Skip to main content

tv   Key Capitol Hill Hearings  CSPAN  May 27, 2016 12:00am-2:01am EDT

12:00 am
>> congresswoman shelley has introduced legislation called the food recovery act which attempts to reduce the amount of food wasted across u.s. economy. that that is next on c-span2. after that, officials from the homeland security department and state department testify about combating isis and other violent groups. >> c-span's washington journal, live every live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up friday morning todd, from the center of congress will join us and criminal justice efforts to reform the system such as the sentencing reform and corrections act. an author and and george mason school of law foundation, professor frank buckley will talk about his new book which details how americans ability to move up the economic ladder has been hampered over the last several years. and what can be done to reverse that trend. watch "washington journal" beginning live at seven eastern on friday morning. during the discussion.
12:01 am
>> , fruit researchers, protist growers testify about efforts to reduce food waste. we'll hear hear about proposed legislation called the food recovery act. congressman mike conway of texas chairs the house agriculture committee. >> good morning. the hearing on the committee of agriculture, food waste in the field to the table come to order. i ask you to open with prayer. >> dear heavenly father, we come before your grace to first of all give thanks. we thank you for so many blessings you destroy upon us, blessings sometimes we do not even know.
12:02 am
we thank you for your your holy spirit who intercedes for us on our behalf. we thank you dear heavenly father for this hearing. what. what could be more important than the food that we get on the table for needy people and in this case dear heavenly father as we discuss the issue of food waste, we hope that you will plant within this committee are resolved to do as much as we can to eliminate the food waste. to help our farmers be able to have the labor to get food out of the fields and into the hands and at the tables of those people who need it most. dear heavenly father we asked the skin your name and your son jesus christ, amen. >> amen. thank you david. good money.
12:03 am
since i became the chairman we have held more than 70 meetings and had experts including people in the field to share their knowledge of everything from the futures market to the farmers market. the committee doesn't agree all the time on every issue but one of the reasons were able to work on a bipartisan manner is it we remember people have different ideas of how to achieve the goal, whatever the issue is. because we have a different way of getting there doesn't mean one of us is wrong and this is sometimes something really set up in america today. good public policy is not a zero-sum game. if advocate the members are close minded or unopened compromise, it ensures retention of status quo regardless of the issue. an example of where we engage in a bride's stakeholders is in the review of food waste. i commend my colleague from maine for putting this on the congressional radar. today's
12:04 am
hearing may be the first time the house agriculture committee has publicly engaged on this issue but it will not be our last. 40% of food grown in the countries wasted. that. that amounts to 133 billions pounds of food wasted. that's 1,000,000,000 with a b, b, considering we have a 45 million people consuming or 45 million people receiving foods that stance i think it's an opportunity for us to take a close look at her food chain and figure out a way to ensure that food grown in this country reaches the dinner table another trashcan. secretary bill sec, and that avoiding food waste loss could save you as and families on average $1500 per year and a lemonade food waste globally could prevent mel hunger and mel nourishment. tackling food waste should be a nonpartisan issue that we vote successful by engaging everybody in the food chain from the field to the table. will take collaboration of all stakeholders to be successful. as we begin the review we will identify issues that seem easy to resolve but are more complex
12:05 am
than they appear. we were likewise identify other issues that have already been addressed but simply required collaboration in what amounts to public relations campaign to raise awareness. two issues that congress has acted upon that we should highlight today are the recent enacted permit tax reduction for food donations and the good samaritan who did nation that. the text of action for food donation was identified and enacted as part is the less omnibus. the second issue is what we hear about. yet it was addressed years ago by a former colleague and vice chair of the committee, the late bill emerson. many businesses when given the opportunity to donate perfectly save and hold since you food are reluctant because of concern. the good samaritan food act addresses this concern. i wish to place into the record a memo of opinion by the department of
12:06 am
justice for usda that not only spells out the direct protection of the emerson at, but also describe preventive effect on state laws that may not provide the same level of protection. will begin the hearing, when we began preparing for the hearing we reached out and -- witnesses that were invited in represent a range of perspective and expertise but no way represent the entire community that is addressing the challenge. the hearing is one element of our review, we also also invite members of staff and other stakeholders to attend an event this afternoon on the balcony, to see what organizations are doing to address food waste. that will begin at 1:30 p.m. today. i now recognize our ranking member for any opening remarks. >> big mr. chairman. welcome to today's witnesses and congressmen, appreciate your leadership on this issue. probably not the only one who finds the term, sell by a best buy confusing. this confusion leads to a lot of food waste we
12:07 am
see in this country. i'm glad were looking at this issue today. american consumers are increasingly less connected to the farm and that's where food comes from. i think a lot of people no longer view food is valuable. when i was growing up, my mom used every part of the animal. so that is no longer the cas food waste has increased. producers have done such a good job of creating an abundant food supply that a lot of folks do not think twice about tossing out food that may not look perfect or is suppressed and the best buy or sell by date is stamped on the box, whatever that means. this is a challenge but i also think also think it presents an opportunity for production in agriculture. many have no problem throwing food away, many americans americans are struggling to feed their families. there's a role for farmers and ranchers to play in this, they can and should step up to the plate and help meet these needs.
12:08 am
again, i'm happy we happy and we're exploring this issue and look forward to conversation. this is an area we can work across party lines and have a diverse coalition to tackle food waste. i look for to the testimony and i yell back. >> thank you. we request other members for their opening statement for the wreckers or witnesses may witnesses may begin their testimony to ensure there's time for questions. i've will welcome our first to witness table. shelley from congress woman from the great state of maine. you may begin when you're ready. >> thank you very much chairman conway into ranking member peterson. i i appreciate your holding the hearing today given me the opportunity to say a few words about it. particularly appreciate that you remembered to call it the great state of maine. obviously this is an issue that people have been increasingly concerned about.
12:09 am
i've been very grateful to have a chance to work with it and as all of you have said work across the aisle and with that diverse group of interests who are concerned about the fact that 40% the food as you mentioned is wasted in this country. particularly people in the eicher culture committee know how much work goes into growing food, how much water is lost in the process of growing food, how long it has to be transported around the country and just that gives you a sense of how much we're wasting besides energy and other resources. the other big concern is that we have 50,000,000 people in this country going hungry. when there is confusion around date labeling or how food can be disposed of or the good samaritan laws, and makes it more difficult for restaurants and retail stores to find out how to make sure that on eaten food beyond the label food gets to those food banks into people in need. that is part of what we are proposing to look at in the bill that we submitted called the food recovery act. it's wonderful to see that the usda and epa, together have announced
12:10 am
a food reduction goal. they did that last year and the goal is to reduce food waste by 50% by the year 2030. an ambitious goal but i think also showing that there opportunities there. i'm fortunate enough to serve on the agriculture appropriations subcommittee so we had been looking for ways to work with them on funding areas that could make a difference in solving this problem. also working on some of the same things with the fda. there certainly no single way to go about solving this problem. i said you dig deeper and hear from the panel that you have chosen you will start to hear that it's something that we have to face on all fronts from helping consumers understand differently, given opportunities to farmers to make sure food gets in the right hands and helping retailers in particular and restaurant owners to reduce the waste or to make sure it goes places we want. in my own state, we have a supermarket chain that is committed to zero food waste which means making sure everything gets sold on the store that can't possibly can
12:11 am
even as some looks ugly or misshapen. they can trick us to food banks in places where people are any. finally making sure that food can go anywhere else it goes to a composting facility or an anaerobic digester. most food waste ends up in municipal landfills. for those who have served on minestrone government that's an increasing cost. it produces methane gas which is more toxic than other gases that we already worry about. if is converted to compost or the left with wonderful looking soil or producing energy with that food waste. making sure that their federal funds available, that's another part of this and something that can be dealt with in committees. in closing i want to mention one thing that ranking member peterson and i were talking about. sure on the committee and most of us have experienced the problem in your own household
12:12 am
where, you look at a package with a label on it think, okay well this is probably still good we should eat it, yet someone else etc. and says look at that date we have to throw it away. we actually submitted a bill last week about date labeling to try to bring some sensibility to this. because we hear so much about the domestic disagreements we thought we should call this a domestic harmony built to reduce issues that people face. basically manufacturers have joined us. we were endorsed by campbell soup, nestlé's and other companies have come forward because they find it confusing too. those labels, for the the most part to not have a uniform or scientific basis. they may represent something to that individual company but it doesn't mean you can't do that for you. our idea is sassy usda and fda to work together to create a label, one that says expires on. for those that really do have a safety issue and the other would
12:13 am
say best if used by. so that tells you the bigger crackers will be best buy a certain day but nothing will happen if you eat it a month later the next season when you return to your summer cabin or you find it in the box they never unpacked. chances are it's going to be perfectly good food. they'll be great for manufacturers, take some of the stigma out of how the food gets donated and there are 20 states the country that prohibit food donations. if you think about it, we're keeping 20 states where from giving food to people in need and it's can delete arbitrary date. it seems that is one of the ones i would be extremely cost-effective. it would create much less waste, something that most of us agree on and you'll find most of the manufacturers and others agree on it at as well. thank you very thank you very much for giving me a moment to open up today. thank you for taking on this topic. i look for to working with you in anyway i
12:14 am
can. thank you for giving me a little bit of nostalgia to return to the committee which i served on in my early days and truly enjoyed working with all of you have been in this room. >> thank you for being here. i appreciate your comments this morning. i appreciate your leadership getting this started. we look forward to teaching and with you on i would say pitching them but nevertheless, helping helping with the reduction of food waste. >> we will transition to our second panelists. i like to welcome our second panel witnesses, ms. dana gunter's, senior scientist, national resources defense council, san francisco, california. mr. jesse fink who is the director mission pointed in norwalk, connecticut, john oxford who is president ceo in raleigh, north carolina. megan stands, senior director sustainability of in washington, d.c. miss diana abby, ceo of feeding america, chicago, illinois.
