets and the all-inclusive concept. It's not existing, because tourism is not that developed then in Mauritius.

Then coming to Abidjan, and Ivory Coast, I realised that even restaurants and even bakeries, they are so huge bakeries that even they can be really interesting for the project. Then, my colleague who developed the project in Morocco also sees the same tourism site in Mauritius, combined with the grocery market, which is also interesting. I think, every economy, every population, has the key actors in the food industry work with us, where we have to focus on, where we see what most waste generating.

Then, the state of sensitization can be really different in every culture. Also, we learn a lot from every culture. Often, there are recipes, for example, in every country, which already practice the zero-waste kitchen, where things are reused. It's just not named like it. It's really interesting also to share between the different cultures we work with. Yeah, the aim is really in, which is one of our values, a lot of sharing and understanding, learning, and yeah, trying to make the best of what is already existing on our planet.

[00:14:38] ES: Thank you, Julia. Yeah, that's something that Barry and I have come across a little bit in this season is this idea that something that we might see as a new trend in the UK, or growing, yeah, growing industry of circularity and recycling, or zero-waste as you say, in a lot of places across Africa, but not just across Africa and many other parts of the world, it's just a way of life, because it's a necessary use of resources.

There isn't that more wasteful mindset, that more hyper-consumerist society that we live in, is based around. I love this idea that you're just finding wherever the food waste is. You said in different countries, you're finding that it's linked to the tourism industry, whether that's through luxury hotels, or whatever. In some places, it's linked more to supermarkets and bakeries, and things. Could you tell us a bit more? Like, maybe give us an example of in one of these places of what Bii actually does and how it helps to mitigate the food waste problem?

[00:16:02] JV: Good question. Yeah, I think I didn't really explain what we do. I said just the subject we're working on. Basically, I can start, for example, with the food business, like a hotel room wants to join the movement and reduce food waste via food distribution. Once we did the onboarding part, so all the legal documents, all the food safety documents and so on, we will look for a charity which is in their area, and which I see fit to the food donor, regarding, for example, the quantity of food that is enough for the number of beneficiaries and one advantage, or the type of food.

If the children are really young, we should not connect them, for example, to a hotel, because the food will be really diverse. Maybe that will be spices, and so on. The same for if there are products which must be refrigerated, so we need to check on the NGO’s capacity to actually store this food correctly. Then there can be also other reasons, like religion, or allergies to not receive certain foods.

When we found a perfect match between a food donor and the food receiver, then we also look into the food transporter. A food transporter can be either transport company, like DHL, which supports us a lot in Madagascar. It can be also a delivery company like global that we're working here in in Abidjan with. It can also be a supplier of the food donor itself. Imagine a hotel that gets food delivered from a local grocery. When they actually deliver the food, they have a free space in the vehicle. We coordinate before at what date, what time and who's in charge of to actually get the surplus food that has been stored in the meantime, so that the foot transporter can pick it up.

We look here also in advance into the daily routing. How we say this? Just the day the routes here, the pickup routes that they have. Often, the suppliers have to deliver several hotels, or several supermarkets, so we can check if there are advantages, in a financial, or non-NGOs, or school, which is on their way. Then, there's no really costs included in picking it up and delivering it to the NGO.

Neither there's extra soup, carbon emission produced, because the vehicle would be anyway going on this road. Once it arrives at the food receiver place, they already have in place there the team. They have a kitchen to prepare the food. It's like this, that we manage to get surplus food from a food donor, onto the plate of a child, without really creating any additional costs, or any additional carbon. By respecting everything, which is food quantity versus food, number of beneficiaries taking care of food hygiene recommendation, and also, everything which is legal protection for the companies, transport company and food business, but also the NGO itself.

Yeah. I think, we started this low-cost system, because what we were seeing and with my team, and what is existing in Europe and America are food banks that are often more, like the food which is distributed sometime costs more, I want to say, the whole system of the food banks, or the distribution employees that the stock and everything often costs more than the food saved.

First, this was quite illogical. Why, if the whole logistical chain costs more than the food we save, why should we do this? Buying food actually, is not the solution, because we know that one-third of the world food products, which is wasted, and which can actually feed everyone, all the population suffering from hunger today. Yeah, we came up with this idea to try to connect those three types of actors in the food business, the transporter, and the NGO, and make the most of all the resource that they already have.

For example, stuff at the food donor can package. The transporter can just pick up the food on the daily route, and the NGO who has the kitchen and the staff to prepare the food. Saying this, yeah, the initial project started.

