914 - Reducing Food Waste to Take Climate Action

Jul 1, 2025

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About this episode:

American farms, restaurants, retailers, and households throw out nearly 30% of the food in our system, landfilling millions of tons of food each year and draining resources like land and energy. Households generate the most waste, with everyday cooks overbuying at grocery stores and throwing away a substantial portion of their purchases—but getting ahead of those scraps can make a big difference. In this episode: ReFED’s Dana Gunders covers the environmental costs of food waste and shares immediate action items to better manage it.

Guest:

Dana Gunders is a national food systems expert and the president of ReFED—an organization that researches and promotes evidence-based action to end food waste.

Host:

Stephanie Desmon, MA, is a former journalist, author, and the director of public relations and communications for the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Show links and related content:

From Surplus to Solutions: 2025 ReFED U.S. Food Waste Report—ReFED
Marylanders toss out more than 1 million tons of food each year. How do we reduce waste?—WYPR
From Farm to Kitchen: The Environmental Impacts of U.S. Food Waste—U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
We Are Eating the Earth: The Race to Fix Our Food System—Public Health on Call (June 2025)

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