12:15 am
and emily, the the director food, law, policy clinic, harvard law school. if everybody has their seats, ms. gunderson if you will begin when you are ready. >> ranking member peterson and members of the committee, they queue for inviting me to testify today and be willing to explore this issue. my name is dana gunter's, i am a senior scientist at the natural resource defense council. i'm also the author of a widely plated report on food waste in a book called the waste free
12:16 am
kitchen handbook which is a consumer guide to wasting less food. imagine walking out of the grocery store with five bags of groceries, dropping two in the in the parking lot and not bothering to pick them up. seems crazy, but that is essentially what we're doing today across the country where we are wasting 40% of all of our food. reliving entire fields on harvested and eliminated produce only for its look. we're serving massive portions, throwing out blue because it is past the sell by date and eating out instead of what's in our fridge. now imagine a farm that covers three quarters of the state of california and uses as much water as california, ohio, and texas combined. when you harvest that permits enough food to fill a tractor-trailer every 20 seconds and then it drives over the country except instead of going to people to eat it, it goes straight to the landfill. that's essentially what were doing today. in fact, food is the number one product entering our landfills today. this is expensive. america spends up to
12:17 am
$218 billion, or 1.3% of gdp each year on wasted food. beyond money we are wasting nutrition. more than 1250 calories per capita every day. that is three times the caloric of the entire population of the country. we have not always been so wasteful. in the us, we waste 50% more food per cabinet that we did in the 19 seventies. this. this means there was about the time when we wasted far less and that gives me hope that we could get there again. wasting less food is to the food sick there is energy efficiency as to the energy sector. the cheapest, cheapest, easiest way to meet growing demands. the un projects increased demand will lead to a 60% growth in food production by 2,002,050.
12:18 am
that could be offset by addressing food waste. therefore to many causes of food waste to address in a few short minutes. it's important to note that wasting food happens to the best of us, as individuals and businesses. we have all had to talk or clean up the x science experience in the back of our fridge. the good news is that unlike many of the issues that i'm sure you deal with, this one fills solvable. no one wants to waste food. people strangely love diving into this topic. i have been amazed at the energy and enthusiasm people have when they come up and tell me that they found ways to use their wrinkled tomatoes in a sauce or something like that. because there's direct savings to be had the two csm has extended to the business and entrepreneur communities as well. even modest savings can make a difference. is asked to give an overview of the problem but in the last minute i would suggest at least a few solutions. i'd also like to note that the
12:19 am
epa has prioritize the preventions, solutions and food donations over things like animal feed and composting. for solutions, first address consumer ways. from the limited information we have households appear to be the largest source of food waste. we recently. we recently launched a national media campaign with the ad council to address this, called save the flu. the goal was to provide tumors with inspiration and information to waste less than home. if the government were to impress the campaign and provide additional funding it could vastly extend the reach and impact of the campaign. second, introduce new labels because they misinterpret date labels people are tossing good food and other witnesses will address this. third, reduce waste within federal government agencies. how much is the federal government spending to buy food that ultimately never gets
12:20 am
eaten? adjusting this could both reduce agency costs while incubating model solutions that others could follow. fourth, just data needs. right now there is some very basic questions that we cannot answer. lastly, support the food recovery act introduced by the representative. it tackles food waste and include solutions from many issues in my written testimony. wasting less food is something everyone can get behind. there's even money to be saved. i expect should you pursue solutions to this problem you'll find a broad base of support. thank you. >> mr. pink for five minutes. >> thank you chairman and the entire house agricultural committee to for the opportunity to testify. i'm honored, my name is jesse and i'm here as a representative of the multi- stakeholder food waste initiative. i like to dedicate my testimony to my wife, farmer who committed their lives to grow food.
12:21 am
i'd also like to dedicate a testament to the 50 million americans who struggle with hunger. in resource country like ours we should be able to conquer hunger, conserve freshwater and create new jobs through new food waste innovation. my journey to become the food waste evangelist has been long in shape in my career as an entrepreneur, farmer, and investor and philanthropist. twenty years ago i help cofound, powered by the internet. making issuable airline making perishable airline seats with consumers looking for cheaper tickets. for the past decade betsy and i have learned firsthand how challenging and rewarding it is to be a farmer. similar to to priceline we see valuable perishable products went to waste. two years ago we has to team admission play partners to develop a strategy to develop address the food waste issues. focusing focusing on cost-effective and scalable solutions. the gap in data needed for solution identification was apparent. what resulted was the creation
12:22 am
of re- fed, a nonprofit initiative that released a roadmap to reduce u.s. food waste by 20% in. we have an order includes farmers, manufacturers, manufacturers, retailers, nonprofits, and government leaders. many who are represented today. it can help solve three of our nations largest problem. first and foremost is hunger. our research on that solution today could double the amount of food donated from businesses to hunger relief organizations. second is economic development. reducing food race boost the economy which conserve is an estimated 15,000 jobs crated from innovation. in addition solutions available today can create 100,000,000,000 dollars of create $100 billion of net economic value over the next decade. this includes 6,000,000,000 dollars in in annual savings for consumers, $2 billion in annual potential for prophet for
12:23 am
businesses and reduce burden on taxpayers. much of the economic development will go towards food recovery, composting and anaerobic digestion infrastructure. lastly the environment. common sense food waste solutions will conserve up to 1.5% of the country's freshwater. this is lost on farms. in addition, reducing food waste will decrease methane emissions and increase the health of our soil through composting. for crosscutting actions are needed to cut 20% of waste and put the u.s. on track to achieve the broader usda, epa goal goal of 50% food waste reduction by 2030. first, education for consumers and employees of businesses. second, innovation. re-fed has an innovation database of 200 companies. exhibitors, accelerators and large companies are supporting large entrepreneurs. there's an opportunity for a permit to support their
12:24 am
ingenuity. right here in washington, d.c. companies like food cycle, hunger hunger harvest and others are examples of starters startups that utilize the food that would go to waste. the re- fed roadmap says we need the film tropic grants, government incentives and private investments to accelerate the transition to a low waste economy. finance innovation is required to galvanize the 18,000,000,000 dollars needed to achieve a 20% reduction in food waste nationwide. opportunities to explore public, private partnerships, to support companies expanding local infrastructure composting, and government funding for research into early-stage technology. lastly his policy. the policy. food waste is a complex issue but three policy priority stand out as a highly impactful and achievable today. first, make it easier for food businesses to donate food for the hungry.
