§ 13:1E-226 — Findings, declarations relative to food waste.

1. The Legislature finds and declares that food waste is a major issue in the United States and globally; that, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), unwanted and discarded food squanders resources, including water, land, energy, labor, and capital, and, when food waste is dumped in a landfill, it rots and creates methane, which is a powerful greenhouse gas; that the FAO has estimated that one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption - about 1.3 billion tons - is lost or wasted every year, and the food loss and waste in industrialized countries equates to a value of approximately $680 billion; that the FAO has also stated that if one fourth of the food lost or wasted globally could be saved, it would be enough to feed 870 million hungry people; that the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic has estimated that 40 percent of the food supply in the United States is not eaten; that, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the United States Department of Agriculture, food loss and waste is the single largest component of disposed municipal solid waste in the United States; in 2015, that the Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the Secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture announced a national goal of reducing food waste by 50 percent by the year 2030; that much more can and must be done in the food supply chain to reduce the incredible waste of such a precious resource; that New Jersey is a national leader in implementing effective recycling and solid waste reduction programs, and thus it is appropriate for the State to also be among the national leaders in developing and implementing a Statewide food waste reduction program; and that, therefore, it is appropriate and fitting, as well as a moral imperative, that the State seek to reduce food waste as much as possible in New Jersey, and that reducing food waste in the State by 50 percent by the year 2030 is a worthy goal to pursue with vigor and all due speed. L.2017, c.136, s.1.