In the United States, nearly 40 percent of all food produced is never eaten, resulting in lost resources, economic costs to business and households, decreased food security, and negative climate impacts.
With the United States moving toward an ambitious goal of halving food waste by 2030, a new $15 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) will be used to establish the first national academic research network on wasted food in the United States.
Under the grant, researchers from American University will lead 13 other institutions in a five-year project aiming to deepen understanding of how the causes of wasted food are interconnected and how they intersect with other regional systems beyond food. Researchers will take a systems approach to improving data on wasted food, with the goal of designing and strengthening sustainable solutions to reducing food waste.
Callie Babbitt, a professor of sustainability in RITs Golisano Institute for Sustainability (GIS), will serve as a co-principal investigator for the project, titled Multiscale RECIPES for Sustainable Food Systems, which officially kicked off Oct. 1. RECIPES is short for Resilient, Equitable and Circular Innovations with Partnership and Education Synergies.
Read more at Rochester Institute of Technology
Photo Credit: Taz via Wikimedia Commons