[00:20:41] BO: That's incredibly powerful. Yeah, powerful, so I don't know what I can think of it. Because you're working on the ground with the real – and to not to be able to do something like that without adding extra, or overly adding extra costs, or carbon is just powerful is for all I can think of. It's very inspirational.

I also really emphasise what you're saying there. I think very often, and this is very relevant to why we're doing this season of the podcast, working in tech, in Europe, or in the UK, as we do, as I do, is it can very often feel like, hey, the solution is a new layer on top. A new piece of technology, or like you say, the food banks, where maybe we're adding this whole new infrastructure process on top of the existing one, because we need to redistribute the food and it has, without looking at it in the system that it's in, it has these other unintended consequences.

Exactly. You say, if it costs more, why that's just not – that doesn't make sense. I'm really inspired by what you're describing there. Is it difficult, Julia, to – you described, you said, the thing that you're doing is finding the perfect matches and then solving some of the things, like the legal protections and the food safety and making sure that the right food goes to the right NGOs? Is it difficult to get those boxes ticked, like the things, like the legal and the food safety things, is that really the biggest challenge? Or is there something else, that is the challenge and gluing all that together for you just described?

[00:22:14] JV: Good question. I think, the legal aspect and the food safety aspect is easier, actually, because it is standard. These are documents that we have. We have standard process. This is okay, but it's the logistical part. Really, the matching process of the three actors, which is the most complicated and when you are talking about, and knew that we talk about tech innovation, and that's actually really important also for us. For now, we did all these offline. We are planning to digitalise our food sharing system, because it's really important to have the data and transparent in real-time to have a yeah, a tracking system of everything going on, and an algorithm, which can do the work, which we do offline.

Also, because, yeah, it will already automate what we do today, which means that we could actually replicate it quicker into other countries. On the other side, also as I said, at the very beginning, we aim to be a social business. For today, for now, we're actually just – we just have the social part and step by step, developing the business part, which would be a marketplace. They’re never like too good to go that you might know in Europe, where we can also buy surplus food as a consumer at home, and like this, our social and environmental mission. The food sharing system, distribute the food to the children will be sustained and out-financed.

Because even, the logistical chain is for free, there’s still people working behind it. There are still communications to do. There are still a lot of other works around, which involve costs. We decided that actually, the perfect model for us would be to be a social business and to have one revenue stream and several revenue streams that then can auto-finance our social part, and to be really independent and not, yeah, not looking for investors all the time and funds.

I don't know if you really know this area of the NGO world, but basically, you have to get fundings, you often have to maybe change a little bit your direction. You lose a lot of time writing proposals, instead of being on the ground and doing the thing you know the best. I think, it's a good way that we're going into this direction to be really in-line with what the strategy, in-line with what we wanted to create and the vision and strategy we have. Really looking forward to launching it.

[00:24:55] BO: That's very exciting. Yes. I definitely, fully understand what you mean about in terms of from an NGO, or charitable point of view, where finding the funding is a whole job, or several jobs in itself. Interesting. Going back to your point about digitization, and looking to, you mentioned things like, being able to scale out to different places, and other countries and so on. You also mentioned things like being able to have visibility on the data in real time, or near real-time and those kinds of things. What I really like though, is that you haven't started. I'm a technologist, and I always say the last thing you want to do is start writing code.

You first of all, you're doing the work, so you really understand, or maybe this is my question is, do you feel like you've gotten to the point, because you've been doing the work as you say, offline, or whatever processes, that now that you have – that you really understand what you would need the tech, the digitization, what you need the technology to do for you?

[00:25:51] JV: Definitely, for the social part. For the business part, that’s a more new thing, because it means like, yeah, we did our market study, potential consumer, and so on of business as well. Yeah, we're launching an MVP in November. We need to test, and to be sure that this is working. For the social part, there is no doubt. We know what we do. We know what we need. The aim is to build up both at the same time in one platform only. Yeah, I don't know how to code. I've been in touch with a lot of IT companies in this few weeks, and this past few weeks. Yeah. I think, I wish we knew, but it seems to be quite hard. Really shuffle to everyone who is into coding. Really, really good job.

[00:26:46] BO: We've caught you right in the crunch time where you're pulling that process together. That's interesting. It's incredibly powerful position you're in, when you're able to say, we really understand the impact we're having and how to do it. We have this other side of the business as you describe. Too Good to Go. I know, if anybody who's listening, particularly in Europe, or in the UK, check out Too Good to Go. It's a lot of fun. I can completely see that attraction.