12:25 am
second, standardized state labeling through legislation or voluntary industry action. finally, strengthen incentives and procurement for food waste solutions at the local level such as tax incentives for composting and anaerobic digestion. i will close by emphasizing there's a huge momentum and growing awareness around the issue of food waste. the time stopper country to embrace this problem and by embrace this problem by working together turn it into an opportunity. we can take steps to alleviate hunger and preserve our great natural resources. thank you for the opportunity to testify and i look for to your question. >> thank you. mr. oxford, five minutes. >> chairman, ranking members, and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify at today's hearing of food waste. i am john oxford, president ceo of element companies in raleigh, north carolina. founded in 1964 we are family agriculture founded in
12:26 am
1964 where family agriculture business that grows, markets and distributes fresh produce. our products and our crops include a variety of vegetables, potatoes melons, apples, pairs and more. in addition to my day job i'm chairman elect for the produce marketing association which is the largest trade association representing companies that market fresh fruits and vegetables. pma represents more than 2700 member companies and 44700 member companies in 45 countries. in the united states are member from growing and processing and wholesaling and retail food servers handle more than 90% of the fresh produce sold to consumers. my testimony today comes from the perspective of the grower. dealing with food race is a complex issue that requires a solution for press fresh produce ghost waste we lose the fruits and vegetables as well as inputs, labor, energy and fertilizer. if the product has been harvest as we lose it even more. our first preference is that
12:27 am
fresh produce reaches its highest and best use. at l and m we employ a range of options for produce that is unmarketable to the consumer. several outlets to usable product that is not going to be sold through the intended channel. we try to find alternative markets or uses in addition ellen m supplies hundreds of thousands of pounds of health helpful fresh produce every year including farmers feeding florida, feeding feeding america, operation blessing and a host of others. in my role as chairman a lack at pma i am excited about the innovative approaches that my colleagues are taken to further reduce food waste. in fact, most of you probably have one of the earliest examples of innovation to reduce food waste in your refrigerator at home, we provided some at your desk this morning. baby carrots. they're born from a concern over food waste.
12:28 am
misshapen carrots were cut and shaped into the now common baby carrots. in fact baby carrots represent 70% of all carrot sales. according to a recent washington post article, this effort to reduce waste is now doubled care consumption. recently, cisco's proto- produce distributor introduces unusable usable program. it's a food to strip it or taking ugly or imperfect protist that might otherwise go to waste of by consumers interested in utilizing it. it reduces the waste caused by cosmetic imperfections in the customers get what they want, often at a more attractive price point. red jacket orchids and new york like apple and processors takes the residual solid left after juicing and makes them into cakes to feed livestock. this it reduces what goes to the landfill and is an additional supply chain allah for the
12:29 am
grower. we have also supplied samples of these cakes at your seats today. in another example, gil soni, california based producer processor installed advanced energy recovery system that converts 100% of its daily onion residuals infused into renewable energy and cattle feed. instead of incurring spousal cause for more than 300,000 pounds of annual onion waste, gil's onion saves approximately 700,000 dollars per year on energy and disposal costs and has significantly reduced its environmental footprint. . . . .
12:30 am
thank you again mr. chairman for holding this important hearing and this committee's attention to these critical issues. >> did i butcherer name badly? >> you are recognized for five minutes. chairman conaway ranking member petersen and members of the committee thank you for giving me the opportunity to participate on this important issue.
12:31 am
i am the senior director of sustainability for the manufacturers association representing the food consumer industry. i'm speaking on behalf of the food waste reduction alliance initiative 30 leading companies formed in 2011 by the food marketing institute and the national restaurant association. at the ra commences committee for holding the hearing and you are just in finding solutions. i will will make for key point today. first we know food waste is a row problem and have a national goal of having it by 2030. everyone has a role to play to get there. second the food industry has stepped forward to make considerable product -- progress. reduce food waste generated increased food donated and recycle unavoidable food waste. gma's members have been working hard as well. in 2014 are companies recycled nearly 94% of the food waste
12:32 am
from the manufacturing and in 2015 donated over 800 million pounds of food. third we know that more needs to be done and our industry is taking steps. gma and fmi are taking lead on state labeling and reducing consumer confusion. state labeling is important and we are addressing it. a concept is important and that's my fourth . labeling is not the solution to the place. there is no silver bullet solution. needs to be tackled in the range of laser dentistry can solve the problem alone. consumers are responsible for 44% of the food waste in landfills. we are going to make a serious dent would need to tell consumers that reducing food waste is a party and that's why we created after the ra cochaired by conagra. therefore areas of focus assessment best practices communications and policy. from this work we have seen tremendous innovation. conagra who makes murray calenders popeye's thou calenders popeye's phone that
12:33 am
could change the way they were placing pie dough in a pan and reduce the amount to be trimmed off the edge. this saved over conagra 230 tons of pie dough in a year. that's food waste that never happened. retailers increase the donation by over a billion pounds in the last decade. kroger is compiling a digestive turn their food waste into energy. yum brands amount they needed 184 million pounds of food in 1992. let me talk a little bit about about -- gma and fmi boards resolve to work to address consumer confusion around labeling in the a working group of 25 companies last week. national standard is crucial to providing consumers with the clarity they need a 40 states have laws regulating labeling. this regulation on some products in some part of the country is contributed to the confusion. more will need to be done. these labels can tackle only 80%
12:34 am
of the total overall food waste going into landfills. clearly more solutions are needed. businesses are facing challenges to food waste. supply chains for example food safety is paramount to the local food banks have maxed out his refrigeration are refrigerated trucks based often food winds up in a landfill. similarly diverting food waste away from lantos requires infrastructure that make sounds. food waste is having an it's wet and requires frequent pickup. you have to put that material and diesel truck and drive hundreds of miles to the nearest facility. also has to make business sense. they can cause millions to build and operate in composting facilities and permitting challenges. even when accompanied thinks they have found a solution to composting facility can be shut down the a.g. can go out of business and the business is back to square one. we outsourcing conflicting regulations at the state and municipal level.
12:35 am
permitting is so onerous there is no infrastructure. finally consumers the single largest contributor food waste and landfill. an art d.c. save the food campaign is a great example. in closing what challenges do exist the opportunities is our enormous and we look forward to working with the committee or industry partners and others to reduce food waste throughout the supply chain. thank you for your time. >> thank you ms. stasz. >> mr. chairman ranking member petersen and committee members thank you for laying testify before you today. each year we waste food suitable for donation. at the same time we believe every community across our nation struggling with food insecurities could help end hunger. feeding america works for the food banks 60,000 local food agencies and 148 continents. together we provide
12:36 am
4.5 billion pounds of food more than 46 million americans each year including 12 million children and 7 million seniors pay to the food we distribute or than half of it which is 2.6 billion pounds would otherwise go to landfills. yet this does not meet the need. significant gaps remain between the food low-income people need and the resources they have to buy it. diverting excess food through donation provides a triple benefit. it reduces hunger, protects our environment and helps businesses personable foods must move safely and quickly from the donor to the people who need it. doing so her choir's innovative practices technological know-how and costly physical infrastructure like refrigerated trucks and cold storage capacity. i want to share with you two examples of innovative platforms that we have developed to divert
12:37 am
more excess food to donations. produce -- is an on line portal and ordering system that helps produce donors make with food banks. available 24 hours a day and a bust of thanks to review offers and except donations in real-time moving produce to hungry families more quickly. food banks can order produce donations by the pallet rather than the truckload. this saves transportation costs and allows cost-effective smaller amounts of produce. it started being used by 150 food banks and state associations and fy16 and connects 125 million pounds of produce with food banks across 40 states. it will help distribute significant amounts of produce currently wasted. meal connect is a new on line easy safe and fascination of
12:38 am
fresh foods from grocery and convenience stores and food service locations. it engages on lines when they have extra products to donate and are matched with local food banks. the only donation software the full effects of donors and recipients issue proper protocols throughout the process. using meal connect on the smartphone justifies logistics of matching excess food. this is local food rescue in the sharing economy. it will provide an additional 50 million meals over the next five years and the program rolls out to 7600 starbucks cars across the u.s.. produce matchmaker and new connect won't solve the problem alone. additional investments in
12:39 am
technology and physical infrastructure needed. the improvements to the tax eduction enacted last december would have a significant impact on food recovery. by expanding the deduction to farmers and growers in making it permanent for all businesses we expect nearly 1 billion additional meals that would have been wasted will now be donated. thank to you and your colleagues for passing this legislation. without this we would be -- to continue increasing food recovery additional investments to identify promising program models are definitely require. product changes such as labels on food and providing new grants to small businesses and non-profits to facilitate the recovery would also have a significant impact. as you examine this critical
12:40 am
issue and begin preparing for the next we stand ready to work with you. i encourage you all to visit your local food bank to learn about food recovery within your district in thank you very much for allowing me to testify. >> i think our witnesses for the testimony. i will remind members that record will be held open until -- i'm sorry this is late. representative lee for five minutes. >> did my time passed that fast? thank you chairman conaway ranking member petersen and the members of the committee for the opportunity to speak with you. my name is emily broadleaf and i trekked the harvard law school for policy clinic. we ever reduce food waste for several years of and her work with various clients and partners we have come to see intimately the challenge is to food waste reduction and governor want to highlight a few issues. as you heard from many of my colleagues confusion over date labels is a major cause of delays.
