Clean Plate Movement and Empowerment of Civil Leadership for Developing Sustainable Life Style

Abstract

This paper describes the backgrounds, process, outcomes, and characteristics of “Clean plate” movement carried out in Korea. That was aimed at the reduction of food waste production as well as developing and disseminating a sustainable life style. Excessive foods are wasted every year in Korea and it reaches to 270 g/day/capita. Clean plate movement was started 2004 and over 1.5 million peoples, which is 3% of the population, did pledge for 15 months. Over one million students participated in the pledge campaign and they became conscious about the importance of food and get sustainable eating habit in which they don’t leave any food behind. While the campaign carried out successfully, civil volunteers of a Buddhist NGO EcoBuddha, who were the housewives mainly, were in charge of the whole processes and were trained as civil leaders for sustainable development. They awakened to the interrelationship between human being and the nature, based on a series of Buddhist lectures and self practicing asceticism. Clean plate movement as an educational program for sustainable development has various factors in three pillars of environmental, economical and socio-cultural aspects for EfSD.