Additional Resources

Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic

The Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic (FLPC) serves partner organizations and communities in the U.S. and around the world by providing guidance on cutting-edge food system issues, while engaging law students in the practice of food law and policy. Among other issue areas, FLPC is at the forefront of policy research on reducing food waste in the United States and globally and has published several resources on federal and state policies related to food waste. A compilation of FLPC’s research, resources, and toolkits can be found on the Food Loss and Waste (FLW) Policy Hub website.

FLPC partners with ReFED on the development and maintenance of the Food Waste Policy Finder.

Government Resources

• The United States Department of Agriculture provides resources for various stakeholders, including funding opportunities, educational resources, and updates on interagency food loss and waste reduction efforts.

• The Environmental Protection Agency provides educational resources, funding opportunities, and tips for communities and businesses. The EPA also created the Food Recovery Hierarchy, which explains how some food waste reduction activities are preferential to others.

• The U.S. Food & Drug Administration provides educational resources for consumers to help them reduce food waste, and also has resources for businesses interested in safely donating surplus food they cannot sell.

• The USDA, EPA, and FDA formed the Federal Interagency Food Loss and Waste Collaboration, which outlines priorities and strategies for reducing food waste at the federal level. In June 2024, these agencies and the White House released the National Strategy for Reducing Food Loss and Waste and Recycling Organics, which aims to prevent food loss and waste and increase organic waste recycling.

Additional Toolkits, Guides, and model policies

• In 2023, NRDC, WWF, Harvard Law School Food Law Policy Clinic, and ReFED launched the Zero Food Waste Coalition to engage with and inform policymakers on opportunities to prevent and reduce food loss and waste. Together, we developed this State Policy Toolkit for state leaders to advance efforts to tackle food waste. The toolkit contains a range of tried-and-tested model policies that states can use to prevent and keep food waste out of landfills and incinerators.

• The Natural Resources Defense Council has extensive resources on food waste reduction, including this toolkit on addressing food waste in cities, this guide on funding food scrap recycling and food rescue, and Save the Food, a tool that aids in meal planning, food storage, and shares innovative recipes for root-to-leaf cooking. NRDC also has a library of model policies that municipalities can use to develop and tailor food waste reduction policies to their communities.

• The World Wildlife Fund has a variety of reports and publications to reduce food loss and waste from farm to table. Toolkits include school education programs, policy action plans, and hotel and food service guides.

• The National Gleaning Project provides information on national and state laws pertaining to gleaning—the practice of recovering unharvested crops for distribution to food-insecure populations. The Center for Agriculture and Food Systems at the Vermont Law School oversees the project.

• The Institute for Local Self-Reliance provides a variety of resources on community composting. It also developed this model policy for funding organic waste diversion through landfill surcharges that can be adapted for any state or locality. Increased tipping fees have acted as a funding mechanism in at least eight states and a few counties.