Combating Food Waste through Collaboration

By: Amanda Gorzney

It’s a formidable statistic - 40 percent of all food produced in the United States is never consumed. This figure surpasses the amount of food wasted on a global scale with the rate close to 30 percent.

Last August, Iowa State University officially became a partner in taking action against food waste. Through a collaborative project, CALS faculty worked on a World Resources Institute report seeking to reduce worldwide food loss and waste by 1.3 billion tons by 2030.

The report, “Reducing Food Loss and Waste: Setting a Global Agenda,” calls on everyone, from governments to farmers to consumers, to tackle three critical components in the fight against food loss and waste. It has one main goal: to halve the amount of food loss and waste by 2030.

Major benefits are projected to emerge from this action, including decreased greenhouse gas emissions by 1.5 gigatons per year by 2050. Additionally, the need to convert an area the size of Argentina into agricultural land would be avoided. There is also a forecasted gap closure between food needed in 2050 and food available in 2010.

Dirk Maier, a professor in Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, is one of Iowa State University’s key researchers to collaborate on the report. As an agricultural engineer, Maier has primarily worked in the post-harvest sector with grain and perishable crops throughout the world.

As director of the recently formed Consortium for Innovation in Post-Harvest Loss and Food Waste Reduction, Maier became involved in the Global Agenda through his expertise. Maier had much to say about the issue of food loss and waste on a global scale, touching on the impact of food waste occurring primarily in middle and high-income countries.

Waste most often exists at the consumer level, but may also be prevalent during transportation. On the other hand, food loss predominantly takes place in smallholder venues where cold-chain storage or pest prevention are not available for crops. Developing countries in particular struggle with these resources due to the poor economic standings, creating a more substantial challenge with food loss.

The costs of food also play a significant role in the issue of food loss and waste. Maier explained that prices are lowest at the moment of harvest. If further preservation methods could be enacted, smallholder farmers could get higher value for their crops, taking steps toward combating food loss.

“If we rely on harvest prices, we will never solve the poverty problem,” Maier said. Many solutions lay present to overcoming global food loss and waste. Greater efficiencies in production and harvest methods, fair profit margins, composting, animal feed applications, food recovery initiatives and reduced second-day sales may all serve to combat this grand challenge.

The report “Reducing Food Loss and Waste: Setting a Global Agenda” calls on everyone, including you, to fight against food loss and waste. How will you play a role in eliminating food waste?