BioCycle

According to a new study released by the Natural Resources Defense Council, 40 percent of the food produced in the United States goes uneaten, with much of it ending up in the landfill. The report by Dana Gunders focuses on reducing food loss throughout the supply chain, from “Farm to Fork.”

Reducing the amount of food America wastes is critical. Equally critical is capturing the food that is wasted to build healthy soils and generate renewable energy.  How?

DON’T THROW IT AWAY!!

— Participate in your community’s food waste collection or drop off services.  Close to 200 communities in the U.S. already offer food waste collection to residents via curbside service with other compostables, or via community drop off centers.

— Use a private household food waste collection service

— Contact urban farms and community gardens in your town to see if they accept household food scraps for composting

— Compost At Home. Many communities provide information on local options, like this sample from Seattle.

— Learn More About Food Loss and Food Recovery …

• Why the loss rate surpasses $90 billion per year, and what needs to be done to stop this significant negative impact on the national economy

• Inefficiencies in farming and fresh food processing keep more than 12 percent of America’s agricultural bounty from reaching our tables

• Sustainable farming industry: With its heavy emphasis on controlled atmosphere storage, the Washington state apple industry provides a great model for preventing food waste

• Call for creation of a national center to address food and systemic food loss as a public policy issue

• Sustainable food management in action: The US EPA’S Food Recovery Challenge asks for a commitment to three food diversion actions: prevention, donation and composting. Program participants share their stories.

• Food insecurity is a crisis in the United States, with one out of every six Americans lacking access to, or resources for acquiring, enough food. USEPA’s Food Recovery Challenge helps to connect wasted food to hungry people

This entry was posted on Friday, August 24th, 2012 at 3:35 pm and is filed under BioCycle Breaking News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.