Food waste is not a new problem by any stretch of the imagination. However, the global supply chain disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic made the issue far more salient for producers, retailers, and consumers. People everywhere seemed suddenly much more interested in addressing wasteful practices. Where have we gone from there? What is the real impact of food waste? Most importantly, what can we do about it?

Food waste is evident in every part of the supply chain: Farmers lose income on foods they cannot sell. Fuel is wasted in the transportation of food that spoils. Retailers lose out on waste in the store. Consumers throw food away, wasting the money they have spent and missing out on the potential nutrition.

Early in the supply chain—during production, processing, or transportation—this is often described as food loss to distinguish it from the wasted food that consumers throw away; but that is just semantics: all such forms of loss and inefficiency deserve a place in the broader category of food waste. Irrespective of the numerous stages at which it occurs and how we label it, wasted food is a critical concern in the modern food system that we must address.

United States Food Waste, by the Numbers

Between thirty and forty percent of the US food supply goes wasted annually.^[1] According to estimates from the Economic Research Service (ERS) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), just under a third of this loss occurs at the retail and consumer levels. Factors contributing to waste earlier in the supply chain include

• inadequate field labor to support full harvests,
• storage and preservation equipment malfunctioning,
• poor care during transportation,
• unnecessarily large orders, and
• an overemphasis on “attractive” food at the retail level.

Overall, the US leads the world in food waste, throwing away an average of 120 billion pounds of food annually (325 pounds per person), amounting to approximately $218 billion lost.^[2]

Global Food Waste Statistics

The rest of the world is not doing much better: “An amount of land larger than China [plus 45 trillion gallons of water] is used every year to produce food that no one will eat.”^[3] Consumers in more economically developed countries consistently contribute to and underestimate their contribution to food waste. In countries with less prosperous economies, a significant portion of food is wasted before leaving the farm. What about specific food groups? Fruits and vegetables comprise the majority of what is generally accepted as food waste; however, the inherent wastefulness of producing animal-sourced food—too often overlooked—is also astronomical.^[4] To give just one example, nearly half of today’s crop production, and all of the resources that go into that production, is not even destined for human consumption.

On average, more than one trillion dollars worth of food is wasted annually.^[4] Meanwhile, nearly a third of the global population is moderately or severely food insecure.

Strategies for Reducing Food Waste

To address the causes of food loss and waste, we must achieve substantial supply chain reforms and transform consumer behaviors. Many national and international programs are ostensibly focusing on the following key areas:

Increasing public awareness of

• where to buy fresh, local produce,
• how to use the many different edible parts of plants,
• food donation and composting opportunities, and
• the municipal infrastructure available to help reduce food waste.

Educating consumers about

• proper food storage and preservation,
• meal planning and shopping,
• the meaning and purpose of “best by” and “use by” dates,
• using food that is about to go bad, and
• food waste–reduction initiatives and ways they can get involved.

Supporting more sustainable agriculture by

• promoting local production and regenerative practices,
• investing in urban and vertical farming operations,
• prioritizing currently underserved areas and hungry populations, and
• encouraging partnerships between local farms and businesses.

Creating new products by reusing or repurposing

• “ugly” or misshapen produce,
• spent brewery grains,
• leftover fermentation liquid,
• fruit and vegetable pulp discarded after juicing, and
• leaves from plants like broccoli and cauliflower.

Developing waste-reduction technologies to

• better track products throughout the supply chain,
• monitor food waste trends in the restaurant and hospitality industries,
• reveal the areas of greatest loss across industries, and
• create edible plant-based produce coatings that prolong shelf life.

However, these objectives comprise only part of our ability to reduce food waste. Regarding the final bulleted list, it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that technology will solve all of our problems; this is a mistake, considering everything we can already do to reduce food waste without waiting for the intervention of novel technologies.

The USDA has proposed a goal of halving national food waste by 2030, yet if we want to live in a society where food waste is truly a thing of the past, we should broaden our definition of waste and target current and recent consumer habits and policy decisions that facilitate gross inefficiency.^[1] Despite the USDA’s stated goals, it continues to spend billions subsidizing land- and resource-inefficient animal-food industries.^[5]

References

1. “Food Waste FAQs.” USDA. https://www.usda.gov/foodwaste/faqs.
2. “Food Waste in America in 2025: Statistics + Facts.” Recycle Track Systems. https://www.rts.com/resources/guides/food-waste-america/.
3. Goodwin L and Lipinski B. “How much food does the world really waste? What we know – and what we don’t.” World Resources Institute. November 25, 2024. https://www.wri.org/insights/how-much-food-does-the-world-waste
4. United Nations Environment Programme. 2024. Food Waste Index Report 2024. Think Eat Save: Tracking Progress to Halve Global Food Waste. https://wedocs.unep.org/20.500.11822/45230
5. Rosenberg B and Hayes J. USDA livestock subsidies top $72B. Environmental Working Group (EWG). October 28, 2024. https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news/2024/10/usda-livestock-subsidies-top-59-billion