The authors consider the problematic issue of wasted food, arguably one of the

most solvable challenges of our generation.

Reducing Your ‘Foodprint’ While

Eating Healthier

Reducing Your ‘Foodprint’ by Catherine Birney, Katy Franklin, Todd Davidson, and Michael Webber

em • The Magazine for Environmental Managers • A&WMA • December 2017

Reducing Your ‘Foodprint’ by Catherine Birney, Katy Franklin, Todd Davidson, and Michael Webber

em • The Magazine for Environmental Managers • A&WMA • December 2017

A foodprint is the resource and environmental impactassociated with an individual’s eating habits and will vary withcomposition of diet, shopping venue, type of food purchasedand consumed (e.g., organic or conventional), caloric needsand intake, quantity of food wasted, food availability, andfood access. Unfortunately, 35 percent of edible food thatreaches the retail sector goes uneaten in the United Statesbecause of human decisions, contributing significantly to anindividual’s foodprint.1 Thankfully, there are ways to reducefood waste and improve our individual foodprints.

In the United States, food waste occurs most notably in ourhomes and businesses, where individual choices and behaviorshave the greatest opportunity to effect change. Wasted foodis edible food not consumed for any reason—because it isblemished or bruised, or because we forget about it, purchasetoo much, are too busy to eat it, or are faced with oversizedportions. We also waste food because we no longer want itor it reaches the, oftentimes confusing, manufacturers’ “bestby” and “use by” dates, which imply the food has spoiled,even though it might still be fine. These preferences andchoices ripple through the supply chain to influence decisionsmade by businesses, causing wasted food—from retailers who throw out food that is fresh but looks bad, for example—before consumers have the chance to see it.

Our recent research analyzed the per-capita resource requirements and environmental cost of food waste in theUnited States, providing insights into our environmental capacity for supporting healthier eating habits and identifyingopportunities to eliminate up to a third of our individual food-prints.1 The average American consumes 867 pounds offood per year and in addition wastes 502 pounds of ediblefood. In 2010, food waste alone was responsible for 35 percentof an individual’s food-related energy use, 34 percent of food-related blue water (surface and groundwater) use, 34 percentof food-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, 31 percentof food-related land use, and 35 percent of food-related fertil-izer use (see Figure 1). To put food waste into perspective,we can compare the environmental impacts to common,daily activities, as shown in Figure 2.

Reducing Food Waste Is the Low-HangingFruit of Environmental ProtectionAs Americans, we have a high degree of control over ourown food waste. That means reducing it requires relativelysmall shifts in shopping, meal preparation, and dining habits.Doing so can also generate monetary savings, with annualfood waste valued at US$390 per capita in 2008.2 Environ-mental and financial benefits of a smaller foodprint can beaccomplished by making and following a grocery list, andstoring food properly to maintain freshness. Families can dedicate one meal a week to eating leftovers or incorporateleftovers and scraps into new recipes (e.g., using the previous

night’s vegetables in an omelet, using leftover chicken in soup,and baking bread crusts into croutons). Preparing produce in advance facilitates fast and easy snacking and cookingthroughout the week. These strategies have reduced foodwaste by up to 50 percent in households participating in theU.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) “Food: TooGood To Waste (FTGTW)” campaign.3 FTGTW increasesawareness of household levels of food waste and provides an array of tools to enable small shifts in how individualsshop, prepare, and store food.

Policymakers and Industry Are Here to HelpCity, national, and global policymakers are addressing foodwaste. The United States alone boasts over 70 uniquecounty-, city-, and state-level action plans to eliminate foodfrom commercial waste streams and provide residents withalternatives to landfilling food waste.4

At the state level, for example, in October 2014 Massachusettsput into effect a commercial food waste disposal ban. The statesimultaneously implemented business assistance services to

Figure 1. Food waste.

Figure 2. Food waste equivalents.

Reducing Your ‘Foodprint’ by Catherine Birney, Katy Franklin, Todd Davidson, and Michael Webber

em • The Magazine for Environmental Managers • A&WMA • December 2017

farmers, and ranchers, in addition to large businesses, to receive a tax liability deduction for food donations.6

At an international level, the United Nations General Assemblyadopted a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals, includinga target to halve global food waste at the retail and consumerlevel by 2030. This commitment has galvanized high-profileefforts toward meeting this target, collectively known asChampions 12.3.7 Twenty-eight percent of the world’s popu-lation currently live in regions with a food waste reductiontarget. Policy and regulatory interventions can produce wide-spread results when implemented, however, they can bechallenging to pass through legislative bodies. As a result, it iscritical that we, as individuals, take ownership of our individualfoodprints and adopt best practices for minimizing our impact.

