Welcome to the Food Policy Debrief, where we shed much-needed light on how corporations and organizations can engage with progressive food policy. Join us once a month as we provide news updates, demystify policy, and provide opportunities for advocacy!

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TL;DR

Food companies cement major partnerships to fight food insecurity and waste
Hy-vee becomes a WIC champion in Iowa
We unpack another new White House strategy (this time about food waste)

This Month’s Standout Food Stories

**How You Can Progress Food Policy This Month**

For food nonprofits: Littlefoot Adventures is relaunching its Climate Messaging Mastery for Food Nonprofits course, which empowers food-focused nonprofits with skills to connect with climate-focused donors and increase their impact in our food system.
For any organizations: The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition is calling on Congressional leaders to negotiate a 2024 Farm Bill that builds a more resilient, equitable, and sustainable food and farm system. Sign it here!

Bills We’re Tracking 👀

🥫 Food Date Labeling Act (H.R.3159/ S.1484): Four new co-sponsors signed onto the bill following a day of Gen Z advocacy last month.

🎓 Opportunities to Address College Hunger Act (S.2881/H.R.309):We launched a petition to help galvanize support for this legislation. Sign it here!

📜 Appropriations:

The House Appropriations Committee moved their Ag appropriations proposal forward on July 10th, but it may face trouble in the full House.
The Senate Appropriations Committee moved their Ag appropriations proposal forward on July 11th, including fully-funding WIC for a second consecutive year.

🥕 Farm Bill: As the deadline on last year’s Farm Bill extension comes near, experts think another extension is more likely than new legislation when Congress returns from August recess.

Social Impact Spotlight

Shedding light on companies leading by example and engaging in food policy in a meaningful way

Last month, Hy-Vee became the first retailer in Iowa to allow families enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program to order groceries online or use store pick-up at an Iowa grocer.

While this may seem like an obvious move, (why shouldn’t everyone be able to grocery shop with ease and convenience?!), it’s truthfully a huge feat and likely the result of an enormous administrative lift.

Food Waste National Strategy

This month, we’re diving into the White House’s National Strategy for Reducing Food Loss and Waste and Recycling Organics (not to be confused with the similar and related, but very different, White House National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health that we covered last month). We read all 42 pages so you don’t have to. Now let’s get into it…

What’s all the buzz about food waste?

We may be preaching to the choir here, but food waste is a huge problem. First off, American households spend a lot of money on food that ends up going to waste: The USDA found that, as of 2014 (yes, a decade ago), the average U.S. household spent nearly $1,500 a year on food that gets thrown away. If you account for rising prices and COVID-era inflation, that number is almost certainly higher today.

That leads us to our second reason why food waste is bad for us: climate change. After all that food waste ends up in landfills, it starts to break down (we can relate) into methane. Quick level-set: Methane is very, very bad for the atmosphere, where it’s a leading contributor to global warming and climate change. In fact, some scientists estimate food waste is responsible for 58% of the landfill methane emissions happening today. If you asked us how that made us feel about throwing food away ever again, we’d have some choice words.

Okay, that is a pretty huge problem. What does this plan do, then?

The National Strategy sums up its goal with one complex-compound sentence: Prevent the loss and waste of food; increase recycling of food and other organic materials to support a more circular economy for all; reduce GHG emissions; save households and businesses money; and build cleaner, healthier communities. The plan summarized a lot of programs and initiatives already going on in government, but it also introduced some new ideas and initiatives, and included lots of feedback from the food loss and waste community (more on that later). The plan lays out four proposed main objectives:

1. Prevent Food Loss

Additional efforts and funding for existing efforts across USDA to divert food to emergency food providers, provide infrastructure to farmers to prevent food waste and open up new markets and products to consumers;
Partnering with commodity boards to improve efficiency among providers and distributors; and
Funding research and development around cold storage and the food supply chain, as well as research into the fruit and vegetable supply chain.

2. Prevent Food Waste

Launching a consumer-facing education and behavior-change campaign, including efforts to educate kids through the National School Lunch Program being run out of Ohio State University,
Partnering with the U.S. Food Loss and Waste 2030 Champions to highlight the private sector’s response and encourage other private organizations to do the same;
Incentivizing food donation to charitable entities and reforming food date labeling, similar to the proposed Food Date Labeling Act, which has been supported by major companies such as Unilever, Wal-Mart, Kroger, and others, as well as the Zero Food Waste Coalition (hey, we know them!); and
Investing in behavioral science research to learn more about how to tangibly change consumer behavior around food waste.

3. Increase Recycling for Organics

Funding through USDA and EPA grants to build additional composting and recycling efforts across the country;
Expanding the markets for recycled organic waste by developing new products and uses for composted organic material; and
Identifying and scaling decentralized (i.e. at-home/in community) composting efforts and providing data to planners about how these solutions can be adopted in their communities.

4. Support Policies that incentivize and encourage food loss prevention and organic recycling

Enhancing the U.S.’s international presence and participation in coalitions such as the U.N.’s Food Is Never Waste Coalition, and through multilateral coalitions such as the G7 and G20, and
Enhancing coordination across federal, state, local, and tribal governments to establish and scale best practices.

So what is the private sector’s response so far?

By and large, the private sector has not only been incredibly supportive, but also has stepped up as a key partner in achieving the objectives set forth in the Strategy. When the draft strategy was released for public comment, many companies issued statements in support and offered up opportunities for the strategy to go even further. These include:

FMI– The Food Industry Association,
The Sustainable Food Policy Alliance (AKA Danone, Mars, Nestlé USA, and Unilever)
Grubhub (in partnership with FSC!)

Plus, there were several recommendations included in the final strategy that mirror comments, so the White House was clearly listening.

P.S. Check out Farmlink's deep dive into how their comments were incorporated here.

What now?

Don’t get us wrong, this is definitely progress and signifies the first major federal recognition of food waste, but it’s worth noting that the strategy doesn’t totally lead to actionable next steps, and, as we mentioned earlier, a lot of it is a summary of older work that’s already being done. That said, many industry players are now left wondering where we go from here—and are eagerly awaiting the announcement of a roll-out plan for the strategy (for all us non-agency folks!)

Not to mention, this Strategy is being released toward the end of the Biden administration. When a new Administration takes power in January 2025, it will remain to be seen if this Strategy is prioritized in the same way by a second Trump or Harris administration. That said, if you are a company planning to engage with the strategy, we would love to hear from/feature you, so please let us know!

Final Takeaways

So while you might’ve learned a lot from this breakdown, we want to leave you with an important civics lesson: administrative advocacy (aka, responding to Federal requests for comment) is an incredibly important form of advocacy that can make a huge impact! Regulations.gov even has a guide about how to make a quality comment on a proposed Strategy or regulation.

But also, you as a consumer have a role to play in reducing food waste, as well. Take it from our friends at ReFed and use their “Food Waste Five” to help reduce your own impact.