It’s at the intersection of squandered natural resources, wasted money, worsening climate change and persistent social injustice, and it’s sitting in your refrigerator (probably at the back). It’s food waste, and the United State has a lot of it.
To me, it’s absolutely ludicrous to have 40 percent of our food supply being wasted while 15 percent of American households are food insecure,” author and journalist Jonathan Bloom said. “That juxtaposition of waste and hunger in a country that is so prosperous is really a shame and is morally callous.”
But the U.S. is waking up to food waste at the farm, distribution, retail and household levels. Last fall, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture set the nation’s first food waste reduction goals, aiming to cut food waste in half by 2030.
And a new bill in Congress, the Food Recovery Act of 2015, includes multiple provisions aimed at reducing waste and diverting more food to food banks. The bill, H.R. 4184, would regulate the “sell-by date” language on products so consumers are less likely to throw out perfectly edible food because it’s past date, expand tax breaks for companies donating to food banks, and require contractors providing food to the federal government to donate excess food to hunger-relief organizations.
Introduced by Maine Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree, the bill is in a House of Representatives committee.
Bloom, author of the Wasted Food blog and of the 2010 book “American Wasteland: How America Throws Away Nearly Half of Its Food (and What We Can Do About It),” recently talked with me about the bill, food waste and how individuals can help prevent it.
Jared Paben: If enacted into law, how would the Food Recovery Act affect the lives of low-income Americans?
Jonathan Bloom: If all of its provisions pass — and that’s not especially likely — the bill would increase the amount of fresh food available for food banks mostly by extending the tax benefits for donating food from restaurants and retailers. Additionally, there would be several other opportunities to promote donation of healthy foods, partly through establishing an Office of Food Recovery but also through encouraging donation from farms and even schools for donating excess food.
J.P.: Does the bill go far enough to address the issue, in your opinion?
J.B.: Yes and no. In a perfect world, there are a few other things I’d love to see included in the bill, but being pragmatic about the matter, the bill, as it’s presently constructed, isn’t likely to pass. You can’t have everything. Even the people in Pingree’s office I’ve spoken to recognize that all of the provisions will not become law and, rather, it’s a starting point for a conversation in this murky business of representative democracy.
J.P.: What do you think are the most impactful provisions of it? I know the part where they talk about regulating the “best by” dates has gotten a lot of press.
J.B.: I love the idea of amending how we handle date labels in America. And something as simple as putting “manufacturer’s suggestion only” next to the date would go a long way toward minimizing household food waste. I’d love to see that kind of uniformity. But at the same time, stepping away from legislation, I think that we, as individuals, have to take some responsibility for the household’s food waste that’s caused by date labels just by being a bit more savvy about what those dates actually represent. Put simply, date labels aren’t about food safety. It’s about the quality of that food.
J.P.: You read my mind. I was actually going to ask about what some of the steps are that we, as individuals, can do to reduce food waste. Is that a big one? Just keeping in mind that those “best by” dates don’t reflect when it’s safe to eat food?
J.B.: Yes, that’s a big one, but not the most significant. If individuals are looking to make a significant impact on their household food waste, the best way to do that is simply by buying less food. We don’t use about a quarter of the food we bring home. So keeping that in mind the next time you go shopping will lead to a dramatic improvement, by essentially ensuring that we don’t “buy waste.” When we overpurchase, we’re almost guaranteeing that we’ll have too much, and we often put ourselves in that position just by filling our refrigerator with all these fresh, perishable foods that we couldn’t possibly eat before they go bad.
J.P.: Taking your advice is better for the pocketbook, too.
J.B.: Sure, yeah. The average family of four is throwing away $2,000 in food that they discard. There’s significant savings to be had. Just getting back to the buying-less thing. Logistically, what that often looks like is simply shopping more often and buying less each trip. But if you live far from the store, where it doesn’t make sense to do that, or if you simply prefer a arger shopping run, then it’s important to plan out meals. Make a detailed shopping list and then actually stick to that list when you’re in the store, which is easier said than done. I have a couple other bullet point tips. Saving and then actually eating leftovers is a big one. But the key there is that you have to do the latter. It doesn’t do any good to put leftovers in the fridge and throw them out a week later. Using your freezer as a waste avoider but not simply a waste delayer. Not serving excessive portions to family and friends but rather serving a reasonable amount and then making it easy for people to take seconds. And just paying attention to date labels and not treating date labels as the ultimate arbiter of when food will go bad but trusting your senses of smell and taste and sight.
J.P.: Does America waste more food than other countries?
J.B.: Yes, sadly.
J.P.: Why is that?
J.B.: Well, primarily because nowhere is food less expensive as a percentage of a household’s budget. No other nation spends as little on food as we do, and that impacts how we value it or, in many cases, don’t value it. And then we have a real abundance of food in America. We produce about twice the amount of food that we need per person on a calorie level. We overeat, and we also waste a whole lot of food. Additionally, we expect food to look perfect, and anything that’s the wrong shape, size or color will be cast aside at some point in the food chain. And I would say, anecdotally, that American standards are higher or at least as high as any other nations — the superficial standards for food at the end.
