RICHMOND, Va. — It's a problem that doesn't get much attention, but it's a big issue that keeps getting bigger: food waste in America.
SB 486 introduced by State Senator Barbara Favola (D-31st District) would create a study to find a solution in Virginia.
On Wednesday, the Senate Committee on Finance and Appropriations unanimously approved the bill, sending it to the full state Senate.
SB 486 could become the first step in finding a better way to handle our food supply. It would authorize the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) to use $75,000 to study the sources, scale, and prevention of food waste in Virginia.
According to the bill's text, VDACS would work to accomplish four goals. First, assess the total annual statewide rate of preventable food waste that goes to landfills. Second, to identify the industries that contribute to food waste. Third, find alternative uses of food that currently goes to the landfill. Fourth, use the data found to recommend policies to reduce the annual rate of food waste.
The final goal would be to create targets and timelines to cut down on organic waste. That could include food donation requirements from grocery stores and restaurants.
Right now, restaurants have no waste requirements. They can throw anything right in the dumpster.
Here's why it matters. The USDA estimates that the United States wasted between 30-40 percent of the food supply. Their study shows that correlates to 133 billion pounds and $161 billion worth of food.
In 2010, the EPA set a baseline at 218.9 pounds of food waste per person. They have a goal to reduce that by 50 percent, to 19.4 pounds per person by 2030.
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The EPA created a "Food Recovery Hierarchy" to show the most effective ways to address the problem. Source reduction, feed hungry people, feed animals, industrial uses, composting and incineration or landfill respectively.
This bill does not specify how the state will save food, but it sets the groundwork to find new solutions.
Senator Favola, the bill's sponsor, spoke in front of the Senate Committee on Finance and Appropriations on Wednesday.
"“[VDACS] can recommend policies that may enable us to work with our grocery store industry to perhaps be able to divert food, that otherwise would be wasted, to food banks and those who are suffering food insecurity," she said. "This is an environmental bill. It’s also what I would consider to be a bill that would provide a lot of opportunity for us to help those in our community who would be suffering from not getting enough fresh food and vegetables, and overall suffering from the lack of healthy nutritious options."
After Wednesday's committee hearing, the bill will go in front of the full Senate.
It then needs to go through the same process in the House before getting the Governor's signature.