The Last Food Mile Conference: Reducing Post-Harvest Food Waste in the Supply Chain Toward a Sustainable Food System.

Food security is one of the greatest challenges facing mankind. Today, 1 in 8 people suffers from hunger and malnutrition worldwide.  In the United States, hunger exists in cities and rural areas.  However, an astonishing amount of food produced for humans is wasted - 1.3 billion tons globally and 133 billions lbs in the U.S. retail and consumer sectors alone, annually. Food wastage is an economic issue ($161 billion worth annually in the U.S.), a moral and health issue (842 million people undernourished worldwide; 49 million Americans live in food-insecure households), and a sustainability issue (land, water, energy, nutrients, biodiversity, and climate change).  

"The Last Food Mile Conference” is to be held in December 8-9, 2014 to address food wastage in the U.S. food supply chain. Experts from national and international, academic and industrial, public and private sectors will come together to explore food waste issues under two broad themes: (i) where food losses occur along the food supply chain, why, and how much; (ii) what food waste reduction measures work effectively, lessons learned and barriers encountered.  There will be four panels, each focusing on specific aspects of waste along the food chain: food industry and processing sector, consumer sector, food rescue & recovery, and behavior change.  In an era of growing demand for ever-more food, coupled with escalating production and environmental cost, dwindling natural resources, and threats of violence, tackling food wastage is critical to our future. See conference agenda, speakers, registration, and more at http://www.vet.upenn.edu/last-food-mile-conference