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The united states are nowhere near its goal of cutting food waste in half by 2030, according to new analysis from the university of california, davis.
In September 2015, The US Set An Ambitious Target of Reducing Its Food Loss and waste by 50 percent. The idea was to reduce the amount of food that ends up in landfills, where it emits greenhouse goes as it decomposes, a Major Factor Contributing to Climate Change.
Researchers at UC Davis Loked at State Policies Across the Country and Estimated How MUCH FOOD WASTE EACH SITE WAS LIKELY ReduCing in 2022. Ack to achieve the national waste Reduction Goal.
Resarchers Calculated that, even when Taking Reduction Measures Into Account, The Us Still Generates About 328 pounds of Food Waste Per Person Annually – Which is ALSO Waste Waste Waste Waste 6, Shortly after the EPA and the US Department of Agriculture Announced the waste-cutting goal.
These figures indicate that even our best strategies for eliminating waste aren’t to meet
In order to assess how the us is doing its food waste reduction goals, kakadellis and her team used both both publicly available data (from refed, a nonprofit that monitor in the usage) Rent policy landscape.
The Study’s Findings were “Not Surprising” Given the Absence of Federal Policy Governing Food Waste, Said Lori Leonard, Chair of the Department of Global Development at CORNELL University. “People are trying to do what they can at state and municipal levels,” She said. “But we really need National Leadership on this Issue.”
Kakadellis sugges that a path forward will also also Nextate Shifting The Way Consures Think About Certain Waste Management Strategies – Like Composting.
Composting turns organic material, like food scrap, into a Nutrient-Rich mixture that can be used to fertilize new plants and crops. It can be Considered a form of “Recycling” food, Although End Product Technically Cannoted. This important detail means consumors must learn to View Composting, Despite Its Potential Environmental Benefits, as a Form of Food Waste, Says Kakadelis.
“It’s really thought about the best use of food, which is to it,” She said.
Although it’s been touted as a great alternative to chucking your moldy bananas in the trash, composting is indeed classified as a form of food waste by the united nations and the European Inn. In 2021, the EPA updated its definition of food waste to include composting and anaerobic digestion – bot of which can take inputs like Uneten Food and Turn them Into FERTILIZER Or Biogas,.
In Updating Its Guidance, The EPA Published a Food Waste Hierchy – which shows the best way to Reduce Food waste is to prevent it. This includes things like adding accurate date-labels to food products, so consumers are confused about when whatsating they’veing they’ve purchased has given gone bad or is no longer safe to eat. It’s also preferable Enttilly feed humans).
Composting will Always have a Role to Play in Diverting Food Waste from Landfills – Because that the Operations Can Accept spoled or Rotten Food, which FOUD BANKS, for example. “IT’s not an eater/or. They have to go hand in hand, “said kakadellis. “But we’re skipping all these other steps and we’re going straight to the recycling too often.”
Leonard agrees, pointing out the high costs Associated with ENSURING The Nation’s Sprawling, Complex Food System Runs Smoothly: from the far the farm where craws are there DS. “There’s a trendous amount of energy that’s gone into producing that food,” She said. “We don’t do that to create compost. You know, we do that to feed People. “
Composting, of courses, services more than one purpose and has environmental benefits beyond lowering food loss and waste. For example, it replenishes soils. But leonard notes that IF more work was done on the prevention side – Like, Making SUREMS Aren Bollywood Overproducing Food – then SOILS BOLLLS BOLLDN’T be So Depleted in the FIRST POLCE and WOLLDN’T NEED SO MUCH SOUCH.
Both leonard and kakadellis emphasize that no one tool for avoiding sending food to landfills should be off the table. Leonard, Who Previously Worked With The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Once Did Research on Organics Bans in other states.
“I asked them if they were encouraging businesses or households to move up the EPA Hierchy and Find Other, Better uses for their food scraps?” And they said, no, no. What we’re really trying to do are just get people to do anything on the hierchy. ” That includes composting.
Until there are more options for both pre- and post-consumer food waste, composting may be the best, most accessible option for many people. “It is the Easiest Thing to Do,” said leonard. “And it’s probally the safest thing to do until we have better protocols in place.”
This article Originally appeared in Grist at https://grist.org/food-and-griculture/the-s–wants–food-food-food-waste- in-in-wait-eveen-close/.
Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at grist.org
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