America still wastes about a third of its food, and is falling short of a pledge to halve food waste between 2010 and 2030, according to a new report from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The situation is undesirable not only because it wastes money, but because landfilled food generates methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
Food waste is estimated to range from 73 million to 152 million metric tons per year, enough to feed 150 million people. As for greenhouse gases, “changes to the food system are essential” if the U.S. is to meet the goal of the Paris Agreement to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5°C, the EPA’s report says.
The USDA and the EPA announced a plan in 2015 to cut food waste in half by 2030 compared to a 2010 baseline, when 31% of food was wasted. An EPA official told Reuters that the anti-waste initiative was underfunded and that the government’s new strategy will likely be based on public awareness campaigns.
Meanwhile, bipartisan legislation has been introduced that would make it easier for restaurants and others to give excess food away to people who need it by extending liability protection.
Food donors already are protected from liability for food poisoning and other problems when they give food away for free to a charitable organization. The Food Donation Improvement Act would extend that protection to situations where food is sold at reduced cost for charitable purposes, given directly to needy individuals, or repurposed into things like animal feed. The legislation was introduced in the Senate by Sens. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.).
