§6924 Food Loss and Waste Reduction Liaison

Summary

Create a Food Loss and Waste Reduction Liaison at the Department of Agriculture to coordinate federal, state, local, and non-government efforts to measure and cut food loss and waste. The Liaison must work with other agencies (like the EPA and FDA), back and promote programs that measure and reduce waste and increase food recovery, give information about available programs and who can use them, tell people about liability protections under the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act (42 U.S.C. 1791), and suggest new ways to recover food and prevent waste. The Liaison can hire or partner with research centers, colleges, or nonprofits to make educational materials, run workshops, and study best practices. The Secretary must run a study with the Liaison to look at how to measure waste, set volume standards, find causes, measure cost and amount lost, check how the Bill Emerson liability protections work, and make sure USDA programs don’t disrupt existing commercial recovery or disposal efforts. An initial report on that study must go to the House and Senate agriculture committees within 1 year after December 20, 2018. Within 1 year after that report, the Secretary must send another report to those committees with the past year’s food-waste estimate and USDA’s related work.