A Bipartisan Path to Increase Affordability, Maximize Income for Farmers, and Improve Soil Health: ReFED’s Food Waste Policy Priorities

Affordability and food prices consistently rank at the top of the list of concerns for American households. At the same time, we know that many farmers and producers are facing economic strains and pressures. With nearly one-third of all food lost or wasted between the farm and our plates, representing a value of $380 billion, tackling food waste can help alleviate both of these problems.

Families can save money by reducing the amount of perfectly good food they throw in the trash. And farmers and producers can capture more revenue by ensuring more of what they grow and raise can get to market—or by creating new markets for food that might otherwise go to landfill.

Policy change is one powerful tool to help confront this problem. And, despite the gridlock and politics in our nation’s capital, we believe there are a handful of practical and achievable policies that officials in both parties can get behind in the next couple of years to make progress on this issue and help their constituents.

The current 119th Congressional session concludes at the end of this year, and we will be advocating for a handful of policies that Congress should pass before they finish work this session.

Clarifying Food Date Labels

Research demonstrates that the current array of date labels on food causes significant consumer confusion and leads people to throw away perfectly good food. The bipartisan Food Date Labeling Act (FDLA) would help resolve this problem by instituting a simple, easy-to-understand labeling system that we estimate could save consumers at least $1.3 billion annually while helping retailers save $253 million through better inventory management.

In this Congress, with the addition of Senator Rick Scott (Republican of Florida), FDLA now has bipartisan support in the Senate for the first time. The bill has enjoyed bipartisan support in the House for a number of years. Additionally, in May 2025, the America First Policy Institute,

a think tank aligned with the Trump administration that was led by now-Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, released a nutrition policy brief listing date label standardization as a key policy to reduce food waste. Lastly, FDLA has record industry support from leading businesses, such as Amazon and Walmart, and major trade associations, such as the Consumer Brands Association and FMI, The Food Industry Association.

With this momentum and the salience of affordability for the American people, ReFED believes Congress should pass this common-sense, no-cost bill and help families and food businesses save money while also reducing food waste.

Increasing Support for Compost and Food Waste Reduction Projects

The Composting and Food Waste Reduction (CFWR) projects, first authorized in the 2018 Farm Bill, have demonstrated how relatively modest federal funding can catalyze local innovation. Through these grants, USDA has supported municipalities and community-based organizations in developing composting systems and food waste reduction strategies tailored to local needs. Importantly, these efforts help close the loop between food waste and agriculture by making compost more accessible and affordable for farmers and improving soil quality.

For example, Tucson Unified School District in Tucson, Arizona, used a grant to build infrastructure to provide compost to school and community gardens, improve soil quality, and reduce food waste. This project helped demonstrate the economic benefits of integrating food recovery education into school gardens and nutrition programs for students, their families, and the community.

Reauthorizing this program—and increasing its funding to $15 million—would allow more communities to participate and scale successful models nationwide.

Expanding Infrastructure Funding for Food Waste Diversion and Recycling

Food waste diversion and recycling infrastructure remain a critical bottleneck. Many states and local governments lack the systems needed to effectively divert food waste from landfills and redirect it to higher-value uses such as composting or food recovery.

EPA’s Solid Waste Infrastructure for Recycling (SWIFR) grants provide flexible support to states, cities, tribes, and territories, enabling them to invest in the infrastructure necessary to build modern, resilient waste diversion systems. For example, SWIFR funding is supporting state and local governments in a range of states, including New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Nevada, in assessing infrastructure gaps and advancing investments in composting and organics recycling systems. These efforts are helping build the foundation needed to expand food waste diversion at scale by improving data, planning, and coordination across materials management systems.

Expanding funding for EPA’s SWIFR grants by at least $10 million would help support more projects like these across the country.

Supporting Federal Food Waste Coordination and Programming

Coordination across federal agencies is essential to maximize impact. Food waste is a cross-cutting issue that touches agriculture, environmental protection, nutrition, and economic development. Establishing and sustaining dedicated leadership within USDA is a critical step.

Providing $1 million in annual funding for the USDA Food Loss and Waste Reduction Liaison—authorized in the 2018 Farm Bill—would ensure there is a central point of coordination to align programs, support stakeholders, and drive a cohesive national strategy.

Looking Ahead

Looking forward to the next Congress, which will begin in January 2027, here are some additional policy ideas that we will be seeding to further advance food waste reduction.

Build demand for compost to improve soil health

Composting programs are gaining momentum in communities across the country. Composting not only keeps food out of landfills—many of which are rapidly reaching capacity—but it also creates a valuable product that improves soil health. As composting programs increase and with it the supply of compost, there also needs to be a growth in demand and markets for compost. The Make America Healthy Again strategy, released last year by the Trump Administration, calls attention to the issue of soil health. Encouraging more composting and building demand for compost can create a local, domestic source to help achieve this goal.

Invest in research and innovation for food waste reduction

Despite the significant volume and value of food loss and waste, federal investment in solutions has remained a small fraction of what is directed toward food production. Targeted research funding would unlock improvements in measurement methodologies, shelf-life extension technologies, supply chain logistics, consumer behavior insights, and upcycling innovations. These homegrown, domestic advances—when proven successful and brought to scale—can advance domestic food security and sufficiency, help farmers and producers maximize profits, and help consumers maximize their food dollars. It also maintains American innovation. Housing this program under the USDA Food Loss and Waste Liaison would ensure coordination across agencies and alignment with the national goal of cutting food waste in half by 2030.

Congress should allocate $50 million in grants for food loss and waste research and innovation, overseen by the USDA Food Loss and Waste Liaison, to accelerate these efforts.

Incentivize greater food donation by farmers

The existing federal enhanced tax deduction for food donations is not well-suited to farmers and is rarely claimed by them, as many operate at low profit margins and do not earn enough income to claim a tax deduction. Further, the calculation of the value of the deduction can be onerous for some farmers. To incentivize farmers to donate surplus crops and offset some of the costs of donation (including labor), Congress could provide an alternative tax credit that farmers could opt to claim instead of the existing enhanced deduction.

Congress could also appropriate additional funds to support the Farm to Food Bank Projects, which were created in the 2018 Farm Bill to help cover the harvesting, processing, packaging, and transportation costs of donating agricultural products to local food banks. Projects funded in the past covered a diverse and wide range of states across the country.

Follow ReFED for more on food waste policy

Policy proposals such as those described above are practical, bipartisan solutions that deliver wins across multiple areas, including increasing affordability for consumers, maximizing support and income for farmers, improving soil health, and enhancing domestic innovation. As we at ReFED continue to build out our policy work, we will continue to release updates on policy priorities and analyses of policy activity at the federal, state, and local levels. To learn more about food waste policy, check our Policy Finder and stay tuned to our feeds for more. And to stay up-to-date on all things ReFED, sign up for our mailing list.