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Spanish parliament vote on cutting food waste will end ban on wolf hunting

21 March 2025 19:49 (UTC +04:00)

The Spanish parliament has voted through a measure that will in effect lift a ban on hunting wolves that was imposed in 2021, APA reports citing The Guardian.

A coalition led by the conservative People’s party, with the support of the far-right Vox party and Basque and Catalan nationalists, added an amendment to a law aimed at reducing Spain’s estimated 1.2bn kilograms of food waste.

Under the food waste plan, restaurants and cafes will have to provide free reusable or recyclable containers for customers to take home their leftovers, and big shops will be encouraged to offer customers “ugly” fruit and vegetables and reduce prices on food nearing its best-before date.

The priority will be ensuring all food produced is used to feed people, so excess food will be donated to NGOs and food banks. If surplus fruit cannot be eaten or donated, it will be made into juices or jams. Any food that can be eaten by humans will be used for animal feed or, as a last resort, to make compost or biofuels.

Speaking on Thursday, Spain’s agriculture minister, Luis Planas, described the new law as an important step towards tackling the ethical, environmental and economic issue of food waste. “We live, unfortunately, in a world where hunger and malnutrition still exist, so wasting food is a very serious matter,” he said.

“I think the most expensive food is the food that ends up in the rubbish bin. We’ve said it before many times and that’s why it’s so important that we work with food producers and with distributors so that foods that are in good condition can be used to the basic end of human consumption. ‘We don’t throw anything away’ has been the motto of the campaigns we’ve put out and it will continue to be.”