29 January 2020, Washington, DC – FAO North America and the World Food Law Institute at Howard University cohosted a roundtable discussion on public and private sector incentives to address food loss and waste, moderated by Prof. Marsha Echols.

“Since the first FAO report in 2011, estimating that one third of all food is lost or wasted, there is increasing attention on food loss and waste among policy makers and the general public. In 2015, food loss and waste reduction was also included under the Sustainable Development Goals in Target 12.3. The latest State of Food and Agriculture Report (SOFA) estimates that 14 percent the world’s food that is lost from post-harvest up to, but excluding, the retail level,”  Thomas Pesek, Senior Liaison Officer at FAO North America emphasized.

“We have to holistically look at food systems and the full scale of the problem of food loss and waste from an environmental, social and economic perspective,” Carola Fabi, Senior Statistician at FAO’s Statistics Division underscored. “There is a clear business case for reducing food loss and waste. However, there are investment costs and not all groups stand to gain, so one has to look at the impact on the whole society. Higher productivity and changes in the relative supply and prices will affect other actors in the food chain. For example, while consumer prices may decrease, the demand for inputs may also decrease, which might mean lower farmers’ incomes. The public sector has a role to play in addressing externalities and distributional impacts, and by creating incentives for the private sector and consumers to reduce food loss and waste.”

Renee Johnson, Policy Specialist at the Congressional Research Service (CRS) emphasized that CRS is a non-partisan think tank which provides policy and legal analysis to committees and Members of both the House and Senate. “Consumer waste is the largest source of food waste in the US. Besides initiatives from USDA, EPA and FDA, charitable tax deductions for food donations were made permanent since 2015. Modifying date labeling has been a task for the last three Congresses,” she emphasized. 

Jackie Wincek, Procurement and Sustainability Specialist at DC Central Kitchen, underlined that their school feeding program is complemented by a food education campaign, which also tests children’s preferences to reduce food waste. “There is an excess of supply in our food system, and we often cannot absorb all the food offered to us by food banks. While reducing food loss and waste has social and environmental benefits, financial incentives are often the strongest motive for action,” Wincek emphasized.

The participants concluded that education campaigns need to play a major role in food loss and waste reduction efforts, while food labels need to better inform consumer actions. Furthermore, the tradeoffs of food loss and waste reduction need to be taken into account, as stakeholders who do not reap the benefits from reducing food loss and waste should be compensated if they contribute to a public good such as reduced emissions or increased food security. 

 Stay tuned for FAO North America’s and World Food Law Institute’s upcoming FLW Symposium in Washington, DC.

Links:

SOFA 2019: Moving forward on food loss and waste reduction

http://www.fao.org/publications/sofa/en/

FAO’s work on Food Loss and Waste

http://www.fao.org/food-loss-and-food-waste/

World Food Law Institute

https://www.worldfoodlawinstitute.net/