Food waste to be studied Week Of 10/25/2021

A $15 million grant from the National Science Foundation will be used to establish the first national academic research network on wasted food in the U.S.
Brian Roe, a professor of agricultural economics at the Ohio State College of Food, Agricultural, Environmental Sciences, will participate as a co-principal investigator with others from Johns Hopkins University, Morgan State University, American University, and the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Professor Roe heads the Ohio State Food Waste Collaborative, a network of researchers and students working to promote the reduction of food waste. The group focuses on consumer behavior and attitudes about discarding food.
The NSF project, Multiscale RECIPES for Sustainable Food Systems, started Oct. 1. RECIPES is an acronym for Resilient, Equitable, and Circular Innovations with Parternship and Education Synergies.
“At Ohio State, we are excited to lead the RECIPES network’s development and administration of a quarterly tracking survey of household food waste in the United States,” Roe said. “Being able to analyze the trends, patterns, and responses across different households over time will provide novel insights into what interventions will be most effective in reducing waste and supporting circular solutions.”
The United Nations has set a goal of halving food waste by 2030.
While American University is taking the lead on the five-year project, it will engage communities in California and the Great Lakes, Mid-Atlantic, and Southeast regions. Researchers from 14 partner institutions will also be involved including the Maryland Institute College of Art, World Wildlife Fund, University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign, University of Albany, Louisiana State University, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Illinois Institute of Technology, Duke University, and University of California-Davis.