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Reducing Food Waste for Sustainability: Collaborative Policy Actions (Webinar)
April 12, 2026, 10:00am Eastern Time (New York)
Sustainable management of food is a systematic approach that seeks to reduce wasted food and its associated impacts on the natural environment. Food waste is a significant challenge facing both urban and rural sectors. Food is wasted at every point along the food chain: on farms and fishing boats, during processing and distribution, in retail stores, in restaurants, in school cafeterias, and at home. Unfortunately, food is wasted at these points with little or no consideration of the financial and ecological impacts. The increasing volume of food waste necessitates collaborative policy action and sustainable management. Approximately 50 percent of all food products in the United States is wasted. Such waste accounts for some 60 million tons (or $160 billion) worth of produce annually. Today, one-third or 1.6 billion tons of food is wasted. Unfortunately, the problem of food waste is scarcely recognized in households, communities and businesses. The planned webinar aims at practical solutions on food waste and its associated impacts.
Meet The Expert Panel
Steven M. Finn
Panelist
Steven is Vice President of Food Waste Prevention for LeanPath, the global leader in integrated hardware and software solutions for food waste prevention, He a Steering Committee member for Feeding the 5000 in Portland, Maine, author of the blog “FoodForThoughtfulAction”. He has conducted extensive research into the problems of global food waste and food security while developing innovative public-private partnerships to capture and redistribute excess food to mitigate hunger.
Tove Björklund
Panelist
Tove is the Co-founder and CEO at ReCollab – an organization in working to reduce food waste in Sweden. She has a master’s degree with a focus in Social-ecological Resilience for Sustainable Development from Stockholm Resilience Centre. Tove is skilled in Resilience, Future food systems, Water management, Economic Policy, and solutions-oriented research. Experienced board member with a demonstrated history of working in the health, food and sports industry.
Jonathan Deutsch
Jonathan Deutsch
Jonathan is Professor in the Center for Food and Hospitality Management and Department of Nutrition Sciences at Drexel University. He was the inaugural James Beard Foundation Impact Fellow, leading a national curriculum effort on food waste reduction for chefs and culinary educators and was named a Food Waste Warrior by Foodtank. He is the author or editor of eight books including Barbecue: A Global History (with Megan Elias)
Monica Douglas
Moderator
Monica is the Board Chair of SULIVER. She is a determined advocate for climate and energy literacy. From helping to create academic and conservation NGO partnerships like the Cambridge Conservation Forum to developing frameworks for AAS degree in Sustainable Construction Technology in colleges, she sees the link between climate literacy, informed decision making and smart policy.