12:41 am
standardizing date labels is the most cost-effective of 27 of the different solutions to examine to reduce food food waste inc. and over 398,000 pounds of waste. we have identified two key challenges with date labels. first in the dating game which we published in 2013 with the nrdc we showed that there is a array of state laws created to fill the void of federal regulation on this issue. 41 states and the ndp regulate date labels that no two states have the same law which is evidence these laws are not based on science or sound public holiday. new york for example does not regulate date some new food product -- products that his neighbor massachusetts requires states on all parish upon semi-personal products and restrict donation after that date. secondly found consumers are confused or that most foods stave labels are not intended to communicate safety instead of manufacturers estimate of how long the food will be at its
12:42 am
best taste that consumers have safety fears for the national survey my clinic conducted april with the national consumers league and the johns hopkins livable future over one third of consumers always preferred their food away after the date of 84% do so occasionally. interestingly a third of consumers already believe the federal government regulates labels. through her work on date labels within we find the safety of service for certain food products such as an unpasteurized dairy fare consumed after the date. that's not complete -- communicated clearly to consumers. as represented in great disgust require freshness and a standard safety level on food security safety of today. excited to see support for date labels from companies that ballmer general mills nestling campbells through standardizing labels can help consumers make better decisions. it could facilitate donation of
12:43 am
safe pass the food and could be a win for companies. moving on it like to talk about food donations. several of my colleagues as the chairman mentioned exposure to liability which have pursued a nation but strong liability protections are to exist. 1996 congress passed the good samaritan act which provides a strong federal criminal liability protection to food donors in the nonprofit organizations that distribute food to needy individuals to the organizations are protected as long as they don't act with gross negligence. 67% manufactures and 54% of retailers still say the main reason i don't donate is because the fear of liability. food recovery organizations report that many donors don't know about this legislation or that if they do know they are concerned about the lack of authoritative interpretation of key terms. the act has not been challenged in courts are there no judicial interpretation so that and it was never assigned to any agency
12:44 am
so there are no agencies that provide federal guidance or fill in these gaps or provide education. congress could call an agency to provide guidance and raise awareness about the act to help address these challenges. closely related to whether this issue of safety regulations and our federal system will regulations of grocery stores and restaurants takes place at the state level. state health codes. but they are mostly based on the fta food codes codes however the foucault does not incorporate language on food donations so states lack guidance around safer donation including food donations in the food coder at the federal guidance could save safety laws about apartheid food donation. lastly want to mentor the opportunity for innovation organizations have begun to test different food recovery. several of our client organizations are testing technologies that connect donors into the recovery organization that convert non-conforming for its officials into new products
12:45 am
or apply retail models to provide surplus food at low cost. as often happens is in the patients could not be predicted when the laws were first pass of several existing laws like the emerson act actually pose a barrier to the viability of some of the innovation to this committee could address barriers like this and create a friendlier limit for innovation. in conclusion despite strong laws. as% addressing the challenges challenges as they mention such a standardizing date labels strengthening liability protections and food safety guidance of supporting innovation can reduce the amount of food waste and increase the amount of healthy food recovered. >> thank you and good recovery from my rudeness. members will be recognized in order of arrival and appreciate everyone's understanding of recognize myself for five minutes. sitting here listening to you i suddenly realized i was among some early adopters of this issue not wasting food in the
12:46 am
sense that as a young mp at fort hood we would race across fort hood with sirens blaring and red lights flashing to get to the mcdonald's at 2:00 in the morning to get all the unsold dig macs that we would then take back to headquarters and pass them around to our colleagues. early on i was an early adopter in addition to growing up in a family where nothing was wasted. ms. sutter we talk about the challenges between food banks and urban food banks in the sense of produce and how they get access to it? we have heard from the retailers here the week or so talking about particularly small retailers have a hard time getting produced. can you talk to us about food banks and urban in rural and approaching this challenge is differently? >> the challenges facing room at food banks are different than urban food banks and just
12:47 am
transportation alone is one of the biggest challenges. recently had the opportunity to go around the country and have listening sessions and in the sessions that brought together most of the rural food banks the number one challenge that they faced was transportation. they has to find donations because had to go such far distances. it's not on the side of the distribution of food. with regard to the people facing hunger. their ability to get together and come to a central location to see the food is also a challenge. also because most of the people facing hunger or more of them are concentrated in areas there may be an inclination to want to go to where most of the people are but the needs and that the needs in the room at trinity are just as great so we have a issue
12:48 am
in their limited resources. >> we talked about the idea of setting up centralized points within the rural committees where they could take donated produce. you said i think we have some 40 different state rules or regulations. would you and your team be supportive of a federal preemption of all of those various state rules and regulations? >> a national standard is crucial. i think emily did a good job of pointing out the complexities existing now and i think as we think about if there is going to be regulation than the federal preemption would be really critical to streamlining that process and reducing consumer confusion and we thank ms. pingree for all of her work on this important issue and the conversation.
12:49 am
>> with that i will yield back and recognize the ranking member for five minutes. say minutes. sierra thank you mr. chairman. do all of you agree that we need a federal preemption under state laws? do any of you disagree with that? silence. it's going to be hard for the stenographer is to write that down. >> i'm happy to agree with that. as we have discussed when i started looking at state laws on state labels we looked at a handful in new england and a world different different and we zoomed and looked across the country and it's very clear that they are not based on the set of standards. >> you would have to have a federal preemption order. i'm a little bit concerned about how this would work because we
12:50 am
have got so many people involved in trying to use the labeling and marketing of food and they have consumers to the point where they don't know what the heck is going on. it concerns me like the gmo issue. they are opposing preemption of that because some people think it's a good thing for the states to have these different laws. completely the opposite about we are talking about here and then you've got folks out there who want these dietary guidelines in trying to push all of that stuff. we have a bill that was introduced.
12:51 am
the solution here, one of the main things that could change things, but in the bill it says expires on is the date for not the quality but i guess the safety. i think, i don't think consumers would understand what that means you almost have to say do not consume after this date to get
12:52 am
them to understand. we are putting so much stuff on this label, all of these labels that i'm not sure it's going to breakthrough so i don't know what you all think about that. am i off base concerned about all of those? >> i have two answers and then i will leave time if others want to jump in one of terms of this question about information being out there. if you go to any store right-the states that don't label date labels every product has said date label on it. i think what's great about this is is not taking information way because consumers are used to seeing them and trying to make it clear so they don't have a million different ones. no matter what the labels are i think education is going to be needed to the problem is now because there's only different labels is impossible to educate anyone.
12:53 am
i tried. i said here is what you should glean from this and lastly the term was in the national survey we did last month that i mentioned. we checked six different label language and expired on 54% of people believed as a safety label that was higher than another one of the law was presented to people who thought it was a quality indicator so 54% is not locked but it's a start in with education that could build upon that. >> go ahead. >> if i may quickly i do think it the nail on the head and we want to give this right the first time. we don't want to further consumer confusion so want to make sure we are testing consumers to make sure they understand what we are trying to say, coordinate with other labeling changes like the nutrition facts panel and have industry flexibility to truncate the phrase and make sure it's packaging in order to make sure we are harmonizing our standards
12:54 am
and are languishing to bang the right information. >> i would say a mentor that and if you have. this bill i am concerned, i agree with the goal but i'm concerned about the way this thing is structured that you are going to get these different agencies involved in by the time you are done you are not going to recognize what you are trying to accomplish. i have seen that but the farm bill and bypass the farm bill. by the time i got them done with the regulations i didn't recognize what we have passed so i think we have to be careful about how we do this. i agree with what we are trying to accomplish but if you get too many agencies involved and allow too much whatever, you will end up potentially with a worse situation. they'll back back. sniper chairman yields back. mr. kelly for five minutes. >> thank you mr. chairman and make you member and thank you members of the panel.
12:55 am
first of all it does want to say we have a lot of food pantries. i'm from mississippi and we have a lot of rural areas. our food pantries do such a great job sony kind of reduction in second she will probably kill me but my wife volunteers for meals on wheels to take these mills to the elderly and people who can't travel in those things. she never gets record nice in every 25 years it seems like like she's behind-the-scenes. my wife sheila does a great job. we need more of that because there a lot of people who really want to help people and get this food into the right hands. as a child growing up i mother used to go to the stale bread store in town and would buy donuts and things that we couldn't necessarily a four-door bread for violence in that sort of thing and we would freeze them. as kids kids we didn't know any different. it was still good food. the thing that most people threw away we got to eat so i thank you for doing this.
