This week, Leanpath is excited to be in Baltimore alongside many of our food waste reduction-focused colleagues from around the world at the 2024 ReFED Food Waste Solutions Summit.
As we have been preparing for the multitude of sessions at this year’s event, we’ve also been reflecting on the state and pace of food waste reduction efforts in the U.S. and in countries across the globe.
To be sure, much progress has been made in the last decade – driven by many committed players in the food waste ecosystem – following the release of ReFED’s first landmark report (A Roadmap to Reduce U.S. Food Waste By 20 Percent) and the first U.S. Food Waste Summit at Harvard in 2018.
But we also know that despite the scale of the food waste challenge and the urgency with which nations must address it to advance multiple Sustainable Development Goals – including climate change, food security, water security, deforestation and biodiversity loss – we are not moving fast enough.
Leanpath’s CEO, Andrew Shakman, specifically addressed this disconnect in his closing keynote address at the 2022 ReFED Summit in Minneapolis – noting that “the scale of our (food waste reduction) movement today does not yet match the scale of the problem.”
In his talk, Andrew noted that one key factor hindering faster progress is the concept of limiting beliefs – which often lead us to overemphasize the short term (tactical) risks that we manage daily while underemphasizing the long term (strategic) risks of our external environment.
In foodservice, for example, a focus on tactical guidelines geared toward never running out of food, over-merchandising for bountiful displays, and very stringent quality and safety standards can result in increased food waste in operations – in contrast to a food waste prevention focus designed to advance organizational goals on climate change and food security.
Andrew encouraged all of us to challenge our limiting beliefs, set big goals, and report on progress transparently with a mindset of making all of our food waste reduction initiatives bigger, faster, and more impactful.
As we gather in Baltimore this week, we wanted to reshare this message to help frame the week’s discussions.
The need for urgency on food waste reduction remains – let’s all work to go bigger and faster.