Food Waste

After grading and collecting research data, Larry Adams and his crew fill sweet potato sacks for delivery to the Leland Food Pantry in Leland, Mississippi. There, the freshly dug sweet potatoes will be distributed to low-income families and other needy members of the community. Adams, an...

Four-thousand and counting! 4,024 to be exact. That is the number of participants in the U.S. Food Waste Challenge at the end of April, 2015. These participants-- businesses, schools and organizations from across the country— are working to reduce food loss and waste in their operations. And, they...

Just like America, Europe is trying to address the challenge of how to feed the 9 billion people who will populate the world by the year 2050. In fact, the theme of ExpoMilano2015 – the world’s fair being held in Milan, Italy, this year – is “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life.” On May 1, the...

April 22 marks the 45 th celebration of Earth Day, with its theme of “It’s our turn to lead.” The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) is a leader in its support of cutting-edge sustainable and organic agricultural research. The USDA estimated that 31...

Sometimes Mother Nature and hard work come together to produce a bountiful harvest on the farm. But what if the grocery store, distributor, or processor that the farmer sells to can’t handle any excess? Or, what if a percentage of the crop turns out too big, too small, or oddly shaped and no one...

How many times have you gone into your pantry or refrigerator, only to find that what you were going to use in your meal was spoiled? The USDA, Cornell University and the Food Marketing Institute would like to help you avoid that problem in the future with our new application, the FoodKeeper. Every...

Beginning in August, food banks across the country competed to see who could sign up the most food donors to the U.S. Food Waste Challenge. From among the 200 food banks in the Feeding America network, the champion is City Harvest in New York City, which won by signing up 114 donors to the Challenge...

Less than 2 years ago, the USDA and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched the U.S. Food Waste Challenge, with the goal of reducing food waste in the United States. We set an ambitious goal of having at least 400 businesses, schools, and/or organizations join the challenge by...

November and December are traditionally times of celebration of various holidays in America, religious and secular. This is a time for enjoyment and fellowship in the company of family, friends, and neighbors. The celebrations almost always include gathering at dinner tables over feasts of the...

Thanksgiving is a time to appreciate all that is good in our lives and to spend it in the company of friends and family while enjoying great food. It is also a time to reflect on the bounty of our food supply. Each year, as I put away the leftovers from my Thanksgiving dinner, I marvel at the...