Farm Bureau Represented at USDA Food Waste Roundtable

Farm Bureau was well-represented at a roundtable discussion on food waste hosted by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue on Tuesday in Washington, D.C. Reps. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) and David Young (R-Iowa), food industry leaders and non-profit groups also participated. The roundtable was the first of many planned USDA public events on food waste.

Brett Reinford, a Pennsylvania dairy farmer and Farm Bureau member, and Mace Thornton, AFBF’s executive director of communications, attended. Reinford discussed how his family uses a methane digester on their dairy farm to process food waste into electricity. Thornton shared information about the recently launched No Taste For Waste campaign and coalition, of which AFBF is a member. No Taste For Waste was launched to raise awareness of the food waste issue.

While food loss and waste eats up nearly 40 percent of the food supply in the U.S., millions of Americans need access to safe, wholesome, affordable food. Consumers are responsible for most food loss and waste in the U.S., racking up almost 90 billion pounds annually, or 20 percent of the U.S. food supply. The retail sector is responsible for about 10 percent, totaling 43 billion pounds. USDA is uniquely positioned to address this problem by working with farmers, industry and consumers to raise food loss and waste awareness and share best practices. Read the USDA news release to learn more.