The RECIPES team’s first task will be synthesizing data from government, nonprofit, and corporate sources-then identifying what’s missing. Myriad data about the food system exists, but it’s not integrated, Siddiqui said. Amid mounting climate crises, they are resources we simply can’t afford to waste. Each year wasted food results in the misuse or loss of about 4.2 trillion gallons of irrigation water, 1.8 billion pounds of nitrogen fertilizer, 780 million pounds of pesticides, and 30 million acres of cropland. The environmental and economic impacts, too, are widespread. According to Feeding America, an estimated 42 million people, including 13 million children, will experience food insecurity in 2021-an increase of 20 percent since COVID-19 hit. Forty percent of food in the US goes uneaten-even while more Americans go hungry.

What we do know is that wasted food is a pervasive problem, and the gulf between supply and demand, exacerbated by the pandemic, is only widening. “The food system is essential to our daily lives, and it cuts across so many aspects of our society-and yet, we know relatively little about it.” “But,” he said, “when you open that can, you have zero idea where those tomatoes came from, where the aluminum came from, how many places it traveled to get to the shelf in your grocery store, or how many people have touched it. The NSF grant continues our leadership in sustainability and leads on the change we know can’t wait.”Īccording to Siddiqui, the food system is as simple-and as complex-as a can of tomatoes.įifteen-ounces of vine-ripened tomatoes are peeled, diced, seasoned, sealed, and shipped to the local market where they’re purchased and placed in the kitchen pantry. “Our expert scholars bring unique interdisciplinary approaches to critical challenges and create knowledge that translates into action. That transformation “exemplifies the impact that AU has on the world’s most pressing problems,” said President Sylvia Burwell. “Instead of looking at the food system as a linear system where we plug gaps of waste in a straight line, we’re seeking to transform it into a more circular system where we can reduce, reuse, and valorize all of the food that gets wasted,” Siddiqui said. Drawing on the diverse expertise of 40 faculty from 14 institutions-including seven other AU professors-and 45 graduate students, RECIPES aims to reimagine a food system that’s more sustainable, equitable, and resilient. Led by principal investigator Sauleh Siddiqui, an environmental science professor in the College of Arts and Sciences, the project, Multiscale Resilient, Equitable, and Circular Innovations with Partnership and Education Synergies (RECIPES) for Sustainable Food Systems, kicks off on October 1. A five-year, $15 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to research wasted food is the largest externally funded award in American University history.

Toau recipe