No appetite for food waste

My guest today on Inside Ideas, Dana Gunders, has been labelled ‘the woman who helped start the waste-free movement’ in food.

More than one-third of food is lost or wasted every year leaving 100s of millions of people starving. And with rising hunger levels and a rapidly increasing global population there is no time left to waste in tackling the food waste pandemic.

“We produce enough food today to feed every single person on this planet. There is no reason, from a food production point of view, that anyone should be going hungry,” Dana said. “The fact over 800 million people worldwide don’t have enough food is a problem of distribution, poverty and the way our society is organising itself.”

A renowned expert on food systems, Dana was one of the first people to raise the alarm about how much food is wasted across America and the subsequent impact this has on the environment, food security, and the economy. She has served as ReFED’s Executive Director since March 2020, and has a long history with the organization, which shows how food waste is a solvable problem, having served as a founding board member when ReFED was established in 2016.

The new ReFed Roadmap to 2030 and Dana’s widely cited Waste Free Kitchen Handbook are important contributions to the global movement pushing for systemic change.

For almost a decade prior to her work with ReFED, Dana was a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), where she authored the landmark Wasted report about food waste and testified before Congress. While at NRDC, Dana launched the ‘Save The Food’ campaign with the Ad Council to provide consumers with easy-to-use strategies to reduce food waste in their own kitchens. She then started Next Course LLC to strategically advise organizations, including Google.

Dana has also made a number of appearances in the media, including PBS NewsHour, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, and FOX Business.