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Food Waste Challenge


Extra! Extra Samples Feed Families in Need!

June 12, 2013 Ruihong Guo, Acting Deputy Administrator, AMS Science and Technology Program

It is a simple idea. If you have more than you need, share with those who don’t have enough. An estimated 50 million Americans do not have access to enough food. So what can be done? Amazing things can happen when you implement a simple idea by combining a love of agriculture and commitment to...

Food and Nutrition

Time To Do Something About Food Waste

June 04, 2013 Dr. Elise Golan, Director for Sustainable Development, Office of the Chief Economist, U.S. Department of Agriculture

On June 4 th, 2013, in advance of World Environment Day, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in collaboration with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched the U.S. Food Waste Challenge. Secretary Tom Vilsack and EPA Acting Administrator Bob Perciasepe announced their agencies’...

Conservation Food and Nutrition

Going Green by Reducing Food Waste

May 30, 2013 Dr. Elise Golan, Director for Sustainable Development, Office of the Chief Economist, U.S. Department of Agriculture

At this very moment, an underappreciated tool for combating climate change may be hiding in your chiller drawer or at the back of your pantry. By keeping that limp carrot or dusty box of pasta out of our nation’s landfills, you can help reduce emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas 21 times more...

Conservation Food and Nutrition

Food Waste: The Problem May be Bigger Than You Think

May 28, 2013 Dr. Elise Golan, Director for Sustainable Development, Office of the Chief Economist, U.S. Department of Agriculture

Think big. Think Sear’s Tower big and then multiply by 44. That is approximately the volume of food that is lost from the U.S. food supply annually at retail food stores, restaurants, and homes combined. Now think of all the labor, land, water, fertilizer, and other inputs that went into growing...

Food and Nutrition

Reducing Food Waste is Money in the Pocket and Food on the Table for Families

May 23, 2013 Dr. Elise Golan, Director for Sustainable Development, Office of the Chief Economist, U.S. Department of Agriculture

What would you do with $390? I imagine that “throw it in the garbage” was not on your list of possibilities. Nevertheless, throwing money in the garbage is what many of us do regularly when it comes to food. In 2008 the amount of uneaten food in homes and restaurants was valued at roughly $390 per U...

Conservation Food and Nutrition

Did You Just Toss that Carrot Stick Away?

May 21, 2013 Dr. Elise Golan, Director for Sustainable Development, Office of the Chief Economist, U.S. Department of Agriculture

Did you throw away any food today? If so, you are not alone. Many of us struggle to store or use up the last of the leftovers or think of something edible to do with those shriveled vegetables at the bottom of the chiller drawer. In fact, in 2010, 133 billion pounds of food in U.S. retail food...

Food and Nutrition
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