We've all read in the news about food waste. What resources were consumed to produce wasted food, how food in landfills contributes to methane emissions, and that despite all this excess food, how 42 million Americans live with food insecurity.
You might feel overwhelmed and wonder is anything being done about this? Well, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) worked together to create a goal, that we (as a nation) by 2030 would reduce our food waste and food loss by 50%.
Food Waste or Food Loss?
In case you are wondering about the difference between food waste and food loss:
- Food loss is happens more with the production of food (being packaged for sale and transportation)
- Food waste happens after the food has been prepared for people to eat it (at homes, restaurants, events, etc.)
Help Prevent Food Waste
We'd like to share with you some steps that you can start doing this holiday season to help prevent food waste.
On our Food Waste page, you will find a section titled, "How do I generate less food waste?" It has some ideas and steps you can incorporate.
If you are interested in more details, we would like to direct you to the U.S. EPA's Reducing Wasted Food at Home page. In the U.S. EPA article, you can get details on topics as varied as meal planning to understanding "sell by", "use by", and "best by" dates.