State-level policies alone are insufficient to meet the federal food waste reduction goal in the United States, Nature Food (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s43016-024-01092-w – PHYS.org: “…The United States generates more food waste than all but two countries. To address this, the federal government set a goal to cut food waste in half by 2030 compared to 2016 levels, to about 164 pounds per person annually. But a study published in Nature Food and led by University of California, Davis, reveals that current state policies are falling short. Since 2016, per capita food waste has increased instead of decreasing.”We’re just five years away from 2030, so it’s quite alarming how little progress we have made,” said first author Sarah Kakadellis, a postdoctoral researcher with the UC Davis Department of Food Science and Technology. “More comprehensive policies need to be implemented as soon as possible.” The study examined how state policies align with the federal targets. States determine what policies to implement. Researchers found that state policies emphasize food waste recycling methods like composting and anaerobic digestion, rather than prevention and rescue strategies, such as donating to food banks or repurposing food for animal feed. In 2021, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency excluded recycling from its definition of food waste to reflect environmental and ethical dimensions.”We have a huge portion of the American population that is suffering from food insecurity, yet we waste more than a third of the food we produce,” said Kakadellis. “Instead of recycling our excess food, we should be redirecting as much as we can to populations that need it.” Recycling or composting food also has environmental downsides. While they keep food out of landfills, food production still consumes significant resources.”When we waste food, we’re wasting all the resources it takes to grow that food, including energy, water and fertilizer. Meanwhile, wasted food represents 8–10% of global greenhouse gas emissions,” said principal investigator Edward Spang, an associate professor in the Department of Food Science and Technology and director of the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science at UC Davis…”