USDA Delivers on Ways to Prevent Food Waste

From USDA:

Posted by Elise Golan, Director of Sustainability Development, USDA, on December 15, 2014 at 9:30 AM

Researchers at USDA Agricultural Research Service help reduce food waste by developing new ways to extend food shelf life and by creating new food products, biobased plastics, and animal feed from food waste. USDA photo by Stephen Ausmus.

Less than 2 years ago, the USDA and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched the U.S. Food Waste Challenge, with the goal of reducing food waste in the United States.  We set an ambitious goal of having at least 400 businesses, schools, and/or organizations join the challenge by letting us know what they are doing to reduce food waste in their operations.  USDA also committed to finding ways in which its 33 agencies and offices could help reduce food waste through policy, partnerships, and research.

As of today, we have surpassed our membership goal by signing up 1,313 participants in the U.S. Food Waste Challenge.

The number and diversity of participants joining the challenge are indicative of a growing movement to reduce food waste that is spreading across the country.

Founding members, Rio Farms, Unilever, General Mills, and the Food Waste Reduction Alliance have been joined by members from across the food supply chain.  Hannaford, a supermarket chain in the Northeast, recently joined the U.S. Food Waste Challenge and shared the many ways in which it keeps food from ending up in landfills.  Using the “food recovery hierarchy,” Hannaford tries to reduce food waste at the source by having fresh products delivered on a daily basis instead of 3-4 times per week.  Daily deliveries lead to more accurate ordering, less food waste, and improvements in quality.  Safeway, another supermarket chain participating in the U.S. Food Waste Challenge, donates the wholesome, edible food that goes unsold in their stores to feed hungry people.  In 2013, Safeway recovered and donated 72 million pounds of food to hunger relief organizations.

Other participants in our challenge like K-12 schools, universities, and sports teams are also involved in food recovery and donation activities.  With the help of organizations like Campus Kitchens and Food Recovery Network, over 120 colleges and universities have started food recovery efforts in their dining facilities to donate wholesome unsold food to local food pantries.  Sports teams like the Milwaukee Brewers and movie studios like NBC Universal have also signed up for the challenge because of their work with Rock and Wrap It Up!, an organization that recovers and donates unsold food at sporting events and movie shoots.

Moving down the food recovery hierarchy, some participants in our challenge keep food from landfills by converting it to livestock feed.  Four Minnesota schools in the Chisago Lakes School District have their food waste picked up by Barthold Pig Farm, where it is then heated and fed to pigs. The 72 McDonalds’ in Hawaii now sell their used cooking oil to Pacific Biodiesel, where it is then recycled into fuel.

Not to be outdone by all of our U.S. Food Waste Challenge participants, the USDA also delivered on reducing food waste through our policies, partnerships, and research.  USDA Economic Research Service (ERS) continues to study and provide estimates on how much food goes uneaten at the retail and consumer level.  The estimated pounds, monetary value, and calories of food loss that USDA ERS reportshelps policymakers, the food industry, and nonprofits better explain the food waste issue to the public, make recommendations, and set targeted goals.

Through the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), the USDA is researching and developing new products that help 1) reduce food spoilage; 2) reuse waste from food processing to produce new value-added products; and 3) recycle food waste into livestock feed or biobased products such as biodegradable plastics. ARS, for example, helped Gorge Delight, a grower-owned business, develop a 100% fruit bar that uses blemished or damaged apples and pears from their orchards that would have otherwise been discarded.  Not only does ARS’s work help reduce food waste, but it also creates new economic opportunities in rural areas.

For consumers and families, USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has updated the “Ask Karen” website, which is visited over 10 million times a year, to answer people’s questions on how to safely handle, prepare, and store food.  FSIS, which is responsible for ensuring that the nation’s commercial supply of meat, poultry, and egg products is safe and correctly labeled, recently streamlined procedures for donating wholesome misbranded meat and poultry products.  In April 2014, as a result of this directive, FSIS was involved in the donation of approximately 84,310 pounds of misbranded pork sausage.  The misbranded product was donated to the Westmoreland County Food Bank and Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.

Finally, here at USDA headquarters in Washington, D.C., the cafeteria, which serves up to 3,000 people a day, has found some innovative ways to reduce food waste.  The dining service company, IL Creations, holds “Happy Hour” from 2:30 pm – 3:00 pm, at which food is sold at a 30% discount to reduce the amount of unsold leftovers.  For people with eyes bigger than their stomachs, USDA has promoted composting and made it easy for employees by placing composting bins all over the building.   In 2014, USDA headquarters composted about 2,650 pounds of food waste per week.  This represents about a 10% increase from 2013, which is double our original goal of a 5% increase.

The goal we had for launching the U.S. Food Waste Challenge was to help inspire organizations and individuals across the food supply chain to start reducing, recovering, and recycling food waste in their day-to-day operations.  What we didn’t expect was how much your energy, passion, and support would push us to do more.  Indeed there is so much more work to be done to reduce food waste in America, and we want to continue working on this issue for years to come.

