Have you ever thought beyond the supermarket and considered where their wasted food goes? Generally, it gets thrown into the waste bins. And, with such a high produce rate world-wide, a practice which destroys natural vegetation such a rain forests, could actually have more of a purpose than just feeding the wealthy.

Now, France has become the first country in the world to ban supermarkets from throwing away – or destroying – unsold food, thus forcing them instead to donate it to charities and food banks. And world hunger is solved. Kinda.

Passed unanimously, the law follows a grassroots campaign in France by shoppers, anti-poverty campaigners and those opposed to food waste.

The campaign, which led to a petition, was started by the councillor Arash Derambarsh. In December a bill on the issue passed through the national assembly, having been introduced by the former food industry minister Guillaume Garot.

Campaigners now hope to persuade the EU to adopt similar legislation across member states.

Isn’t it wonderful what concious minds that come together can achieve without being selfish or fearing their own loss of privilege.

The law has been welcomed by food banks, which will now begin the task of finding the extra volunteers, lorries, warehouse and fridge space to deal with an increase in donations from shops and food companies.

It has been found that supermarkets were spoiling food that they threw away to stop people from eating it. Other people have found produce thrown away just before their expiry date. Other supermarkets deliberately binned food in locked warehouses for collection by refuse trucks.

Now, owners of supermarkets with a footprint of 400 sq metres will have to sign donation contracts with charities, otherwise they will face penalties of either fines or imprisonment.

Most importantly, because supermarkets will be obliged to sign a donation deal with charities, we’ll be able to increase the quality and diversity of food we get and distribute. In terms of nutritional balance, we currently have a deficit of meat and a lack of fruit and vegetables. This will hopefully allow us to push for those products.

Until now French food banks received 100,000 tonnes of donated goods, 35,000 tonnes of which came from supermarkets. Even a 15% increase in food coming from supermarkets would mean 10m more meals being handed out each year.

Of the 7.1m tonnes of food wasted in France annually, 67% is binned by consumers, 15% by restaurants and 11% by shops. Each year 1.3bn tonnes of food are wasted worldwide.