12:56 am
and ms. stasz in what way is the industry about to coordinate labeling? >> is the gma and smi board level initiative. we have 25 companies who are working on this to make sure we really get this right the first time make sure the information we are conveying to the consumers is accurate and it's the right kind of information. this is a really important issue for us and something we are taking very seriously. >> as a follow-up on that when we create things here we don't always get the right results because we don't have the knowledge necessary. we are not the professionals in every area. when you guys create the right things for yourselves that prevents us from doing the wrong things with good hearts and good minds of trying to do the right thing but we appreciate your input. how do your manufactures and organizations work with
12:57 am
different state labeling laws in each state and what limitations do they put on you because of these laws? >> is certainly onerous. our member companies are obviously complying with state law but it does tend to create a lot of unintended consequences. i think ms. aviv highlighted the condition of the bank level in their different foods that get thrown away unnecessarily. there certainly a call for andreessen for a national standard that the industry is working towards to reduce consumer confusion and prevent some of these unintended consequences of these laws. >> and ms. aviv to what extent have potential food donors raised liability concerns to you about a reason to withhold donations? >> thank you. congressman i think the issue we see is lack of knowledge. people new to this who want to
12:58 am
help contribute argue that they can't because they won't be protected and it's almost a one by one education. this creates a systematic way to engage in that work but i was most recently at a conference organized by ohio state university with all of its alumni and so on and the alumni sitting there talking about food insecurity, people sitting at the press table say they were reluctant to get involved because they were afraid of liability. so i don't think we should underestimate the degree to which their people who are not engaging because they think they are not protected. >> and find the questions. so-called ugly fruit and vegetables in many cases have value in the so-called marketplace. what other opportunities come he talked about some but if you can talk about the industry to add value to these products. >> you mentioned the ugly fruit
12:59 am
in that it's been a growing movement one that we have participated in and a lot of retailers are helping to do that. i mentioned the food service site is getting involved as well. one of the things you have to keep in mind on that is how things are positioned in the stores or at the food service level. we believe there is great opportunity and it's a huge waste from our standpoint. it's a grower we hope every fruit stem and leaf ends up on somebody's plate so just trying to do anything we can to make those products available is what we are trying to do. >> just a final anecdote my dad would not eat white corn so my mother foot -- put food coloring in it he was saved the best corner of ever had. i yield back mr. chairman.
1:00 am
>> mr. davis for five minutes. >> thank you mr. chairman. this is a very serious problem here and appreciate german you pulling this together. there seemed to be two fundamental areas here that we need to address. the first one is how do you change human behavior? that is the big issue here. the second big one is how do we address this issue of where the food waste starts on the farm? i represent georgia and we are the leaders in the nation, perhaps the world of growing blueberries. the problem is there is so much of those blueberries that are left, wasted, rotting in the fields because we have failed to address the number one issue that we here in congress can do
1:01 am
to address food shortage and that is to make sure our agriculture and our farmers, those who are producing our crops like blueberries have the adequate supply of labor to be able to harvest them. so we have got to do something about that first. the second is on that is how do we coordinate a better relationship with that if it's an oversupply? a much reduced cost rather than see those crops rot in the field, get them to our food banks like the atlanta food bank which is one of the premier food banks with over 75 million pounds of food put out each year. that takes good management resource allocations. now the other one is how do you
1:02 am
get to do real because about 80% of the problem, if we solve it at the first end up helping some of the food shortage of good will rotting because they can't get the labor because we have failed to address immigration from an economic agriculture supply labor standpoint, when we get to the changing of the human behavior we have got to get into a coordinated partnership with the media with television, with radio to be able to change human behavior, educate the public. now we did this with smoking so it can be done. we have changed that. people said you are not going take a look to get it but there was a coordinate of effort with the leaders in the media industry to help with the kinds of public announcements, commercials that we could. so i would like to get you walls
1:03 am
response to that. am i right on this labor issue mr. oxford? >> without a doubt. that is one of the biggest challenges for us as growers is not having adequate labor to harvest the crops at times and when we leave crops in the field , sure we can put them in and use them as nutrients for the soil but that really means they crop is not going to its best use which is feeding people. >> how about your ability, am i right in assuming that you would be able to work with food banks in a much better resource allocation way to be able to get that food so it gets to the needy people rather than rotting in the fields? >> absolutely and we argues do as i mentioned my testimony
1:04 am
supply hundreds of thousands of pounds to food banks annually ourselves. part of it doesn't meet specifications for the customers that we have and so forth but i think distribution is a big part of the equation that has to be figured out and there is no silver bullet here. it has to be a collaborative effort from all parts of the supply chain. >> the reason i mentioned the human behavior as i looked at this, clearly 45% of food is wasted at the dinner table. mr. chairman i think it might be helpful if we begin to address a way in which we can coordinate some resources at the federal level to help get public service announcements to get and work with many of our partners in the media and engage them much is the same way we did in changing human behavior as poking. thank you mr. chairman.
1:05 am
i yield back. tonight the chairman yields back. chris gibson for five minutes. >> think such a chairman. i appreciate this hearing and i just want to commend mr. scott and concur with his statements. i appreciate the chairman. he has been looking at this too and we have a number of members on the committee who have been gibson about ag labor. i've introduced a bill and certainly don't claim that a cornered the market. in fact i think at this time maybe what we should do as a committee is have a hearing and look into it more but i know the committee is looking at that and i appreciate that. the second is an i apologize but i did learn from the testimony that i dear -- did here. ms. lee i was interested to hear your comment, really your analysis of the emerson act which is from what i hear very helpful in its intent but
1:06 am
perhaps needing some refinement, some amendments and i thought you were very clear in what could be done. i certainly would be supportive of an effort on that score and i just wanted to make that comment and then third, and this is really the question, i am curious for the panel, and your experiences have you seen any best practices as far as that goes made in his concerned a not-for-profit that maybe as a clearinghouse in the community were all restaurants and farmers can provide information about what they have so in the community there is a place where people can go and say well here is our inventory of all the perishables and perhaps a nonperishable stuff and what is available. has anybody seen anything like that?
1:07 am
>> in addition to what feeding america is doing with their new platform there are a few other local startups that are doing it. there is a small company based in boston that's doing it from new england is creating a platform that has knowledge of tractor trailers that are being rejected in particular places and are not going to find their intent and then matching those with locations that could use that. it's large organizations like feeding america and a lot of innovation is happening at the local level as well. >> i would say there are lots of efforts by feeding america to try to get to the very issues that you have raised. obviously the challenge that we face is to make sure the whole food labeling issue is not an
1:08 am
unimportant issue because you want to make sure that the food if it is personable is put in the refrigerator and transported to a safe place before it's distributed so -- even as we are and courage by efforts of small groups to do the same thing we want to ensure that we have safe standards because if we have stories that come out of somebody getting food poisoning that might be perceived by the public as the -- as an isolated incident. our effort that we are now going to do over the next five years and hundreds and hundreds of stores will give us an opportunity to test the business. they are incentivizing us through providing us with enough
1:09 am
financial support in refrigerated trucks of the food banks can go by and pick up the food every single day. every store in the city that have food we had to make sure the infrastructure for the people who pick it up or picking it up and carrying it to the place where it's being distributed to people who need the food. it's a logistics and transportation and safety issue. >> just to add to that there is quite a bit of innovation on that front. there is an organization a startup in chicago that has been training uber and lyft drivers and handling practices and allowing restaurants to broadcast to a number of food entries and then they bring it over very quickly so that it can
1:10 am
get to people quickly. i would say there's a long tail, their big organizations but there's also a lot of small restaurants that have small quantities but it's still worthwhile to donate. i think really encouraging the innovation there can serve that long tail. >> i think the panel. my time has expired. >> mr. walz for five minutes. >> thank you mr. chairman and thank you to all of you. thank you to mike colleague ms.. >> great who i've had the honor and pleasure of sharing a meal at her home. she takes this to heart and takes food is an important part of her goal for life which brings it back to him mr. scott and mr. kelly. by training him a cultural geographer. this is an attitude issue is much it is logistics.