[00:27:11] ES: I just like to add Julia, I think it's really admirable, what you say about finding a way to do it, where there isn't increased impact. Because it's really hard. It's exactly true what you said that, are we actually saving anything, if when we're trying to distribute this food that's been wasted? We're just creating more logistics and more carbon and more costs. Yeah, I think that's really admirable to not create more problems in solving a problem, because sometimes, that's an easy trap to fall into.

[00:27:55] JV: Definitely. Also, the packaging, for example, we use reusable boxes to cover. I know, maybe it's really German to use this word, but this reusable food boxes. Because we would packages in plastic bag, or not reusable box, then so why do we save food when we recreate plastic? That just don't make sense. I don't know. I think, this all is a fight also against climate change. Food waste is contributed. It's actually the first contributor to climate change for plastic and plastic has also contributed to climate change. If we start food waste, but increase plastic waste, this would be weird.

[00:28:45] ES: Yeah. That integrity of holding the reason why you're doing this at the center of the decision-making, I think that's so important for so many of these things that these solutions that we're talking about in this transition to a circular economy, it is really difficult, because you have so many considerations and nuances and stuff to think about. It's not just, “Oh, I'm going to solve this one problem.” As soon as you start talking about what Bii is actually at the beginning of this discussion, you mentioned that you work with people who are producing more food than they know what to do with, people who need food and are looking for the suppliers and the transport companies.

Immediately, my thought was, “Oh, okay. Good.” There's a systemic understanding. You have that overview. Your role that you've placed yourself in, that you've placed Bii in is one of having that overview of the system. Everything you've said since then really compliments that to say, yeah, we are also really aware of our footprint, carbon-wise and cost-wise and everything. It all is very just speaks to how respectful you are of the whole system that you're working in. Yeah, I think it's a super important way to go about this and finding solutions.

[00:30:16] JV: Thank you. Yeah, definitely we tried to be facilitator. We never really have the food in our hands. Sometimes, it can arrive, and it’s actually also what volunteers actually love the most, because the things everyone will do that we have, that we food everyday in our hand. Also, we try to really optimise the system so that it works without us. Really, connecting those threes actors to cooperate. It's also like creating local synergies between the companies and the NGOs, because often, they do not even know the environment.

For example, which is really funny, in Ivory Coast, so we work with Global, which is yeah, I knew it’s a Spanish company. I don't know if you have it in the UK. Something like Deliver, or Uber Eats, and so on. The delivery person is, there a lot of through person, which are independent, which are not actually employed directly by Global, but they love so much going to the NGOs and seeing the kids that sometimes, even if they don't have a delivery to do, they just come in and hang out with the children, or they bring their own little thing. It's really cool to learn about stories like this, which trades inside those communities. I think, this is also where we want to go through, like connecting people in the same community. Yeah, knowing what's going on around us and creating synergies.

[00:31:50] ES: That's a really nice story. Can I ask? I know, Barry's going to tell me we don't have any time left soon. I just wanted to ask you, sort of, this is a bit of a thought experiment really, because I don't know if this is a realistic thing to consider. Your logistical solution is solving two problems here, really. The one of overproduction of food, and the other one of lack of access to food. From your understanding of the system, the systems in which you work in various locations, is it too much to imagine a world where both of those problems no longer exist at all? Where the overproduction of food is just managed, that people aren't in vast quantities over supplying? Then on the other hand, food is available to all, that food justice is there for everyone.

[00:32:52] JV: I really like your question. Because it's a little bit the vision where we want to go towards, too. I think, it's really important to talk about it, because it's exactly what we are doing today is recycling. Recycling for us, it's not the solution. Food sharing, or redistributing surplus food is not the solution. The solution is really to go beyond this and really ending, there's overproduction and ending the fact that there are people not having enough food.

Really, going towards a sustainable food system, where we produce less, where we produce food, then which is higher quality, which respects the environment and the human beings behind, and which is distributed in a way that it's smart and local, so that everyone can have access to food, but also to quality food. Of course, the sustainable food system where there's no waste.

I think, it is really possible, because we have the numbers. As I said before, there are 30% of the food production which is wasted, which can actually feed not only one time, all the people suffering from hunger, but actually four times, so that we really, really have a lot. We produce also food which is not actually had a good quality and not nutritious. I think, it takes a lot of actors and definitely, not just us. They are already outside in the world and a lot of countries, in different regions, people organization, companies working on food waste, working on food transformation.

