According to the USDA, 40 percent of America\u2019s food goes to waste. That\u2019s 133 billion pounds of food annually, overloading landfills and increasing our carbon footprint. Food waste occurs in every phase of the food supply chain from agricultural production and post-harvest handling and storage, to processing, distribution and the consumer.<\/p>\n
In an effort to increase awareness of food waste, the College offered several student seminars, including \u201cClose to Home: Connecticut-Based Efforts to Reduce Food Waste\u201d; \u201cSustainable Urbanization: The Future of Food\u201d; \u201cGetting Real About Food Waste: the British Perspective\u201d, and the \u201cTasty Waste Lunch,\u201d where UConn\u2019s Dining Services served a meal produced from safe and nutritious food that would have otherwise been discarded. The Tasty Waste Lunch was well attended by more than 1200 students.<\/p>\n
As a culminating event, the UConn Science Salon presented \u201cThrowing It All Away: America\u2019s Food Waste Epidemic,\u201d on April 6 at the Spotlight Theatres in Hartford. The event was open to the public and featured several panelists including Interim Dean Cameron Faustman; Chelsea Connery, doctoral student in educational policy in the Neag School of Education; and John Mandyck, chief sustainability officer for United Technologies Corporation.<\/p>\n