1:11 am
it's interesting when you hear people up here talk those of us of a certain generation there is a pride in the thriftiness around food. i come from a family until i was 12 years old i thought headcheese was really cheese that my mom was making and when we found out we still ate it but it was the idea that was probably passed on from her previous generation where food insecurity with several threat to them and you see this around the world. i do think there are some interesting phenomena here. we take great pride in minnesota that we feed, clothe the world and we have the most efficient producers of food the world the scene. and then working to involve you and ms. stasz your organization video become efficient at delivering foods to her local grocery store into our homes that it has changed the cultural
1:12 am
perception. not that we have gotten lazier but when i go to shop for bananas is a fine art because i don't want them green because i want to eat them that night but when i find them yellow they are day almost. it's really that supply-chain that we are trying get out. i'm curious. think mr. scott was talking about putting things out of the public but i think ms. gunders if there's anything i've learned from his job as a schoolteacher maslow's hierarchy. appeal to the bottom of the hierarchy and then they will eventually self-actualized through this is the right thing to do to save the planet and it saves those types of things that are we getting at the heart of the things that can made a difference and is the food labeling one of those in productivity to view some of your points. you talked about the data which it think it's incredible what you have been able to do to gather data. nmap the last one to you
1:13 am
ms. aviv. how do usda food inspectors in direct with food banks are large-scale because i have fantastic once a minnesota that use an incredible field to plate type of thing. i know that's brought in general but the rest of the countries catching up where all of you are at. there are win, win, wins in this. these are one of the issues that are incredibly positive economic or healthwise reducing government spending on things that all this want to see done. i will leave my last two minutes for some points on that. i know it's very generalized but we have got to get at this. >> as i mentioned an rdc partners with the council on the campaign to try to shift the cultural paradigm around food waste. seth was correct that if i walk down the sidewalk right now and i threw a half a sandwich on the sidewalk people would think i'm crazy because i'm littering but if i threw it in the garbage can people won't think much of it.
1:14 am
that's really the paradigm that we are trying to shift. there was over 12 months of research that went into the campaign and found things like people don't know they are wasting food. if you ask somebody fits okay nobody will say yes but nobody realizes they themselves are doing it and is flying under the radar. get a thing is it's a byproduct of people's good intentions. you want to feed your kids healthy and fresh food and then there's this high product of ways. the campaign they are trying to create is a wake-up call that yes this is happening and also create a positive message that something that people can get on board to do better and shift that culture. i think we are trying to get at some of the motivations behind it through really positive -- and empowering people to make changes in their kitchens. a lot of that is happening right there.
1:15 am
>> i think the question had to do with the data and what we do with it. the intent to calm the data that was out there and to create this advisory council with the 30 experts from the various non-profits in the road map which is in action plan of what the areas where food is being wasted and what are the solutions and how can investments be made to accomplish that? that is where they came up with it 27 solutions and their investment opportunities for private investors for philanthropic organizations like foundations that can made grants to feeding america and other non-profits. for corporations to make investments in their own infrastructure so the first up is collecting data and creating a roadmap. now it's an opportunity for
1:16 am
individual organizations to figure out how they can invest in solutions. >> maybe if we get a second round, my time is up. i want to explore the economic potential that comes from this and how you are already doing that. >> mr. moolenaar for five minutes. >> thank you mr. chairman and i want to thank you all for being here. just this number 40% is pretty staggering. i wonder, think most people wouldn't be aware of that and if there was one take away that you wanted me to be able to communicate back in my district as you have been thinking about this today and throughout your work what without one take away be that you would want me to communicate because i think that number is pretty staggering and then when you look at the supply-chain aspect of it it becomes a much more confiscated issue in terms of how to resolve
1:17 am
is there one thing you would want me to be able to communicate in my district and maybe just go right down the panel. >> i think is that this is very addressable and it takes easy steps to do it. it can be overwhelming when you think too much about it but ultimately if everyone cares about this and we all think food will be wasted it won't use much. >> i would say most people are not aware of how much food they waste personally and the problem can be solved starting by at the consumer and the consumer can push that to restaurants and to retailers. >> what i would say is i think there is a misperception with a lot of consumers that if the fruit of the vegetable doesn't look absolute perfect in the store when they are picking it out that it can't be good and
1:18 am
that is simply not true. so support for an encouragement of some of the imperfect or the unusual looking fruits and vegetables and those are still helpful products for consumers would be terrific. >> i would say the number one takeaways important measurements where they were business or household were a city or a state understanding, getting the numbers behind how much food you are wasting you immediately find opportunities to improve. i for one need to stop buying grapefruit. and i can understand how much money i save every week. i think measurements are far and away the best practice. >> i think there are no silver bullets because they can't solve all of it doesn't mean we shouldn't try to solve some of it. one of the great successes with regards this area that we think is helpful with the passage of
1:19 am
the tax legislation they have made the donations of food by small businesses and incentivizing so instead of the food going to waste now because of this charitable tax reduction they can can donate that pretty big and educate our farmers and small-business people and the communities about this opportunity we can save the heck of a lot. >> i would say one on date labels for the most part foods are indicating quality to you and hopefully you can say you are working on trying to make them clear. i think on the liability and mentioned the emerson act is incredible. an enormous amount of protection and the biggest challenge is businesses don't know about that and having representatives from congress could go miles in getting more people to fill comfortable donating food.
1:20 am
>> thank you very much. >> the chairman yields back. ms. fudge for five minutes. >> thank you very much fischer chairman thank y'all for being here. mr. chairman let me take a point of personal privilege. today is foster youth shadow day and today i have a foster student with me. her name is for jean jordan wells was in the system for five years and is now a student at cleveland state university. >> any stand up and wave at us? >> there are she is. [applause] >> welcome. glad you are with us. >> now to my questions. let me again thank you all. this has been most enlightening and very timely mr. chairman to thank you for this hearing. you represent the city of cleveland and akron and 20 cities in between. i represent one of the poorest
1:21 am
districts in america so this is extremely important to me. as i work closer with my food bank on a fairly regular basis and have my staff go on a regular basis to assist and volunteer. it is good to have you here and i wanted to remind you that earlier this year mr. rodney davis might call it from l. and mike and i did in fact request the appropriations committee replied an additional $100 million for the cost of storing transporting and disturbing food. we know that refrigerated storage, moving food is very important to making this whole thing work because a lot of times if it's difficult for them to donate the food they won't do it. i just want you to be aware and thank you for your assistance and feeding america's assistance in helping us do that. i am happy my colleagues have heard today how important is to make sure we have the transportation refrigeration we need.
1:22 am
ms. lee, we have been talking about the emerson act for sometime this morning but unlike other statutes, there has never been a federal agency that is over this particular act. would it help if in fact there was some kind of guidance by a federal agency that would make person to come under this act feel better? >> i think so. one issue is that there is a lack of awareness which can also be addressed by having an agency that is tasked with putting guidance out telling people about it sharing information and the other question it's intended to be incredibly strong. as attorneys and as an attorney myself i can imagine if i were advocating on behalf of a company looking at it and saying there are few terms near that are unclear. what is wholesome really mean?
1:23 am
there are other questions like that as well. the access for example that food has the follow quality and labeling standards. some of the labeling centers are not related to safety so having an agency being able to say the allergens are certainly safety related but it's been that way it is wrong someone is going to get the food instead of being donated its three ounces and four ounces or vice versa that's an issue. i think they're a bunch of places like that were having an agency provide parity and raise awareness could go a long way. >> i first on two occasions today that there is some role for the federal government and i'm happy to hear that. my colleagues would agree that we don't want to have 40 or 50 different states with all different roles. secondly with the emerson act there should be some at least interpretive guidance as to how goes so i thank you for that and
1:24 am
hopefully we can take care of some of those things. you talked about a label. are you talking about integration? what would be talking about? >> certainly immigration is a part of the discourse. i know it's a tough issue to tackle politically but yes that's a big part of it. it affects our ability to get the drawbacks grown and harvested into the marketplace and simplistically we can probably either import labor or importer fruits and vegetables. that is a tough bill to swallow sometimes but yes that's a big part of it. >> thank you very much. i yield back. >> the gentlelady yields back. mr. yoho for five minutes. >> thank you mr. chairman i appreciate you all being here. the foster youth shadow program
1:25 am
we have one with us from the great state of florida and the samantha rogers. [applause] she is a young lady doing great things and congratulations for being here and sharing with us. ms. lee i wanted to talk about the emerson act. he talked extensively about it and to make it further to incentivize the clarification and loss and the work you have done with that if there are any recommendations you can give us on this committee that we could help draft that that would surely facilitate that because i think the things that mrs. aviv brought up to be able to donate those things. i grew up like mr. walz from minnesota. i have tried to his five brothers and for them when were older and only sat down it was like puppies in the dish.
