FLPC and Partner Launch the Global Food Donation Policy Atlas

The Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic (FLPC) is excited to announce the launch of our latest project, the Global Food Donation Policy Atlas. The Atlas is a two-year collaborative project that will chart the laws and policies affecting food donation in 15 different countries as well as provide best practices and guidance on how laws and policies can be improved to both increase food donations and decrease food waste.

According to the United Nations, more than enough food is produced to feed every person in the world, yet an estimated 821 million people globally suffer from hunger. While millions of people go without adequate food, one-third of all food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted. Because food is heavily regulated, and food safety laws can pose barriers to the creation of food donation programs in many countries, redirecting safe, surplus food can be difficult and complicated. Not knowing what safety rules apply to donations, or being forced to bear a tax burden for donated food, can pose insurmountable barriers to donation. 

Around the world, communities are actively implementing and advocating for policy reforms to help move safe, surplus food into the hands of those who need it. The Atlas will contribute to these efforts by providing research to help make sense of laws relating to food donation, compare food-donation laws across countries and regions, analyze food donation barriers, and share best practices and recommendations for policy improvements.

To undertake this first-of-its-kind project, FLPC is partnering with the Global FoodBanking Network (GFN), with the support of the Walmart Foundation.  In building the Atlas, FLPC will rely heavily on GFN’s on-the-ground food-bank partners, as well as other key stakeholders in the 15 countries, such as food-rescue organizations and other non-profits, food donors, government agencies, and academics.  In addition to providing written legal guides to food donation and policy considerations for each country, the Atlas will outline its findings with a website and interactive map presenting countries’ food donation laws.

Both FLPC and GFN identified 15 countries where the Atlas could be especially useful.  In the first year, the Atlas will focus on Argentina, Canada, Chile, Mexico, and the United States.  The second year will bring in ten more countries.

“In the U.S., our work has uncovered unclear or confusing laws that lead to unnecessary food waste. Businesses throw food away because they do not know what safety rules apply to donations, or because they cannot access tax credits to cover the cost of transporting such food,” says Emily Broad Leib, FLPC’s director. “We are thrilled to collaborate with GFN and our in-country partners to examine these issues in a range of countries, aiming to reduce barriers, learn best practices and build more thoughtful policies to get food to those in need.”

Since the release of The Dating Game in 2013, which exposed how much food waste is related to misleading date labels, FLPC has been at the forefront of policy research on reducing food waste in the United States and is excited to expand our footprint to different countries.

Looking back at FLPC’s work on food waste reduction and recovery, we have worked actively in over a dozen states to provide technical assistance on state laws and policy changes, and our students have developed fact sheets on date labeling, tax incentives, and liability protections in a number of states. We also collaborate with advocates in a number of states to review and support legislation that reduces food waste and increases food recovery. For example, FLPC worked with advocates in California to support legislation to standardize date labels and expand liability protections. Both bills were signed into law in October 2017. FLPC’s work across the United States in this space will be highly beneficial as the Atlas seeks to understand national laws relating to food donation, compare laws across countries and regions, learn about food donation barriers, and share best practices and recommendations.

Ultimately, the Atlas will culminate in a website featuring an interactive map of food donation policies that allows users to compare food donation laws across countries; written legal guides summarizing food donation laws for each country; policy suggestions for each country based on local interviews and comparative research; and presentations of findings at public conferences and events.

Read the press release for the Global Food Donation Policy Atlas

View a one-pager on the Global Food Donation Policy Atlas

View FLPC publications related to food waste reduction and food recovery:

• Food Recovery in the District of Columbia: A Legal Guide
• Don’t Waste, Donate: Enhancing Food Donations Through Federal Policy 
• Opportunities to Reduce Food Waste in the 2018 Farm Bill 
• Keeping Food Out of the Landfill: Policy Ideas for States and Localities 
• The Dating Game: How Confusing Food Date Labels Lead to Food Waste in America