Happy Earth Day from The Farmlink Project! 

Celebrating Earth Day allows us to reflect on what the Earth means to us and how we can change our lifestyles to better care for our planet. So today, as The Farmlink Project reflects on our organization’s relationship with Earth, we want to discuss one of the biggest culprits behind climate change: food waste. 

The problem with food waste is that extreme overconsumption and production occurs  in  high-income countries, whereas a lack of infrastructure contributes to drastic food spoilage and waste in low-income countries.  It is estimated that ⅓ of all food produced in the world goes to waste. From growing food, to packing and shipping it, the food production process is lengthy and complex. The process releases millions of tonnes of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere with every step. In fact, “the carbon footprint of U.S. food waste is greater than that of the airline industry.” According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, food waste accounts for about 8 percent of all greenhouse emissions worldwide. If food waste were a country, it would be the third largest emitting country in the world. 

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While these statistics appear bleak, not all hope is lost. Part of The Farmlink Project’s mission is to target and reduce food waste’s carbon footprint worldwide. By  redistributing and transporting food –food that would otherwise go to waste– to places in need within the U.S., we reduce the amount of food that would otherwise sit in a landfill decomposing a releasing methane, a greenhouse gas 25x more potent than carbon dioxide. 

Beyond supporting The Farmlink Project, there are so many ways in which you, (yes, you!), can make a difference in reducing food waste in your everyday life. In honor of Earth Day, here are some awesome ways you can harvest hope in your own home:

• Store your produce properly so it doesn’t spoil before you use it. 
• Make the most of your ‘scraps.’ Stems, leaves, peels, and skins are usually edible, and delicious if prepared correctly. Instead of tossing  your carrot tops, make a creamy pesto. Save your onion skins and lemon peels for flavorful soup stock. Leftover herbs? Whip up a chimichurri. 
• If you can’t eat it, compost it. Composting reduces methane emissions, and it also creates a product that can be used to grow more food. Explore at-home composting or check out your local options for compost pickup.

Thank you for joining us in our fight to reduce food waste and heal the earth!

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_{These changes are great. But how’s it all going to be funded?}

‍During the comment process, Farmlink, as well as other food rescue organizations and coalitions, raised critical questions about how the strategy would be funded and, as a result, which measures are feasible. In particular, we hoped for more clarity beyond the draft’s statement that the USDA would use American Rescue Plan Act and Inflation Reduction Act funds and the EPA would use Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds. Of the 86 programs or initiatives reviewed in the final strategy, only 15 are completely new programs announced in the strategy. 

The other 71 are existing programs or initiatives that either already have a food loss and waste focus or that the national strategy has repackaged as food loss and waste solutions. While we had hopes of new, innovative programs being included in the strategy, the good news with these 71 programs is that most, if not all, are already funded, meaning that they are not reliant on an increasingly turbulent Congress for implementation. Of the 15 new programs, which included the EPA’s new consumer education campaign and several new cooperative agreements with land-grant universities, only 2 had specific funding mechanisms. It has become increasingly clear that food rescue organizations and other stakeholders in the food and agriculture space should not consider this strategy as a new rollout of FLW solutions, programs, and funding but rather as an evaluation of the current resources and solutions and how each can be most effectively utilized to achieve the strategy’s goals. In particular, the framing of many of USDA’s programs as FLW solutions offers opportunities to utilize existing funding, data, and infrastructure to solve one of the United States’s most pressing problems.

Whats next?

Now that we have the strategy, it’s time to truly take advantage of the opportunities it presents. In the immediate future at Farmlink, we’re excited to continue optimizing Section 32 as a critical on-farm food loss solution as we anticipate significant surplus recoveries in the fall. As we move forward, we continue to advocate for dignity with food distribution, emphasizing cultural appropriateness and quality in every pound of food we rescue. As outlined in our comments, food rescue organizations are critical stakeholders and thought partners for the agencies. Our inclusion in the strategy as such is an opportunity we are taking full advantage of to help guide federal action to support farmers, feed communities, and heal the planet.