1:26 am
there wasn't any food way so we are growing up and growing up i was on food stamps for period of time. we were good misers with that and my mom taught us how to save all your food at the end of the week you had stew and it was always really good. saying that and being in the since 15 years of age we have seen a lot of ways. i worked a produced markets and loading docks and working with the farmers. we have seen across left in the field. any recommendations you can give as far as things we can do as far as legislation would be great along those lines and i have had a specific question for mr. fink. you mention consumer education and crosscutting action to reducing waste. have you found a specific best practices and what have you found is the most effective way to educate the consumer not just the consumer but i want to add
1:27 am
to that awareness and industry. i know industry does a good job from the grocery stores to restaurants to the farmers and to the families. have you any cooperation with the usda in public service? >> yes sir. >> thank you. the first question on the consumer side i think we are getting a great start with the ad council and an rdc and as the congressman mentioned campaigns over the years that have change behavior and i believe this will do that. it's a start. it needs to be backed up by companies providing awareness at supermarkets and restaurants. their chefs who are interested in food waste and chefs could play a role in changing people's behavior. start with the ad council but
1:28 am
companies can play a role in the government can play a role. i would also say on the industry side we have a farm and we collect produce, leftover produce from local markets. every day be going if there's a new person and they're not doing it the same way so employee training is huge. that's what one of the things that came out not just consumer training but employee training. >> thank you. ms. stasz you brought up like a grapefruit and i've done that myself. we buy things that sometimes we shouldn't and that is just up to us to knock cost benefit analysis we have to make in mr. oxford i think you brought this up the bruised tomato. nobody wants to buy that but if you're in the restaurant business is different. you can utilize that it is like buying a new car. i don't want the one with the dent in it so again if the retail market or the restaurants move on wednesdays that's the
1:29 am
leftovers and those aren't the things that are the shiniest. have you seen a difference in the handling of food waste in the rural versus urban areas, grocery stores and restaurants? >> there are some marked differences but overall the general blue line is the trouble with infrastructure. depending on what kind of system you are operating a brain you are your infrastructure options are going to be different. if you're a restaurant and you have small amounts you will have to get someone to pick up that paterno frequently if you're in the city and that it has to go a long way away. you could lose your environmental benefit. so i think for the increasing infrastructure options to make sure we are meeting for 50% reduction goal is going to be critical. >> okay, thank you. i yield back. >> mr. mcgovern for five minutes.
1:30 am
soon i thank you all for being here. this is excellent testimony and it's all common sense. it's all doable. doesn't seem like it's rocket science to be able to implement a sensible food waste policy in this country. i have a suggestion we should put you all in a room and you write the policy and funded and we are done. you represent a vast array of the players that need to be the table. a few weeks ago i was invited to massachusetts to react to a film about a couple that decided to live for six months on food waste. at the beginning of the found they thought they could knew they wouldn't be able to find food waste to be able to live on. by the end of the found they gained 20 pounds. because it was so plentiful. they were able to eat relatively healthy but they ended up eating a lot because they covered so
1:31 am
much food. they went to dumpsters and supermarkets and recovered a huge amount of wasted food. they tried to buy food like bananas that were being taken off the shelf and they were told by the people at the supermarket they couldn't sell them to them. they went to the dumpster and got them. they have banquet for all their friends. we waste an enormous amount of good nutritious healthy food that not only can feed hungry people but quite frankly could be utilized in our schools and so many other places. need to fix this problem. there's an environmental aspect to this moving away from landfills going to die jesters and composting and feeding animals versus what we are doing with the landfills. i come at this issue primarily from the hunger aspect. we have had close to 50 million people in this country who are hungry.
1:32 am
we should all be ashamed of that and it's not a substitute for s.n.a.p. or whig or other nutrition programs. clearly getting good nutritious peak food to people who are struggling is important. then we get to the infrastructure issues. on the panel i was on there was a farmer who out of the goodness of his heart brings his excess produce to the food bank of massachusetts. it's hard and he is a small farm. i think a lot of people are faced with it. they don't have the labor. they don't have the refrigerated trucks for the transporting of the food and is food banks there's a limited amount of refrigerator and paid you can talk about trying to get it to smaller stores. they have a small amount of refrigeration. it teased up we authorize $100 million for transportation and storage.
1:33 am
we have funded half of that sort some point we have to figure out a way to fund this. and mr. fink maybe we could talk about the infrastructure challenges especially when it comes to feeding the hungry in this country and how do we piece together the money? how much is the cost and how do we do this? >> i will have to get back to him you on how much it costs altogether. we were hopeful that could be funded at 100 million. i can't tell you 100 million would solve the problem but the need is so great and 50 million people with hunger in the middle middle -- in a city of the big problem. the food we provide which is well over 3.5 million years is a small part of what we are about to provide. the infrastructure is on two levels.
1:34 am
the one side is the refrigeration and the transportation and being able to harness it and keep it safe. the other side of it are the people. and rural communities it's much more difficult. the cities of the cities it's a problem as well. we also have big challenges only get donations. there may be a whole lot of one item. not everybody can live on carrots alone. we need a variety of things and make able to have access to everybody. it would go a long ways to solving the problem but it wouldn't solve the whole problem. cf. mr. fink. >> the good news is there really isn't that much capital needed on the infrastructure side from the recovery standpoint and we have all talked about the need
1:35 am
for information technology and infrastructure like refrigerator trucks and refrigerator trucks. that is the huge amount of capital. we talked about uber for food waste and when you look at it is sort of infrastructure like in that respect. the other point you mentioned is the environmental aspect and that is a large need for compost take and anaerobic digestion. that requires a significant amount of capital. i will say the private sector is very interested in participating in that capital structure. foundations that impact investors are very interested so there there's an opportunity for public-private partnerships. i think there needs to be some signaling from the wall of what needs to be done. there are very willing investors on the other side. >> my time has expired that i would tell the group that we are working on screening for members and staff and we will keep
1:36 am
everybody posted on that's so all of us can have a chance to take advantage of watching that experience. mr. crawford for five minutes. >> thank you mr. chairman i thank you panel for being a day. i want to switch gears a little bit. we have an awful lot of pushback from superintendent of schools teachers parents when the national school lunch program rules changed in 2012. it started being implemented that school year. the complaint we got from school districts was huge amounts of waste. children were not used to the menu items and they would essentially turn up their no's at what they had been offered. the standards for waste was one of the biggest issues. administrators or superintendents rather are challenged by trying to pay
1:37 am
their food budget with general funds. anybody given consideration to how you analyze food waste in schools and what we might do to alleviate that problem? anybody want to comment on that? >> i will say one thing briefly. i think there's a great opportunity in schools in the cafeteria and the classroom and a couple people have mentioned other places. a lot of that things like smoking recycling where we talked about this in the schools so it's a good opportunity to point this out to kids. in terms of the cafeteria's and the school lunch rooms i think there is still some confusion like so many things we talked about around liability protection. there's an opportunity to put guidance to save the schools here is this -- here's how this applies to you. more can be done definitely.
1:38 am
>> i would add the flip side of that the more we can do to get kids to eat their fruit and vegetables the less waste there will be. there has been a lot of documentation of efforts like the farm to table work and marketing produced to kids and some of those things, recipes that make the food taste good. not peaches out of a can that look drab and things like that, they can help to address health and fruit and vegetable consumption and also the ideas around shared tables is very opportune because you have these kids who were taking a full carton of milk because they have
1:39 am
to take it and bring it straight in the garbage can and that is just a shame and a huge waste. there's real opportunity for guidance along with the funds delivered through the school program to direct schools to allow for sharing of that food. >> there's a new pro-grum in texas called reiter bites and its unique partnership between food banks and schools and growers and packers to provide 50 servings of fresh fruits and they're supposed to students at bat or a schools for free. this program introduces new products to children at a very early age while providing educational materials to their parents on menu ideas and so forth. 90% of parents reported their children ate more fruits and vegetables while participating in a program and 74% were able to maintain that increased consumption after that program ended. as ms. gunders said trying to
1:40 am
increase fruit and vegetables would be a big help. >> maybe our experience in other areas might be helpful. we have a program that focuses on foods to during courage and our experiences even though we might think they're a whole range of producing proteins that are healthy and good for folks to e doesn't necessarily mean -- and we have learned from this work are food banks have been been doing the way in which it's presented the way in which it's talked about the way in which it's up porched makes a big difference. if the kids have never seen it before and adults for that matter but with encouragement is also true for people in supermarkets. >> as an aside in the time i have left we have a hearing in
1:41 am
my district and the collected a lot of comments to address the school nutrition program. think one of the most i thought most productive comments came from one of the moms on the panel who suggested these programs be implemented on a gradual scale that is k-12 and graduate that into implementation over time so that children grow into as you suggest making healthier food choices. do you agree with that? >> certainly the notion of encouraging people and not forcing them and making it a delightful thing is likely to perceive -- succeed. >> thank you and i yield back creates. >> the gentlelady from north carolina ms. adams. >> thank you mr. chairman thank
1:42 am
you both for being here. thank you for your testimony but let me take a moment to recognize my former student from greensboro north carolina jamie horton. >> jamie thank you for being here. [applause] next week will be the one-year anniversary of the initiative i launched and it's a shtick of north carolina to raise awareness of the high level of hunger and food insecurity in the communities that i represent, north carolina ranks ninth in the nation and my district is the first when it comes to food insecurity. as some of you have mentioned today developing food for coverage business model will help farmers stay in business and jobs that help with additional transportation and distribution of food for those
1:43 am
in need it. my first question is to the north carolinians on the panel mr. oxford your testimony lays out several ways that your company and other members of the lobbying association are finding innovative ways to reduce food waste and maximize the use of leftover food in our nation's food system so what can the public and private sector provide to the farmers to educate them on opportunities and incentives to move more food products that are not destined for markets and the food banks? >> thank thank you represented adams and appreciate your support in washington d.c.. we believe there's an opportunity for greater education across-the-board. our experience has been very positive and working with the florida association of food banks and the feeding america per gram and others.
