America’s Food Waste Problem Is a Hunger Solution in Disguise
Congress recently made it easier for restaurants and farmers to donate surplus food. Now local officials and business leaders must step up.
This is not where surplus food belongs.
Photographer: Kim Raff/Bloomberg
One of the final, unseen triumphs of the 117th Congress was the passage of the Food Donation Improvement Act, an obscure bill that could catalyze a major effort to solve the twin crises of hunger and food waste in America. But the landmark legislation will succeed only if private-sector leaders make sure it lives up to its promise.
Consider the following paradox: Americans waste more per capita than any nation on earth — a staggering 40% of our food ends up rotting in fields and landfills — while at the same time our population is becoming increasingly hungry. In the wake of the pandemic, 35 million Americans are food insecure — about 10% of our population — and the combined pressures of inflation, geopolitical conflict and climate change will only worsen the strain on global food production.