Make Your Voice Heard!

Call on Policy Makers to Prioritize Food Waste Prevention

Food Waste- It’s a HUGE Problem

Each year farmers, manufacturers, households, and other businesses in the United States spend $444 billion to grow, process, transport, and dispose of food that is never eaten (1). Additionally, according to the EPA, “uneaten food accounts for approximately 16% of U.S. agricultural land and enough energy to power more than 50 million U.S. homes (2). 

UFA is working to elevate and amplify the upcycled food industry, and we have a huge opportunity to do this by urging those in Congress to support the recently introduced NO TIME TO Waste Act by recommending the provisions for inclusion in the 2023 Farm Bill. The Act allocates federal funding to research the impact of upcycling and deliver consumer education campaigns centered around food waste prevention including upcycled products.

The best way to help us raise the profile of the NO TIME TO Waste Act and win more Congressional support for food waste prevention in the Farm bill over the coming weeks is to let your representatives in Congress know of your support. Check out our toolkit which contains a letter to send to your representatives in Congress and social media posts you can use to amplify your support.


2023 US Farm Bill Advocacy


Investment in the upcycled food industry via the 2023 Farm Bill expands support for a bipartisan issue and aligns U.S. law with the 95% of consumers who believe it’s important to do their part to reduce food waste (3). We’re sending a letter to urge Congress to support the upcycled food industry growth  by including our policy priorities, doubling down on striving to reach national and global goals to reduce food loss and waste 50% by 2030.

Read the letter here.

Add your organization to our collective voice.

UFA Policy Priorities

Provide Financial Incentives to Businesses for the Adoption of Technologies that Reduce Food Waste 

Financial incentives support meaningful progress towards sustainability targets through adoption of more efficient product distribution systems, forecasting, inventory management, and temperature monitoring.


Provide grant funding for new technologies to reduce food spoilage and food waste

This creates a dual opportunity for economic and environmental impact across the agriculture and manufacturing sectors by bringing more upcycled foods to market and curbing food waste throughout the supply chain.


Fund a National Food Waste Education and Awareness Campaign

An educational campaign is necessary to address food waste in the home, and upcycled products should be included as an impactful way for Americans to fight food waste.



(4)

Thanks to the following organizations that support this effort:

Zero Food Waste Coalition Members:

  • Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic

  • Natural Resources Defense Counci

Upcycled Food Association Members:

  • 4Good

  • Amai Inc.

  • Apparo Inc.

  • Asterism Healthcare

  • Atomo Coffee

  • Avocado Tea Co.

  • Bake Me Healthy

  • Catapult Commercialization Services

  • Chia Smash

  • The Coffee Cherry Co.

  • The Conscious Pet

  • Dog & Whistle

  • Enagon LLC

  • Faba

  • GTF Technologies

  • Happy Moose Juice, Inc.

  • Hiperbaric

  • Just Date

  • The Kawa Project

  • Know Your Fruit

  • Leashless Lab

  • Lifestock

  • Littlefoot Ventures

  • Matriark Foods

  • Mattson

  • Mixtape FoodCo.

  • Misfits Market

  • NETZRO, SBC

  • Novozymes North America

  • Nutraberry, LLC

  • Pulp Pantry

  • Redemption Road Foods, Inc.

  • Renewal Mill

  • Replate

  • Rescuing Leftover Cuisine

  • Sierra Agra USA

  • Solsbury Hill Scoop Shoppe and Bakery

  • The Spare Food Co.

  • Superfrau

  • TBJ Gourmet

  • The Varick Group LLC

  • THEO’s Plant-Based

  • Tia Lupita Foods

  • Upcycled Foods, Inc.

  • WAJU Water

  • Wheyward Spirit

*Additional supporters will be added on a rolling basis.

Footnotes:

1- ReFED. The Food Waste Problem. 2023 https://refed.org/food-waste/the-problem/ (Accessed June 22, 2023).

2- U.S. EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency). From Farm to Kitchen: The Environmental Impacts of U.S. Food Waste. (2018)

https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2021-11/from-farm-to-kitchen-the-environmental-impacts-of-u.s.-food-waste_508-tagged.pdf (Accessed June 12, 2023)

3-Mattson 2021 Study on Food Waste.

4- Additional signatories will be added on a rolling basis