Jan 21- Rockefeller Foundation and Champions 12.3 Announce New Efforts to Reduce Global Food Waste

This week at the annual World Economic Forum, held in Switzerland, two significant announcements that aim to reduce global food loss and waste were made. The Rockefeller Foundation will be launching YieldWise, a $130 million collaborative initiative in which private and government stakeholders will work to create a global food system that yields minimal food waste.

 A coalition of 30 leaders working to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically Target 12.3 which has a goal to cut per capita food loss and waste in half by 2030- Champions 12.3 - has announced plans to accelerate their efforts to reduce food waste. They hope to inspire more action by motivating others, leading by example, and advocating for innovative technology to reduce food waste.

Discarded food makes up 18% of all landfill waste, and much of this waste comes from prematurely discarded food due to the misinterpretation of expiration date labels. Not only is there a clear economic loss in this discarded food, but also social and environmental consequences. According to the World Resources Institute, “It contributes to hunger. And lost and wasted food consumes about one quarter of all water used by agriculture, requires cropland area the size of China, and generates about 8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions” (wri.org).

This year CAW has an ambitious agenda for reducing food waste in California, including standardizing confusing expiration date labels, creating tax incentives for donating food, and supporting increased funding for food recovery organizations.

Read more about Food Waste here.