The USDA Food Loss and Waste program has a new home in the Research, Education and Economics mission area under USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA).
The Food Loss and Waste (FLW) program, formerly with the USDA Office of the Chief Economist, joins NIFA’s Institute of Food Safety and Nutrition’s program portfolio. USDA is in a unique position to help address the problems of FLW across the nation, including harmful impacts on climate heating and resources wasted throughout the food supply, from farm to fork.
Earlier this year, USDA, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) renewed their Federal Interagency Collaboration to Reduce Food Loss and Waste (FIFLAW) and brought in the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) as a new member. With the agreement’s renewal and expansion, the collaborating agencies will strengthen coordination to continue to produce educational and guidance materials, conduct outreach, community investments, voluntary programs, technical assistance, policy discussion and public-private partnerships.
Dr. Jean Buzby serves as USDA’s Food Loss and Waste Liaison, a position which coordinates federal, state, local and nongovernmental programs to measure and reduce the incidence of food loss and waste in the U.S.
Buzby said that the position is also responsible for providing guidance and resources on FLW reduction for internal and external stakeholders.
“Everyone has a role to play in reducing food loss and waste,” Buzby said. “Wasting less food can keep money in consumers' pockets. Food loss and waste can be an opportunity for businesses to save or make money, such as by transforming the food into other valuable products."
NIFA plays a critical part of USDA’s work on objectives in the National Strategy for Reducing Food Loss and Waste and Recycling Organics.
- Prevent food loss.
- Prevent food waste.
- Increase the recycling rate for all organic waste.
- Support policies that incentivize and encourage the prevention of food loss and waste and organics recycling.
Some recent NIFA actions addressing FLW include:
- Investing $2.5 million to rigorously test and measure the effectiveness of different consumer messages to encourage households to reduce food waste, in preparation for a National Wasted Food Prevention Campaign.
- Funding a $1.5 million Center for Research, Behavioral Economics and Extension on Food Loss and Waste to create meaningful momentum on food loss and waste prevention among Land-grant Universities, their partners and external stakeholders.
- Funding research and development on new food loss and waste innovations, such as innovative new packaging technology and cultivars to extend the shelf life of food and prevent loss.
Learn more about the USDA FLW program.