Corporations are becoming increasingly aware of the benefitsof reducing waste. More than 10 percent of the world’s 50largest food companies are actively reducing food waste intheir operations and supply chains; 60 percent have made apublic commitment, targeting reductions of between 25 percent and 100 percent in the coming decades.8

Food manufacturers and tech companies are developingspoilage-prevention packaging, smart home appliances, andweb-based applications to extend food shelf life and simplifyfood information access. These tools will reduce at-homewaste by keeping food fresh for longer and by tailoring

Power Plant Pollutant and E�uent Control MEGA Symposium: Best Practices and Future Trends August 20-23, 2018 • Baltimore Marriott Waterfront, Baltimore, MD

The MEGA Symposium is back in 2018 and better than ever with a focus on industry responses to new operational and environmental challenges for power plants, as well as policy and regulatory perspectives.

Building on the 20-year history as the power plant industry’s leading technical conference for SOx, NOx, particulate and mercury control, the 2018 MEGA Symposium will provide latest developments, policy changes, and operational experience to reliably manage compliance with air quality, solid waste, and discharge water quality requirements for fossil-�red power plants while adapting to increasingly variable operational demands.

Call for Abstracts due March 9, 2018Share your knowledge and be a presenter! The technical program will emphasize approaches and technologies to support cycling operations while balancing emission constraints at the stack and e�uent discharges, and byproduct quality. Topics include:

• Air Pollution for Coal-Fired and Gas-Fired Generation• E�uent and Byproduct Management • Managing Variable Load• Carbon Management and CO2 Control for Fossil Plants

Exhibit or Sponsor at MEGA to get your company in front of key industry decision-makers. • Premium and standard double and single booths available• Networking and receptions in exhibit hall • Technical registrations included with exhibits and sponsors• Multiple sponsor levels to meet your budget• Maximum sponsor exposure online and on site with

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View the prospectus online and contact Jschurman@awma.org.

Find out more at www.awma.org/MEGA and make your plans to be there!

support compliance, and offered grants and loans to help develop the necessary food waste management infrastructure.The ban covers all commercial waste generators (e.g., grocers,restaurants, institutional food service providers, food processors,etc.) producing at least one ton of organic material per week,and encourages a diverse range of alternatives, from donatingexcess food to converting scraps into compost or energy. By2016, the ban generated approximately US$175 million ineconomic value to the state, including more than US$46 millionin labor income and US$5 million in tax revenue. The newpolicy created more than 900 jobs, and is expected to supportan additional 400–500 jobs by the end of 2017.5 Similar efforts are underway across the nation and are expected toresult in more food donations, less food waste diverted tolandfills, and smaller individual foodprints.

At the national level, the U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA)and EPA entered into a joint program in 2015 to halve foodwaste by 2030. Additionally, the Food Recovery Act of 2017,submitted to Congress in July 2017, offers revisions to theBill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act and estab-lishes a process for standardized date labeling. Currently, federal date labeling regulations only exist for infant formula.The Good Samaritan Act passed in 2006 to encourage fooddonations by improving liability protections for businessesdonating wholesome food in good faith. The ProtectingAmericans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015 (PATH Act) improvedupon existing tax incentives, enabling non-corporate businesses,

Reducing Your ‘Foodprint’ by Catherine Birney, Katy Franklin, Todd Davidson, and Michael Webber

em • The Magazine for Environmental Managers • A&WMA • December 2017

purchasing behavior with smart phone applications to remindus what food we already have at home. Web-based and mobile applications already exist to provide real-time accessto educational information on portion sizes and track caloricintake based on needs and physical activity, in order to facilitateeating a healthier, more balanced diet.

Reducing Food Waste Increases EcologicalCapacity to Support Healthier DietsWe eat to satisfy nutritional needs, yet many of us overeat.

For the past 25 years, more than half of U.S. adults havebeen overweight or obese.9 Compared to USDA recommen-dations for a healthy diet, Americans overconsume meats,nuts, oils, fats, and sugars, and under-consume fruits, vegetables,grains, seafood, and dairy. This mismatch is significant, asmodifying diets to meet the USDA guidelines would result in a healthier population. However, movement to a healthierdiet would paradoxically require an increase in per-capitafood consumption, and hence, would increase most resourceand environmental impacts.1 Reducing food waste can help

Table 1. Per-Capita Foodprints.A diet following USDA food recommendations, while maintaining current levels of food waste, could result in higher resource use than the current typical American diet. A reduction in food waste, in line with the USDA and EPA’s nationalgoal, could help to offset the additional resource requirements.1

Food WasteReduction

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Energy

GJ/year

31

30

29

28

27

26

25

Blue Water

ThousandL/year

186

180

174

168

162

156

150

Green Water

ThousandL/year

1,090

1,053

1,017

980

943

906

870

Production

GHG kgCO2e/year

2,169

2,097

2,204

1,952

1,880

1,807

1,735

Landfill GHG

kg CO2e/year

177

163

149

134

120

106

92

Land

m2/year

2,765

2,676

2,587

2,498

2,409

2,320

2,231

Fertilizer

kg/year

65

62

60

58

56

54

52

Note: Energy use expressed in gigajoules (GJ), water use in thousand liters (L), GHG emissions in carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e),land use in square meters (m2), and fertilizer use in kilograms (kg).