USDA FSIS recently changed guidelines on donation of mislabeled meat and poultry products. In April 2014, this new directive led to 84,310 pounds of misbranded pork sausage being donated to local food pantries instead of being dumped into a landfill.

Celebrating Our Glorious Planet

USDA Blog Post:

Posted by Tara Weaver-Missick, USDA Agricultural Research Service Information Staff, on April 22, 2014 at 10:00 AM

Map of USDA’s Long-Term Agro-ecosystem Research (LTAR) sites and farm resource regions.

During the month of April we will take a closer look at USDA’s Groundbreaking Research for a Revitalized Rural America, highlighting ways USDA researchers are improving the lives of Americans in ways you might never imagine. For example, finding sustainable ways to produce food for Americans and the growing global population.

Today is Earth Day, which gives us the opportunity to celebrate the magnificence of our planet.  It’s a day to observe and support our environmental commitment to our planet now and in the future.

USDA scientists play an important role in protecting our environment.  Much of our research is focused on finding sustainable agricultural solutions to producing food, feed and fiber to meet our nation’s and the world’s ever-growing demand.  We develop environmentally friendly practices that farmers, ranchers, and others involved in food production can integrate into their operations.

One such project spearheaded by USDA-Agricultural Research Service scientists is the Long-Term Agro-ecosystem Research (LTAR) network, which addresses how to intensify production while minimizing environmental impact.  ARS established LTAR—which includes 18 experimental watersheds, rangelands and farms—to more closely coordinate and examine large-scale, multi-year research, environmental management and technology transfer efforts related to the nation’s agricultural ecosystems.

ARS scientists are gathering data from these sites to evaluate and develop practices that help keep farmers in business, but that are economical as well.  To do so, scientists will analyze agricultural production, environmental quality, natural resource use and economic return over the next 30 to 50 years, against a background of global population growth, land use change and climate variability that makes predicting future trends difficult.  LTAR sites are spread across the United States and are located in major watersheds—each with its own unique landscape, environmental influences and habitat. Each region has its own unique environment and growing conditions that farmers and ranchers have to weigh.  Information derived from this project will be used to develop site- and region-specific agricultural production practices that protect and enrich our natural resources.

LTAR network research will help producers provide agricultural and other ecosystem-related goods and services under changing environmental conditions to meet society’s changing demands on natural resources.

When the network was formed in February 2011, it began with 10 sites.  Seeing a critical need for even more robust data, in 2014 ARS added eight more LTAR sites, filling network gaps in key agricultural regions. The driving factor behind this network approach to gathering and conducting long-term research was the need to provide enough food, feed, fiber and fuel for a global population expected to grow to more than 9 billion people by 2050.

Changing climatic conditions, like extreme temperatures and precipitation, have a major impact on our global food production system—and related natural resources used to produce that food.  ARS scientists and our partners are searching for sustainable solutions that will help us be good stewards of the earth and its environment.

USDA scientists are doing their part to preserve our planet for generations to come.  Happy Earth Day!

USDA Collection Preserves Garlic's Genetic Diversity

USDA Blog Post:

Posted by Jan Suszkiw, USDA Agricultural Research Service Information Staff, on March 25, 2014 at 2:00 PM

“This group of diverse garlic germplasm represents all the types that might be found at a farmer’s market.” Photo courtesy of Barbara Hellier, ARS

This post is part of the Science Tuesday feature series on the USDA blog. Check back each week as we showcase stories and news from the USDA’s rich science and research portfolio.

Raw or dehydrated, garlic is a staple ingredient in dishes the world over. This herb, Allium sativum, is also the focus of medical research investigating the health-imparting properties of allicin, a compound that gives garlic its pungent aroma and flavor.

Americans consumed 2.3 pounds of garlic per person in 2010. Perhaps most familiar to consumers is the large white bulb commonly sold in supermarkets. But there’s more diversity there than meets the eye, or the taste buds, says USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) horticulturist Barbara Hellier.

It’s no exaggeration to say Hellier knows her garlic—and her leeks, chives, shallots, and wild onions, for that matter.

Hellier is curator of the National Plant Germplasm System’s Allium Collection at the ARS Western Regional Plant Introduction Station in Pullman, Wash. She oversees the maintenance, description, and distribution of 293 garlic specimens, 16 primitive garlics, 207 leeks, 44 chives, and 579 wild, ornamental and native Allium species.

“What we see in supermarkets is generally one type—a white softneck type and elephant garlic, which isn’t really garlic, but rather a type of leek,” Hellier says. Garlic lovers with a taste for something a bit more diverse might try a farmer’s market, for example, or place an order with a specialty grower. “At a farmer’s market, shoppers are likely to come across more of the true diversity of garlic, like the hardneck purple to purple-stripe types; small, pearly white silverskins; creole-type hardneck with red clove skin; or  white hardnecks with fiery hot taste.”

The Pullman collection includes garlic specimens acquired from around the world—but especially Central Asia, the crop’s point of origin—and serves as a backup to varieties grown commercially in the United States.

Today’s garlic is vegetatively propagated, meaning it’s grown from cloves, not seed. However, “There is no potential for breeding new varieties with vegetatively produced plants,” notes Hellier.  Recently, she and ARS colleague Phil Simon have been assisting small-scale growers seeking to reverse that trend using several of the collection’s seed-producing garlics.

