Food Policy Establishment for my Country.by Rosa Domingos | 01-10-2018 21:40 |
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 If we given the ability to develop organisation's policy, there are a few things to consider before starting. Here is a quick guide to what can be done in order to assist you, the following information may assist you in establishing your very own policy. Smoking, food, equality and diversity are but just a few policies out of the hundreds if not thousands that are currently existing.  I chose to take the environmental route and formulate my own policy. Though environmental... it?s still a policy right? To start off, I will be defining what an environmental policy is. An environmental policy is a statement about an organisation's environmental position and values. The ISO 14001 standard states that an environmental policy is the organisation's overall environmental performance aim, purpose and direction formally expressed by top management. You may be wondering what the benefits are to establishing an environmental policy, well to start off, the intentions you have in your environmental policy can be advertised to the public so as to know of you aims and objectives. You place yourself relative to the industry that you are in and showcase yourself to other organisations and stakeholders. Most importantly, Current and potential clients can read the statement and are able to determine whether they would like to continue or start business with the organisation. So what should be included in your very own environmental policy? The ISO 14001 standard is probably the best reference standard for the development of an environmental policy. In summary, an environmental policy must be:  appropriate to the you or organisation; include a commitment for continual improvement and prevention of pollution; include a commitment to comply to relevant legal and other requirements; and, provide the framework for setting and reviewing environmental objectives and targets.
Also, consideration should be given to the reader's expectations. From a customer perspective they would like to clearly know: what the organisation does and how it does it (e.g. do they follow best practice and embrace cleaner production, if so how?); understand whether the organisation is greener or browner than similar organisations; understand whether the organisation presents a direct environmental risk to their operations; understand whether the organisation has any environmental programs to their reduce environmental impact and improve their environmental performance.
What I would like to establish... The policy that I would like to establish for my country is that of zero food waste. So many of our supermarkets and restaurants discard food that is still edible. For instance, supermarkets have the tendency of throwing away fruits and vegetables that are weeks before its best-before date rather than giving them out to those in need. Also, this in the long run strains the environment where more nutrients has to be added into the soil to produce a substantial yield. Instead of throwing precious sustenance away, why not give it to those in need and eliminate food waste and malnutrition? If I could, I would set up a mandate whereby, all markets, restaurants, and manufacturing houses, etc follow up on this policy. In the long run, our food industry would be more efficient and not just economically, but environmentally as well. Reference list Environmental Management System. n/a. [Online]. Available: http://www.environmentalpolicy.com.au/. July, 2018. Accessed: October, 01, 2018. Images http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/wfd_contest/img/2017/large_IMG_7511.JPG https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Holding_rice.jpg |