Get the latest information from the experts! Workshop presenters include authors of the Manual:

• Gary McCutchen, Principal, RTP Environmental Associates, Inc.

• Eric Hiser, Partner, Jorden Hiser & Joy

• Gale Ho�nagle, Senior Vice President and Technical Director, TRC

• Ken Weiss, Partner, ERM

Held at the New Orleans Marriott, 555 Canal St.

Register and �nd the agenda online at www.awma.org/NSRworkshop.

Using the new A&WMA NSR Manual as text, attendees will gain a working knowledge and understanding of New Source Review rules and how to apply them in practice. This 2-day workshop is ideal for industry, attorneys, state and local permit writers, and consultants.

Workshop sessions will cover the following topics:

• History and Program Implementation• PSD Applicability (case studies, netting, calculating emissions increases)• BACT (top-down process, modi�cations, examples)• PSD Air Quality Analysis (increments, baseline dates, modeling)• Nonattainment Area NSR (thresholds, LAER, alternative analysis)• Emissions O�sets (applicability, o�sets vs. netting, emission banks)• Permit Appeals, Review and Enforcement • Next Generation Reforms

The NSR Manual and a personal computer or device will be required for the Workshop. Registration is available with or without the Manual included.

New Source Review (NSR) Workshop

Learn the Application of PSD Rules, New Sources, and Nonattainment Area NSR

February 1-2, 2018 • New Orleans, LA

Catherine I. Birney is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Civil Engineering, F. Todd Davidson is a research associate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Michael E. Webber is a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, allwith the University of Texas at Austin. Katy F. Franklin is Program Manager for ReFED. E-mail: cabirney@utexas.edu.

References1. Birney, C.I.; Franklin, K.F.; Davidson, F.T.; Webber, M.E. An assessment of individual foodprints attributed to diets and food waste in the United States; Environ.

Res. Letts. 2017, 12; http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aa8494/meta.2. Buzby, J.C.; Hyman, J. Total and per-capita value of food loss in the United States; Food Policy 2012, 37, 561-570.3. Food: Too Good To Waste; An Evaluation Report for the Consumption Workgroup of the West Coast Climate and Materials Management Forum; U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency, 2016.4. Gorski, I.; Siddiqi, S.; Neff, R. Governmental Plans to Address Waste of Food; Technical Report for Johns Hopkins University: Baltimore, MD, 2017.5. International Finance Corporation. Massachusetts Commercial Food Waste Ban Economic Impact Analysis; Report submitted to Massachusetts Department of

Environmental Protection: Cambridge, MA, December 2016.6. Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015. Public Law 114-113, 2015.7. Champions 12.3. About Champions 12.3. See https://champions123.org/about/ (accessed August 31, 2017).8. Lipinski, B.; Clowes, A.; Goodwin, L.; Hanson, C.; Swannell, R.; Mitchell, P. SDG Target 12.3 on Food Loss and Waste: 2017 Progress Report; Technical Report

for Champions 12.3, September 2017.9. Putnam, J; Allshouse, J; Kantor, LS. U.S. per-capita food supply trends: More calories, refined carbohydrates, and fats; FoodReview 2002, 25.

Reducing Your ‘Foodprint’ by Catherine Birney, Katy Franklin, Todd Davidson, and Michael Webber

em • The Magazine for Environmental Managers • A&WMA • December 2017

fertilizer use for retail level food production by 34 percenteach. Blue water use could increase by 15 percent and GHGemissions from food production by 7 percent. A positive outcome, however, is that land use would decrease by 19 percent, mostly from a decrease in land required for live-stock.1 As shown in Table 1, even an incremental decrease infood waste would help counteract this increased resource use.

Reducing Our FoodprintsTo improve foodprints and contribute to a more sustainablefood system, we should consider reducing our individualfood waste. Wasted food is an unnecessary use of energy,water, land, and fertilizer and generates GHG emissions. Lesswasted food would lead to a smaller per-capita foodprint, enabling more people to be fed with less and reducing theimpact each of us has on natural resource consumption. TheUnited States is taking steps through local, state, and federalregulations, but has much further to go. Food businesses arechanging operations to reduce food waste, however, eachAmerican can help achieve our national food waste reductiongoal by examining individual habits and adopting behaviorsthat waste less while shifting to a healthier diet (see Figure 3). em

Figure 3. Reducing food waste.

to offset this increase, as explained further and shown in Table 1.

Shifting to the USDA-recommended diet would increase per-capita food consumption from 867 pounds to 1,190pounds per year. Fruits and vegetables are less caloricallydense than foods such as meats and sugars, meaning we eat greater quantities of food to meet caloric requirements. A national shift to the USDA recommendations could increaseenergy requirements, GHG emissions from landfills, and