Also, a new project which we're starting to look into how can we go into food loss and transform surplus food into value added products, which then have a longer shelf life and which can create change jobs, especially for women, or for young people. Young people which can come from the company, which can come from the food receiver places we've worked with the food sharing component of our project.

I think, we just do our bit to this whole big vision of a world, where there is no waste and where everyone has food access to quality food access, but it needs everyone to do its parts, because food waste is at home also, not only at the bakery, at the supermarket, at the export. It's also at our place, it's in our schools, in our offices. I think, if everyone does a little move, and if also politics goes into the direction of doing the right laws and incentives for people and for businesses to reduce food waste, and if we understand, I think, it's also important to understand actually the value that we're wasting, because it means money. Food wasted means money wasted, energy wasted, human resources, and labor wasted, water wasted, fertile land wasted.

If we understand this, and if we give it the value that it has, would not throw it away, as we would not throw away our money and to thrash, which never, ever would think of. I think, it's possible. It takes time. It takes a lot of different actors of the ecosystems of our world to make this happen. Factual, in terms of number, it is feasible. It's the only worth problem, which is actually resolvable.

[00:36:39] BO: Put in tanks. Emily was right, I was about to say we’re running out of time. I'm really glad you asked that question. There's so much more that we could discuss there. Unfortunately, we are out of time. Just finally, for people, listeners who want to find out more about you and the work you're doing, including the Bii, and in different countries, and including some of the stuff you just mentioned, two questions. One, where should they go? If you had a request, or a question for people, what would that be?

[00:37:13] JV: Where to find us? Good that you say this is our websites. The main website in Mauritius is foodwise.io. You have MG, MA and CE. In the new three countries, so Morocco, Madagascar and Ivory Coast, we are rebranding, actually, this month to new brand, to also show a little bit this transformation to more social business, to more digitalization, the marketplace, and so on, which will be BEE, and it will be www.bii.earth.

Of course, we are available on the social media, from YouTube, Facebook, to LinkedIn. One last question to the audience, so I think is, to think to everyone’s self to question, so what they are wasting today and what they think they could do on their own. Maybe also, if you want to dig even deeper, yeah, look at your neighboring bakery shop, asking them what they do with this. I think, there are so many, especially so many small communities, when we look into cities, they're in Europe, especially there are so many solutions from Too good to go Phoenix, commerce, food banks and so on.

When we go to villages, I don't know if someone out there might be more in the countryside. Sometimes down, no solution in those areas. It would be cool. Just start your own thing. Go to the local supermarket, bakery, restaurant and ask them what they do with it. Then maybe find another NGO close by who can use it, or maybe just share it to you, to your neighbors. Make sure and could use, or transform it into new product, like cookies, whatever. There are so many solutions. Yeah, either start at home, or look into your community.

There are a lot of benefits which can come out of it and definitely, will make you happy. Doing something good always makes happy. This is for sure. Thanks a lot, Barry and Emily, for having me. It was a pleasure talking to you, sharing to you. Thanks for your really nice question. Thanks for the visibility and the sharing that you give to us.

[00:39:46] BO: Thank you, Julia. That's really great. All those links as usual, we'll put them on happyporchradio.com, on the episode page for this and season six. Thank you,Julia. That was an awesome conversation. Really appreciate your time.

[00:40:00] JV: Thank you. Bye.

[00:40:03] ES: Thank you, Julia.

[00:40:07] ES: Thanks for listening to this episode of Happy Porch Radio. Hope you enjoyed it. You can hear more of our episodes at happyporchradio.com. You can also get in touch with us there. Let us know what you think. Let us know if you have any ideas, or if you want to talk to us about something. We'd also love it if you can share these podcasts, review, rate, tell your pals, tell your neighbors, tell everyone.

[00:40:28] BO: Tell your dog.

[00:40:29] ES: Tell your dog. Listen along with the whole family.

[00:40:33] BO: My name is Barry, and I find at happyporch.com and Happy Porch Fund and Support Podcast at Happy Porch We do technology and software development for purpose-led businesses. We are particularly excited about the role of digital as an enabler for the circular economy. If you're working on solutions to the big problems we face today, problems like climate change and biodiversity loss and global inequality, then let's connect. Visit happyporch.com and get in touch.

[00:40:59] ES: My name is Emily. I am a coach, a facilitator and a podcaster. My projects focus on personal development, innovation for a better world and connecting with nature. My latest podcasting adventure, alongside Happy Porch Radio is exploring the world of carbon removal. Find out more about this and everything that I do at emilyswaddle.com, or you can get in touch with me at [email protected].