According to the USDA, 40 percent of America’s food goes to waste. That’s 133 billion pounds of food annually, overloading landfills and increasing our carbon footprint. Food waste occurs in every phase of the food supply chain from agricultural production and post-harvest handling and storage, to processing, distribution and the consumer.
In an effort to increase awareness of food waste, the College offered several student seminars, including “Close to Home: Connecticut-Based Efforts to Reduce Food Waste”; “Sustainable Urbanization: The Future of Food”; “Getting Real About Food Waste: the British Perspective”, and the “Tasty Waste Lunch,” where UConn’s Dining Services served a meal produced from safe and nutritious food that would have otherwise been discarded. The Tasty Waste Lunch was well attended by more than 1200 students.
As a culminating event, the UConn Science Salon presented “Throwing It All Away: America’s Food Waste Epidemic,” on April 6 at the Spotlight Theatres in Hartford. The event was open to the public and featured several panelists including Interim Dean Cameron Faustman; Chelsea Connery, doctoral student in educational policy in the Neag School of Education; and John Mandyck, chief sustainability officer for United Technologies Corporation.
