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 works to elevate and amplify the upcycled food industry, including by urging those in Congress to support the recently introduced NO TIME TO Waste Act. The Act allocates federal funding to research the impact of upcycling and deliver consumer education campaigns centered around food waste prevention including upcycled products.

Check out our toolkit which helped US UFA members reach their representatives in Congress with social media posts to amplify support.


US Farm Bill Advocacy


Investment in the upcycled food industry via the 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 sent 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 our 2023 US Farm Bill Advocacy 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.


Read the US National Strategy for Reducing Food Loss and Waste and Recycling Organics here.

(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 Council

Upcycled Food Association Members*

  • Amai Inc.

  • Apparo Inc.

  • Atomo Coffee

  • Bake Me Healthy

  • Smash Foods

  • The Coffee Cherry Co.

  • The Conscious Pet

  • Dog & Whistle

  • GTF Technologies

  • Just Date

  • Know Your Fruit

  • Leashless Lab

  • Lifestock

  • Matriark Foods

  • Mattson

  • Misfits Market

  • NETZRO, SBC

  • Nutraberry, LLC

  • Renewal Mill

  • Rescuing Leftover Cuisine

  • Sierra Agra USA

  • Smash Foods

  • Solsbury Hill Scoop Shoppe and Bakery

  • The Spare Food Co.

  • TBJ Gourmet

  • The Varick Group LLC

  • Tia Lupita Foods

  • Trashy

  • Upcycled Foods, Inc.

  • Wheyward Spirit

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

*Additional supporting members will be added on a rolling basis