You throw away $640 a year in wasted food, according to a new survey from the American Chemistry Council. Overall from field to kitchen, we waste about one-third of our food, which then composes more than 20% of landfills where it generates about 2% of the greenhouse gas emissions. Wasted food wastes natural resources, including 35% of potable water and 30% of fertilizer nationally, according to a new study from the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future.
To address these issues and to feed hungry people, the pro bono California Food Waste Roundtable convened this week in our office. (The Gualco Group, Inc. is a founder.) We heard from CEO Andy Souza of the Community Food Bank of Fresno, which serves the five San Joaquin Valley counties, that food distribution efforts are accelerating by about a third due to the drought and that families are remaining with the food banks longer. We heard from Andrew Cheyne that AB 515, which expands the food donation tax credit, is progressing through the Legislature.
Most of all, we gathered to begin building California support for a campaign to educate consumers to reduce food waste at home — that $640 you throw away and the wasted natural resources it represents. Natural Resources Defense Council senior policy analyst Dana Gunders — author of a seminal food waste study — is working with the Ad Council to finish the research for a 2016-19 initiative to change how you shop and how you think about food. Turns out that the Grocery Manufacturers Assn. and Mission Point Partners, a Bay Area VC firm, also are completing research on similar issues. So we’ll join with the California Department of Food & Agriculture and CalRecycle to capture your attention and then enlist your help to reduce food waste.
This is a primary goal of our Food Waste Roundtable — bring together the resources to save resources. Stay tuned!
Link to source cited:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2015/06/24/americans-annual-food-waste/28988971/
Link to Dana Gunders’ research paper:
http://www.nrdc.org/food/files/wasted-food-ip.pdf