During a session on food labels and expiration dates, attendees watched the documentary produced by the Harvard Food Law Policy Clinic on food labels. The documentary, “Expired: Food Waste in America,” focuses on a Montana law that prevents selling or donating milk 12 days past pasteurization.
In her welcome to participants to the conference, Martha Minow, Morgan and Helen Chu Dean and Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, said: “Preventing the waste of food and promoting access to food: what could be more fundamental? That is why Harvard created the first food law and policy clinic in the nation and works every day to expand and deepen public dialogue on a real reduction of food waste.”
As part of the two-day event, more than 350 leaders in food waste and food recovery participated in breakout sessions and working groups to identify key steps in terms of policy, innovation, and measurable actions to reduce waste.
Broad Leib moderated the plenary panel, “Operating at the Intersection of Hunger Relief and Environmental Protection,” which featured Karen Hanner, managing director, manufacturing product sourcing, Feeding America; Mathy Stanislaus, assistant administrator for the EPA’s Office of Land and Emergency Management; and Doug Rauch, former president of Trader Joe’s and founder of the Daily Table.
“Wasted food is a failure of the system. It’s a societal breakdown of valuable product being thrown away,” said Stanislaus. “How do we really make this resonate? How do we really tip this in society?”