Reducing food waste can shrink agriculture’s environmental footprint while helping to feed the hungry and conserve resources, but since food waste occurs across all sectors of the food chain, reducing it will require coordination and funding.
Even though overall prices for food consumed at home held steady in June after inching up slightly in May, the impact was not even across all categories – causing consumers to continue to trade down and make tough decisions in the grocery aisles to balance their budgets, according to industry insiders.
Food costs will continue to eat away at consumers’ pocketbooks this year. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates food price inflation could increase another 8% in 2023 after racing to its highest level last year, 9.9%, since 1979.