Reducing food loss and waste (FLW) is a key strategy for combating hunger and sustainably feeding a growing world. In the U.S., an estimated 56–78 million tonnes of food are wasted annually across the farm-to-fork system, embedding large amounts of land, fertilizer, and water. Contributing factors vary by food system stage, involving market forces, social norms, and human behavior. Current efforts recover or recycle roughly 19 million tonnes annually, mostly at the manufacturing stage. Critical needs include quantitative assessment of composting programs, technologies converting food waste to safe animal feed, and behavior-change interventions targeting consumers.

This is a compilation and enrichment of papers presented at The Last Food Mile Conference held at the University of Pennsylvania in December 2014. Topics include food waste in the industry sector and how it is handled, characteristics of food waste in restaurants and in homes, how food waste can be measured, what interventions are most effective, food recovery from the supply chain and how it is diverted and used, and how food marketing affects consumption and waste.