Food Waste: Can We Reach Zero?

The MIT Enterprise Forum Zero Waste Roundtable highlights the role of the circular economy in reducing food waste in the United States.  As a measure of the current waste of US food, the Forum notes that every year American consumers, businesses, and farms spend an eye-popping $218 billion a year – 1.3% of U.S. GDP – growing, processing, transporting, and disposing of food that is never eaten. This wasted food results in 52 million tons of food being sent to landfills.  Another 10 million tons of food grown in the US is discarded or left unharvested.  This annual food waste is roughly equivalent to the same amount of greenhouse gas emissions as 37 million cars.

Featured speaker Jonathan Krones will talk about the causes of today’s wasteful food processing practices and lead a discussion of emerging solutions. Jonathan is a 2018-2019 Core Fellow/Visiting Assistant Professor in Environmental Studies at Boston College. He received his Ph.D. from an interdisciplinary program in Engineering Systems at MIT and was a postdoctoral scholar at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Jonathan’s research is in the field of industrial ecology, focusing on municipal and industrial solid waste systems. Current projects include the development of new methods for quantifying waste streams as well as a critical examination of the role of quantification in sustainable materials and waste management. Before his Ph.D., Jonathan worked in energy, sustainability, and climate policy at local, state, and federal levels.

Local Boston organizations presenting at the Roundtable include:

Tuesday, January 14, 2020 at 5:30pm to 8:30pm, CIC, Mosaic Room 245 Main Street, Cambridge, MA    Register at the MIT Enterprise Forum page:

https://www.mitforumcambridge.org/event/food-waste-can-we-reach-zero/