Learn More About Food Waste In America
This library contains an array of curated content from reputable leaders in the mission to prevent good food from being lost as food waste.
The Society of St. Andrew (SoSA) is dedicated to the twofold mission of preventing food waste and ending hunger.
Through a variety of projects, people like you prevent more than 20-40 million pounds of food going to waste each year through SoSA’s Network.
Many of these resources will take you to outside sites. Please be sure to come back and get involved as a leader in the mission to prevent waste and end hunger— in your community!
SoSA’s Library Of Food Waste Resources
(If you have resources that belong in this library, please send a PDF or synopsis to info@endhunger.org.)
| Click Here | A Beginner’s Guide To Food Waste | Food waste is a vast problem that impacts our world in many ways— environmentally, socially, and financially. This guide provides an easy-to-understand overview of the current food waste landscape as it prepares you for your next steps into getting actively involved in solving the problem. Source: SpoilerAlert.Com (May 2017) |
| Click Here | Economic Drivers of Food Loss at the Farm Level | This report thoroughly explores assorted factors that contribute to the loss and waste of fresh fruits and vegetables at the farm and other pre-retail levels. It concludes that some of the main causes of food loss and waste include: price volatility in the market, labor constraints, supply chain issues, grades and standards, and consumer preferences. Source: ERS.USDA.gov (Jan. 2020) |
| Click Here | 2018 Wasted Food Report | This exhaustive report, conducted by the EPA, used a revised and enhanced food measurement methodology to assess the quantities of excess food and food waste moved through the food system. The results of this report provide granular annual estimates of the amount of food generated, managed, and lost across various sectors. Source: EPA.gov (Dec. 2020) |
| Click Here | Preventing Wasted Food At Home | Most people don’t realize how much good food they throw away every day— resulting in food loss and waste. Often much of this could have been stored, eaten, or repurposed. Preventing food from going to waste right in your own home is one of the easiest and most powerful you can save money, prevent food waste, and conserve natural resources. Source: EPA.gov (April 2022) |
| Click Here | Estimating and Addressing America’s Food Losses | In the Spring of 1997, the ERS published its first summary calculations of food loss. The article analyzed the magnitude of food losses at the retail, food service, and consumer levels and at each level, it looked for solutions to reduce losses through food recovery, recycling, and education. Source: ERS.USDA.gov (Jan. 1997) |
| Click Here | Food Waste Focused Blog | Foodservice organizations across the world use Leanpath to measure and prevent food waste—saving time, money, and the environment. Source:Leanpath.com |
| Click Here | Good Laws, Good Food | Putting Local Food Policy to Work for Our Communities Source: Harvard Law Food and Policy Clinic (Sept. 2017) |
| Click Here | Keeping Food Out of the Landill: Policy Ideas | This lengthy document from the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic is a powerful resource for those who want to encourage state and local governments to take action against food waste. Source: FurtherWithFood.Org (Oct. 2016) |
| Click Here | Saving Water: From Field to Fork | A hidden problem behind the food crisis is that as much as half of all food grown is lost or wasted before and after it reaches the consumer. This study revealed that when food is wasted, water is wasted too. This policy brief calls on society to reduce by half the amount of food wasted and outlines concrete steps to achieve this goal. Source: Siwi.Org (Nov. 2008) |
| Click Here | The Economic Cost of Domestic Hunger | This report is the first analysis of the total cost burden of what it costs the American public to tolerate hunger and food insecurity in our nation. Bipartisan efforts in the 1970s led to policies that resulted in significant reductions in hunger; however, since the 1980s hunger has not only became more severe but has remained at high levels for at least the past decade. Source: US.Stop-Hunger.Org/Home.Html (June 2007) |
| Click Here | The Estimated Amount of Postharvest Food Losses | In the U.S. alone, 31 percent- or 133 billion pounds- of the 430 billion pounds of the available food supply at the retail and consumer levels in 2010 went uneaten. This was an estimated $161.6 billion using retail prices and 1,249 calories per capita per day. Source: ERS.USDA.gov (Feb. 2014) |
| Click Here | Facts and Statistics About U.S. Hunger and Poverty | This website about world hunger provides a wealth of numbers and statistics answering questions such as, “How many hungry people are there in the U.S.?” and “Where are food deserts in the U.S.?” Source: WorldHunger.Org (Sept. 2018) |
| Click Here | Wasted: How America Is Losing Up to 40 Percent of Its Food (2nd ed.) | This 2nd edition is an update to the groundbreaking report published in 2012 by the NRDC. It revealed that up to 40 percent of food in the United States goes uneaten. That’s an average 400 pounds of food, per person, per year. All of the wasted inputs associated with growing, processing, shipping, and disposing of that food cost an estimated $218 billion each year— costing the average household $1,800 annually. Source: NRDC.Org (Aug. 2017) |
| Click Here | From Farm to Kitchen: The Environmental Impacts of U.S. Food Waste | More than a third of the food produced in the U.S. is never eaten, wasting the resources used to produce it and creating a host of environmental impacts. This wasted food presents opportunities to increase food security, foster productivity and economic efficiency, promote resource and energy conservation, and address climate change. Source: EPA.gov (2021) |
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