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USDA hosts event to address food waste

It’s estimated that about 40 percent of food in the US goes uneaten. Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue hosted a roundtable in DC this week to address the problem and discuss possible solutions.

Some food waste happens at the farm when farmers can’t get enough workers to harvest crops or when there are imperfections in the crop.

Perdue says having incentive programs in place could help…

“Do we need tax credits or maybe monetary policy that would incentivize farmers to harvest that,” he asked during the meeting.

U.S. Representative David Young of Iowa and leaders representing agriculture and the food industry were at the meeting.

Harvesting the crop isn’t enough, though. Leaders at the meeting said there also needs to be a system in place to transport it.

The USDA says there will be more events on food waste in the future.