“It will be interesting to watch what comes from the efforts of these growers trying to produce true seed,” she says. “They have passion for garlic and are looking for novel traits.”

Jointly Developed Watershed Assessment Model Being Used in Yosemite National Park

USDA Blog Post:

Posted by Tara T. Weaver-Missick, USDA-Agricultural Research Service Information Staff, on December 3, 2013 at 3:00 PM

Bridalveil Falls, Yosemite National Park, California (USDA-NRCS photo by Ron Nichols).

This post is part of the Science Tuesday feature series on the USDA blog. Check back each week as we showcase stories and news from USDA’s rich science and research portfolio.

An award-winning watershed assessment tool, the Automated Geospatial Watershed Assessment (AGWA), was deployed to assess potential Rim Fire threats in Yosemite National Park in California.  The park experienced a devastating fire that began on August 17, 2013, and took several months to contain. The fire burned more than 400 square miles in and around the park, cost $125.8 million to date, and is considered one of the largest wildfires in California’s history.

BAER (Burned Area Emergency Response) is a multi-agency group that includes USDA’s Forest Service and others, and is responsible for identifying potential threats such as downstream flooding and developing plans to rehabilitate and restore burned areas. BAER teams use AGWA to target immediate efforts to prevent threats to people, wildlife and the land.  Using AGWA combined with the burn severity map produced by BAER teams, experts can rapidly pull together information on pre- and post-fire conditions. For example, knowing where to apply mulch after a fire can reduce runoff and erosion and can help minimize downstream risks from fire induced land cover and soil changes.

AGWA has already been successfully used for post-fire BAER team watershed assessments following fires in Arizona, New Mexico, California, Idaho and Washington.  AGWA was jointly developed by scientists with the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Southwest Watershed Research Center in Tucson, AZ, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Universities of Arizona and Wyoming.

ARS researchers and their partners originally developed the computer model as a multipurpose computer system and software tool designed for managing and analyzing water quantity and quality to help keep our Nation’s watersheds cleaner. AGWA uses nationally available data sources to rapidly establish and execute results from two ARS-developed watershed models, the Kinematic Runoff and Erosion Model (KINEROS2) and the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT).  It enables the user to visualize and compare model results to understand the impact of a certain practice on a given landscape.

How we manage activities that take place on crop production areas, rangelands, pastures, forests, meadows, and urban areas influences the quantity and quality of water available for domestic, industrial, agricultural and ecological uses. You can learn more about AGWA at www.tucson.ars.ag.gov/agwa.

USDA Researchers Working Together to Conserve Our Nation's Resources

USDA Blog Post:

Posted by Tara T. Weaver-Missick, Chief, Information Products and Services Branch, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Information Staff, on September 11, 2013 at 1:30 PM

USDA researchers are working together to protect and conserve our beautiful nation and all of its majestic natural resources for generations to come.  As part of USDA’s Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP), more than 60 USDA-Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists are working together to gain a better understanding of the role that agricultural conservation programs and practices play in achieving our nation’s environmental objectives of clean air and water, healthy soils and flourishing natural habitats.

USDA began the CEAP program in 2003 to study the environmental benefits of conservation practices implemented through 2002 Farm Bill programs.  As part of CEAP, ARS scientists are evaluating 14 watersheds across 12 ARS locations to provide the additional scientific basis for the CEAP National Assessment being led by USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.  Those watersheds were selected in part to address specific concerns, like manure management on animal feeding operations, water use on irrigated cropland, drainage water management, wildlife habitat and riparian restoration. These watershed studies also should help develop performance measures for estimating soil, water and air quality, and perhaps other potential benefits for specific conservation practices.

ARS scientists have developed Web-based tools, databases and models to help farmers, ranchers, land managers, policy makers, other Federal agencies and experts more easily manage and evaluate information that can help them make more informed environmentally- and economically-based decisions that support our nation’s conservation efforts.

As a further extension of ARS’ conservation research efforts, in September 2012, ARS established the Long-Term Agro-ecosystem Research (LTAR) network, which includes 10 ARS sites and builds on existing ARS experimental watersheds—including  several that also contribute to the CEAP watersheds and rangelands efforts nationwide. The LTAR network addresses large-scale, multi-year research, environmental management and technology transfer related to the nation’s agricultural ecosystems in an assortment of different environments, at regional-to-continental scales.

What we do and how we do it has a lasting impact on our wildlife and their habitats, our water, land, air, and ultimately our planet’s health as a whole.  Information gleaned from programs like CEAP and LTAR will provide a stronger knowledge base on the true effects that agricultural, environmental and other practices have on our nation’s natural resources—helping us all to be better stewards and protectors of our world.

For a list and description of the watersheds in this study visit: http://www.ars.usda.gov/Research/docs.htm?docid=18645

For more information about USDA’s CEAP program visit: http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/national/technical/nra/ceap/

For more information about the LTAR network visit: http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/programs/programs.htm?np_code=211&docid=22480