1:44 am
ensuring that producers understand the options is helpful but equally important in reducing food waste is educating consumers. we have talked a little bit about some of the things. we talked about the need to change behavior that one of your colleagues mentioned. that is very critical if we want to make a real difference in move in needle here. a change in behavior and our sense on behalf of the produce marketing association beginning that dialogue and trying to change behaviors starts at a young age. that's where we learn her habits and our values and soap worth. one of the things produce marketing association has been involved with including with the partnership for a healthy america and the white house as well is a program called -- and i should mention sesame workshop which is provided their assets, their characters for free to put on the packaging for fresh
1:45 am
produce. so changing, having it collaborative dialogue and getting more people involved is critical. >> thank you. ms. aviv several universities in north carolina operates king's kitchen. these students run organizations using readability -- trying to make food for those who need it. what recommendations would you make to encourage more farmers to donate unwanted food products to food pantry since beating organizations? >> thanks for your question for all the work you do in this area as you know that if good samaritan liability protection act which we talked about some today quite a lot makes it possible to provide protection for people and it provides
1:46 am
critical assurance of liability. while there may be ways in which it can be strengthened the big challenge we face is for people who don't know about this including campuses in the degree to which we systematically educate people about this and the degree to which will be able to increase donations in a meaningful kind of way. >> would feeding america support being able to use the funds from the food program that approaches leftover food from farmers? >> is a very complicated question. our experience is the purchases we already do that. we do it at scale and at this point in time for us to change that we are not sure that would be the right way to go. but that said there's no opportunity for us to take a
1:47 am
look at how to do it with smaller donations. we would be very happy to work with you and others to look into that. >> i would love to do that. i yield back. >> the gentlelady's time has expired. >> thank you mr. chairman and thanks again for such a great panel and highlighting that while we need to do more so that individuals and families are not so food insecure in this country , and i make the statement at a hearing because until it is resolved it hurts me every day to remind all of my colleagues and every one who comes before this committee that new mexico is still one of the hungry states in the country. every single day i know there are children in my district and in the state who are some of the hungry as children in the entire country. so the work that we do that
1:48 am
leverages, but make sure we are and courage in as you do, incredible private work as well as i think our responsibility to change a variety so that people really have support that they need to be food secure and have their necessary basic issues addressed in their life so that they can be successful. i know this question has been tossed. we are limited in what we can really do and accomplish because for every donation there is an issue about getting it ticked up and storing it. far too much money is needed to do that. fact i have a bill that would put $100 million so that we are not asking food banks to decide between having food available for their families or i'm going
1:49 am
to call administrative but the other structural issues which is storing and transporting the food that i know that has been asked, what else can we do but maybe the thing to do is are there any private groups who are looking at him and i hope i can convince my colleagues to support my request to put more money in a not be borrowing or leveraging in this way. it's clear we need to pay for transporting picking up and storing food. actually have a situation in my district where we have to say no to corn because we let it spoil. there was no way we can get it from the farmer that was donating it. are there businesses or groups who are looking at ways to maybe invest in the transportation and the storing and our folks in the feeding american garment that i can reach out to until we get it resolved in my state in
1:50 am
particular in the southwest region? >> i would say there aren't number burgeoning businesses that are addressing that problem. private sector lens. for instance there is a called him perfect produce pitches started in california and in a few months they have had over 3500 people subscribing to their produce box. they offer second produce. the operative people who qualify for s.n.a.p. at a reduced cost. sardi reduced because it's imperfect and further reduce in his liver their tours even have to access. they don't have to go to the grocery store that may not be near them etc. and they are getting basically $20 with the produce for $5 delivered to their door. i think there are some private-sector solutions like like that. >> i love that. do you think the private sector solution and allows them drive bays of things the heads up that the challenge and not that they
1:51 am
can figure it out my state and it sounds like i'm diminishing that when you are not urban it's much harder to make those deliveries and in a state where we have the worst economy in the country. our folks able to do that and successfully manage that this is model? is there a way to challenge states, if you are going to deliver a basket you are going to drive 100 miles. do you see ways and strategies being developed with challenging in varmints like mine? >> earlier we talked about modifying the standards for procurement and i think especially in your state their is so much that is grown in so much coming in from mexico that is getting rejected because it doesn't meet the perfect standards and there's a real opportunity for less perfect
1:52 am
fruits and vegetables being processed. they don't have to be shipped and refrigerated. they could be processed and shipped in a different form. it's a key opportunity to take a look at all of the fruits and vegetables that are left on the farm or left somewhere in the supply chain and do some value-added processing to be able to turn them around into rural communities. >> i appreciate that in the market of time but appreciate these ideas and the chairman's continued patience with me. these are important to families in my district mr. chair i thank you. >> turning to mr. scott for closing comments. >> thank you mr. chairman. this is a very good hearing and i think we have accomplished a lot in this area and i hope you can take that away. i am particularly concerned mr. chairman, we have really got to get our farmers, get our agribusiness community to get
1:53 am
before this congress and share what is happening. i really think he does dealing with the immigration issue from a labor economics issue as it impacts food waste which we see here because they can't get the labor in the fields to get the food in the first place. that is something we can do something about. also mr. chairman as i mentioned i think we need to coordinate a whole lot better with our food banks and this food could be beneficial to our food tanks. the pieces of this are right out there. we just have to reach out and grab it and finally changing the human behavior. mr. chairman you mentioned to me a very good thing there when you whispered in my air something that you all had a saying in the army.
1:54 am
i said to you, if we took that to television. you people we could turn that into, you could grab a hold and educate people. >> the mess sergeant would say take what you want but eat what you take. >> that could be a great commercial. that could be a great deal and who better to get on television say and say that the new? we say that trust rustic country but seriously mr. chairman we have to change that human behavior. hopefully we have touched on things. i think the panel and appreciate for coming. >> i want to thank our foster kids in the room. thank you for being here today. i felt -- hope this is an instructive. we are talking about that stuff and the bipartisan exchanges we have had today i don't think we
1:55 am
could find to and people who are in favor of -- i would also like to get into the record several additions to tax reduction homeport that was pretty got credit me on the metsville which was the much aligned on imus bill. a lot of us got beaten to death is worse a part of it but it was a tax bill in both of those were negotiated together so i appreciate you helping those of us who are criticized for passing on the spill. there were not there were nuggets of good things in there. i've also encourage, we are trainable. look up what we adapted. as soon as abu started doing sesame street that blew up and we all know how to do that. we face water restrictions in west texas because we asked people to turn their faucets off while they brush their teeth and that became a habit and water usage has dropped. it didn't didn't didn't change in the lives but it helped every single day. we announced at 135 we will have
1:56 am
the fair while we have booths and a lot of folks coming around to show the good work that has been going on. i think the role for public service announcements how people to calm -- become more sensitive to the idea that we don't throw things away. my mother would say you need to be a member of the coup to clean plate club. that had mixed messages because today i vitamax too much as a child my mother wasn't interested in is wasting food. there were all of these things we could be better at and i'm encouraged by that. thank all six of you for coming today and sharing. ms. gunders i think you get the price for coming in the furthest from san francisco but we appreciate all the work you do. there are only winners in this deal.
1:57 am
again i think are witnesses for being here today printed the rules of the committee the record for main open for 10 calendar days to receive additional material and written responses to any questions. this committee is adjourned. thank you. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]
1:58 am
[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]
1:59 am
2:00 am


info Stream Only

Uploaded by TV Archive on