Saudi Arabia Launches Campaign to Reduce Food Waste

The National Program to Reduce Food Loss and Waste launched the "With Frugality, It lasts" campaign to raise awareness about the importance of limiting food waste during Ramadan.
The National Program to Reduce Food Loss and Waste launched the "With Frugality, It lasts" campaign to raise awareness about the importance of limiting food waste during Ramadan.
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Saudi Arabia Launches Campaign to Reduce Food Waste

The National Program to Reduce Food Loss and Waste launched the "With Frugality, It lasts" campaign to raise awareness about the importance of limiting food waste during Ramadan.
The National Program to Reduce Food Loss and Waste launched the "With Frugality, It lasts" campaign to raise awareness about the importance of limiting food waste during Ramadan.

Saudi Arabia launched an awareness campaign to encourage people to be more frugal during the holy month of Ramadan and reduce wastefulness.

The National Program to Reduce Food Loss and Waste launched the "With Frugality, It lasts" campaign to raise awareness about the importance of limiting food waste and extravagance during Ramadan.

Food waste reached around 33 percent, estimated at about SR40 billion per year, in Saudi Arabia.

The campaign aims to encourage the preservation of the national food wealth, raise awareness of diseases resulting from food waste, use natural resources, and spread awareness of the importance of food diversity.

Minister of Environment, Water, and Agriculture Abdulrahman al-Fadly said the high rates of food waste in Saudi Arabia is a significant health, economic, and environmental challenge, calling on everyone to maximize natural resources, assess needs, and identify them without waste.

The campaign was well-received by society, government agencies, the private sector, and associations stemming from their shared social responsibility.

The campaign continues until the end of Ramadan.

Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries recorded an increase in food expenditure rates. According to a recent statistic, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, and Saudi Arabia were the top Arab countries in terms of the highest family monthly food expenditure.



Volcano on Iceland's Reykjanes Peninsula Erupts for 7th Time in a Year

A new volcanic eruption that started on the Reykjanes Peninsula in Iceland, Wednesday, Nov.20, 2024. (AP Photo/Marco di Marco)
A new volcanic eruption that started on the Reykjanes Peninsula in Iceland, Wednesday, Nov.20, 2024. (AP Photo/Marco di Marco)
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Volcano on Iceland's Reykjanes Peninsula Erupts for 7th Time in a Year

A new volcanic eruption that started on the Reykjanes Peninsula in Iceland, Wednesday, Nov.20, 2024. (AP Photo/Marco di Marco)
A new volcanic eruption that started on the Reykjanes Peninsula in Iceland, Wednesday, Nov.20, 2024. (AP Photo/Marco di Marco)

A volcano on the Reykjanes Peninsula in southwestern Iceland spewed lava from a fissure in its seventh eruption since December.
The eruption started with little warning at 11:14 p.m. Wednesday and created a fissure around 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) long but was estimated to be considerably smaller than the previous eruption in August, Iceland’s meteorological office that monitors seismic activity said.
“In the big picture, this is a bit smaller than the last eruption and the eruption that occurred in May,” said Magnús Tumi Guðmundsson, a professor of geophysics who flew over the eruption with the Civil Protection agency to monitor the eruption and who was speaking with national broadcaster RUV.
While the eruption poses no threat to air travel, authorities warned of gas emissions across parts of the peninsula, including the nearby town of Grindavík, The Associated Press reported.
The repeated volcanic eruptions close to Grindavík, a town of 3,800 people about 50 kilometers (30 miles) southwest of the capital, Reykjavik, have damaged infrastructure and property and forced many residents to relocate to guarantee their safety.
“Grindavík is not in danger as it looks and it is unlikely that this crack will get any longer, although nothing can be ruled out,” Magnús Tumi said.
Around 50 houses were quickly evacuated after the Civil Protection agency issued the alert, along with guests at the famous Blue Lagoon resort, according to RUV.
Iceland, which sits above a volcanic hot spot in the North Atlantic, averages one eruption every four to five years. The most disruptive in recent times was the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which spewed clouds of ash into the atmosphere and disrupted trans-Atlantic air travel for months.