FoodPort

Steven Colbert once noted, “If the human body is 98 percent water, why am I only 2 percent interested?” Colbert’s jab appropriately questions our wasteful mindset regarding our most precious resource. Our food supply can be viewed similarly: how can we so easily accept wastage levels of 30-40 percent of life-sustaining food resources?

A major problem driving excessive food waste in our industrialized food system is that retail and production operations are built around efficient, inexpensive disposal of food that is approaching a sell-by date, considered “imperfect” in appearance, size or shape, or simply overstocked. Disposal has become ingrained not only because it is relatively inexpensive, but because stakeholders have long cited the absence of a “place” to take excess food easily and without fear of liability.

What if such a destination existed? Imagine a site with the ability to handle and efficiently process all types of excess food, in multiple ways. A place that offers a regional population the opportunity to manage leftover food responsibly, with economic incentives to broadly encourage the behavior change. A food hub to help eliminate food waste.

Continue reading at The Global Engagement Forum: Online.