COLUMNISTS

Fighting food waste during World Food Prize week

Danielle Nierenberg and Brian Frederick
Register Opinion contributors
Trumpeters play during The World Food Prize 2016 Laureate Award Ceremony at the Capitol Building in Des Moines, Thursday, Oct. 13, 2016.

On Monday, nations around the world celebrated World Food Day (WFD), commemorating the founding of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The FAO was created in 1945 with the belief that, “the goal of freedom from want of food, suitable and adequate for the health and strength of all people can be achieved.” 

Unfortunately, 30 to 40 percent of total food production is lost before it reaches peoples’ stomachs. This waste is worth roughly $990 billion and weighs approximately 1.3 billion tons per year.

Consumer food waste in rich countries is equivalent to the entire net food production of sub-Saharan Africa; per-capita waste in Europe and North America is 209 to 253 pounds per year. In Iowa, the amount of food waste in landfills increased 62 percent over the past 13 years.

Meanwhile, at least 815 million people across the world go hungry every day. The FAO estimates that if we managed to eat all the food we currently waste, we could feed every hungry person in the world — four times over.

No matter your political affiliation, food waste is one issue that Democrats, Republicans, and everyone in between, can agree needs solving.

Fortunately, there is enormous potential to recover food in danger of being wasted.

Organizations across the U.S. know how to prevent waste. Eaters can donate fresh produce and vegetables to #GiveHealthy, Ample Harvest, and Iowa-based Table to Table.

Consumers can purchase food that would be otherwise wasted through Hungry Harvest or buy excess food up to 80 percent more cheaply through Food for All.

At the farm level, organizations like Food at First in Ames gather food left in the field to stock food pantries. The Iowa Waste Reduction Center (IWRC) works with farmers to reduce and repurpose their waste, such as through composting.

And municipalities and states are innovating to address the issue of food waste. In Tennessee, for example, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the city of Nashville are testing a set of local food waste policies and compiling a toolbox to help local businesses cut waste, redirect unusable food, and repurpose leftovers. And the Iowa Department of Education is working with the IWRC to track and reduce food waste generated from school lunch programs.

Danielle Nierenberg

Even when food can’t be recovered, it can become an important resource. Iowa City generates more than 18 thousand tons of food waste annually. Through two programs, Compost at the Curbside for consumers and commercial organics composting for restaurants and grocery stores, the city diverts organic waste from the landfill to filling an increasing demand for compost. Hy-Vee is collecting its food waste and unsold produce to make compost, which it then sells at its stores, keeping 2 million pounds of waste from landfills. Meanwhile, the city of Des Moines collects food waste for compost as well as for producing energy.

One of the most cost-effective strategies to prevent food waste is to standardize expiration date labeling on food packaging. Right now, U.S. consumers see a confusing variety of under-regulated labels which, according to an industry-conducted survey, causes 90 percent of consumers to unintentionally throw away food that is still edible. The only labeling law in Iowa applies to eggs and requires the date the eggs were packed to be printed on the packaging.

But the effort doesn’t end there. From farm to fork and fork to trash can, and from Des Moines to New York, we can prevent food loss and waste and help erase hunger around the globe.

Danielle Nierenberg is the President of Food Tank.

Brian Frederick is a Food Tank research fellow.

 

Brian Frederick