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.



Emperor Penguin Released at Sea 20 Days after Waddling Onto Australian Beach

In this photo released by Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA), a male emperor penguin dubbed Gus, is released back into the ocean off the south coast of Western Australia, Wednesday Nov. 20, 2024. (Miles Brotherson/DBCA via AP)
In this photo released by Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA), a male emperor penguin dubbed Gus, is released back into the ocean off the south coast of Western Australia, Wednesday Nov. 20, 2024. (Miles Brotherson/DBCA via AP)
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Emperor Penguin Released at Sea 20 Days after Waddling Onto Australian Beach

In this photo released by Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA), a male emperor penguin dubbed Gus, is released back into the ocean off the south coast of Western Australia, Wednesday Nov. 20, 2024. (Miles Brotherson/DBCA via AP)
In this photo released by Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA), a male emperor penguin dubbed Gus, is released back into the ocean off the south coast of Western Australia, Wednesday Nov. 20, 2024. (Miles Brotherson/DBCA via AP)

The only emperor penguin known to have swum from Antarctica to Australia was released at sea 20 days after he waddled ashore on a popular tourist beach, officials said Friday.
The adult male was found on Nov. 1 on Ocean Beach sand dunes in the town of Denmark in temperate southwest Australia — about 3,500 kilometers north of the icy waters off the Antarctic coast, the Western Australia state government said. He was released from a Parks and Wildlife Service boat on Wednesday, The Associated Press reported.
The boat traveled for several hours from the state’s most southerly city of Albany before the penguin was released into the Southern Ocean, but the government didn't give the distance in its statement.
He had been cared for by registered wildlife caregiver Carol Biddulph, who named him Gus after the first Roman emperor Augustus.
“I really didn’t know whether he was going to make it to begin with because he was so undernourished,” Biddulph said in video recorded before the bird’s release but released by the government on Friday.
“I’ll miss Gus. It’s been an incredible few weeks, something I wouldn’t have missed,” she added.
Biddulph said she had found from caring for other species of lone penguins that mirrors were an important part of their rehabilitation by providing a comforting sense of company.
“He absolutely loves his big mirror and I think that has been crucial in his well-being. They’re social birds and he stands next to the mirror most of the time,” she said.
Gus gained weight in her care, from 21.3 kilograms when he was found to 24.7 kilograms. He stands 1 meter tall. A healthy male emperor penguin can weigh more than 45 kilograms.
The largest penguin species has never been reported in Australia before, University of Western Australia research fellow Belinda Cannell said, though some had reached New Zealand, nearly all of which is further south than Western Australia.
The government said with the Southern Hemisphere summer approaching, it had been time-crucial to return Gus to the ocean where he could thermoregulate.
Emperor penguins have been known to cover up to 1,600 kilometers on foraging journeys that last up to a month, the government said.