The United States is not yet close to its goal of cutting food waste in half by 2030, according to a new analysis from the University of California, Davis.
In September 2015, the United States set an ambitious goal of reducing food loss and waste by 50%. The idea was to reduce the amount of food that ends up in landfills, where it is emitted Greenhouse gases Because they decompose, which is a major factor contributing to climate change.
Researchers at UC Davis looked at state policies across the country and estimated how much food waste each state was likely to reduce in 2022. They found that without more work at the federal level, no state is on track to achieve waste reduction At the national level. goal.
The researchers calculated that even when reduction measures are taken into account, the United States still generates about 328 pounds of food waste per person annually — which is also the amount of waste generated per person in 2016, shortly behind the EPA and USDA. Announce a waste reduction goal.
“These numbers suggest that even our best waste disposal strategies are not enough to achieve our goals,” said Sarah Kakadelis, lead author of the study. Published in Nature This month.
To evaluate how the United States is meeting its food waste reduction goals, Kakadelis and her team used publicly available data (from ReFED, a nonprofit Monitoring food waste in the United States) and estimates based on the current policy landscape.
Lori Leonard, chair of the Department of Global Development at Cornell University, said the study’s findings were “not surprising” given the lack of federal policy governing food waste. “People are trying to do what they can at the state and municipal levels,” she said. “But we really need national leadership on this issue.”
Kakadelis points out that the way forward will also require changing the way consumers think about some waste management strategies — such as composting.
Composting turns organic matter, such as food scraps, into a nutrient-rich mixture that can be used to fertilize new plants and crops. It can be considered a form of food “recycling”, even though its final product cannot technically be eaten. These important details mean that consumers must learn to view composting, despite its potential environmental benefits, as a form of food waste, Kakadelis says.
“She really thinks about the best use of food, which is eating it,” she said.
Although it has been touted as a great alternative to throwing rotting bananas in the trash, the United Nations and European Union actually classify it as a form of food waste. In 2021, the EPA updated its definition of food waste to include composting and anaerobic digestion — both of which can take inputs like uneaten food and turn them into fertilizer or biogas, respectively.
In updating its guidance, the EPA published a food waste hierarchy — which explains that the best way to reduce food waste is to prevent it. This includes things like adding accurate date labels to food products, so consumers don’t get confused about when something they purchased went bad or is no longer safe to eat. It’s also better to find another use for unsold or uneaten food — such as donating it to food banks or incorporating it into animal feed, where it can be used to raise livestock (assuming the livestock will eventually feed humans as well).
Composting will always have a role to play in diverting food waste from landfills – because these operations can accept spoiled or spoiled food, which food banks, for example, cannot. “It’s not an either/or,” Kakadelis said. “They have to go hand in hand.” “But we skip all those other steps and go straight to recycling a lot of times.”
Leonard agrees, pointing to the high costs associated with ensuring the country’s complex and sprawling food system runs smoothly: from the farm where crops are harvested to the trucks and cold stores that handle packaged goods. “There is a tremendous amount of energy that has gone into producing this food,” she said. “We’re not doing it to make fertilizer. You know, we’re doing it to feed people.”
Of course, composting serves more than one purpose and has environmental benefits beyond reducing food loss and waste. For example, it renews the soil. But Leonard points out that if more work was done on the preventive side — such as making sure farms don’t produce excess food — the soil wouldn’t be depleted in the first place and wouldn’t need as much remediation.
Both Leonard and Cakadelis stress that no tool should be left out to avoid sending food to landfills. Leonard, who previously worked with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, once conducted research on organics bans in other states.
“I asked them if they were encouraging companies or families to move up the EPA hierarchy and find other, better uses for their food waste? And they said, no, no. What we’re really trying to do is get people to do whatever it is in the hierarchy.” This includes fertilization.
Until there are more options for both pre- and post-consumer food waste, composting may be the best and most accessible option for many people. “It’s the easiest thing to do,” Leonard said. “And this is probably the safest thing to do until we have better protocols.”
This article originally appeared on grinding in https://grist.org/food-and-agriculture/the-us-wants-cut-food-waste-in-half-were-not-even-close/.
Grist is an independent, non-profit media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at grist.org