J.P.: That last point reminds me of a documentary I heard about. I listened to an NPR interview with the two documentarians. They were a Canadian couple who for six months ate only discarded food. Did you get a chance to see that? It was called “Just Eat It.”
J.B.: Yeah, I’m actually in it.
J.P.: Oh, you’re in it! Well, what did you think of the finished product?
J.B.: It was great. They did a fabulous job highlighting the issues and doing so in an entertaining way. I would highly recommend that film as a great way to learn as much as you can about it.
J.P.: To ask the opposite of the question I asked earlier: Is there anything that America does better than other countries when it comes to food waste and nutrition issues?
J.B.: Yeah, America leads the way in recovering food, rescuing food that would otherwise go to waste at supermarkets, restaurants, wholesalers and caterers. Partly that’s a reflection of the sheer level of excess. In addition, it’s a reflection of tax benefits that most companies can receive. And actually they just extended that. It used to be that only C Corporations could receive tax benefits for donating food, but as of December, that’s applicable to everyone, even small businesses. So that’s great. Our abundance of food recovery is great for the most part, except when the kinds of foods being donated are not so healthy. There’s room for improvement in trying to get the healthier, unprocessed foods to those in need. Often that means either increased labor that’s needed to, say, glean the food from a farm setting. Or it would mean restaurants and supermarkets will have to donate their more perishable foods, which they should be doing because they’re protected from liability under the Good Samaritan Act. But, in practice, everyone wants to donate their shelf-stable foods, their day-old baked goods and so forth, but food banks and pantries don’t necessarily need more loaves of bread and they certainly don’t need more cupcakes or pie.
J.P.: I’ve heard that healthy proteins are difficult for food banks to get.
J.B.: Proteins, fresh produce and dairy tend to be the kinds of foods that food banks and pantries need most, and unfortunately, there’s a real reluctance to donate those foods, partly because there’s this urban myth of donors getting sued or found liable for donating something that gets someone sick. But from what I’ve seen and heard and researched, there’s never been a case where someone receiving food aid has turned around and sued the hand that is figuratively feeding them. It’s a fallacy. And there is that 1996 Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Act that protects donors from liability when they give food in good faith.
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J.P.: If we lead the way in food rescue and we have such overproduction in calories, where is the gap that there are still hungry people?
J.B.: That’s a good question. Unfortunately, a lot of that excess food is located on farms and is unharvested and usually tends to be plowed under or composted. Channeling that excess food supply to those in need will require some capital and also effort. Capital would compensate the farmers for harvesting food to then donate, food that they would otherwise plow under. Or even pay laborers to pick, if it’s handpicked crops. In terms of effort, that might mean expending actual physical labor to pick the crops, but it also might just mean thinking outside the box and doing something differently. There was a green bean producer in Tennessee who had all kinds of culls on his farm, because there are always going to be green beans that don’t look quite right or are the wrong size for certain packages. And he actually got a grant to build another packing line to process and pack green beans for donation to the major food bank in Tennessee. It’s pretty cool.
J.P.: I saw the Environmental Protection Agency came out recently with a goal of halving food waste. Do you get the sense that Americans, in general, are becoming more aware of issues like food waste because of the EPA’s announcement and because more media are reporting on it?
J.B.: Awareness of wasted food is certainly growing, and every day I see more and more articles on the topic. It’s driven by many factors, but it’s great to see such a rising tide of food waste awareness. Now the real next step is converting that attention to action.
J.P.: Is this an issue that you’ve heard any of the presidential hopefuls address at all?
J.B.: No.
J.P.: Did you have any other final thoughts that you wanted to share, either on the Food Recovery Act or just the issue of food waste in general?
J.B.: There’s so much to say. Most people seem to be surprised that wasting food has an environmental impact so I’d want to communicate that food waste does lead to harmful greenhouse gas emissions when it’s sent to the landfill. Also, the food we’re wasting represents a squandering of the energy and the water that we’re investing in producing that food. And then, of course, you can’t ignore the economic impact: roughly $260 billion that we’re wasting through food waste every year. And then as we’ve discussed in depth, there’s the ethical component of the paradox of hunger and waste coexisting. Those are three main factors why we should pay attention to wasted food. I will leave it up to folks to figure out which rationale speaks to them loudest. I do think that everyone should pay attention to food waste for one — if not all three — of those reasons.
J.P.: Do you think corporate America is starting to pay more attention to these issues, as well?
J.B.: Yes. Multinational companies and domestic ones are becoming more attuned to the sheer loss of resources through wasted food. The World Economic Forum, the elite of the elite, in their most recent meeting in Davos, Switzerland, just launched this initiative to tackle food waste. Whether it’s for increasing their own profit margins or the public good, or some combination of the two, it’s encouraging to see this issue gain traction at all levels of society.