Food Waste from Grocery Stores

Grocery stores are responsible for 40% of the waste in landfills (RTS). Landfills are a big contributor to carbon dioxide and methane emissions increasing the greenhouse gas footprint of the United States (USDA). If grocery stores were able to cut back on the amount of food they throw away, those emissions would decrease significantly and help cut back on climate change. So…


The Bill Emerson Act is a bill that was passed in 1996 by President Clinton to try and encourage food donation and food non-profit organizations. Not only would this help decrease the amount of food waste going to landfills, but it would also help the 34 million people in the US who face food insecurity (Feeding America). However, many parts of this bill are made unclear, leaving grocery stores afraid of legal liability, and therefore throwing away their food instead of donating it. If the bill was made more clear with drawn-out rules and regulations, on the legal protection for food donation, there would be more opportunities for food insecure people, and co2 and methane emissions would be reduced. 

In order to get the attention of congressmen to encourage them to 1. Direct USDA to clarify key terms and conditions within the Emerson Act to raise awareness and reduce fear of retribution and 2. Broaden protections to include more types of food donations, including items sold at low cost and donations offered from food businesses directly to end recipients, I set up a petition and chose visual rhetoric as a way to draw in the attention of the public. Visual rhetoric works as a tool to function pragmatically to persuade an audience to see an environmental problem (132 Pezzullo and Cox). The petition grabs the attention of members of congress and encourages them to change the bill. I choose to use chalk on a sidewalk as a way to grab the attention of people walking by. I have noticed this downtown working well to gather people to talk and draw about various topics ranging from self-love to black lives matter. After I set up my chalk drawing downtown, with the help of a friend, an interesting couple from Boston were my first passersby who seemed very interested in what was going on. They listened to my spiel attentively and shared with me their story of when they previously lived in Tampa and they volunteered at Feeding America in Tampa organizing food to help those in their community. This first couple gave me hope of this working well as a way to communicate with the public. However, after that, I did not receive the same interest from the rest of the community. After only receiving 5 more signatures, I decided it was time to turn to social media. 




Social media is actually a great way to communicate environmental issues as you can display images, text, graphics, and links, or hypermediacy, as a way to get your message across. Hypermediacy creates an interactive platform for your virtual community (118 Pezzullo & Cox). Here I was able to post the photos from my chalk event so I could still incorporate that aspect, a link to the petition, as well as a link to the “Food Waste Reduction Alliance” where you can learn more about food waste from grocery stores and different ways you can help. This helped me get 39 more signatures but it also got conversations started with my friends that would have never happened otherwise. 



I ended up with 46 signatures for the petition from the visual advocacy in public and posting on my Instagram story. If I were to do this again I think I would need to reach my audience better or get a group of people together to write letters and call to the offices of the congresspeople to get this bill officially passed! If you would like to sign the petition, the link is below!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yLYRnO3ND0t9I3l5q0XjQH5QssZqrxXxaoV8DF0UqDg/edit?usp=sharing 



References

(n.d.). Food Waste Reduction Alliance: Food Waste Policy. Retrieved December 12, 2022, from https://foodwastealliance.org

Buzby, J. (2022, January 24). Food Waste and its Links to Greenhouse Gases and Climate Change. USDA. Retrieved December 12, 2022, from https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2022/01/24/food-waste-and-its-links-greenhouse-gases-and-climate-change

Cox, J. R., & Pezzullo, P. C. (2021). Environmental Communication and the Public Sphere. SAGE Publications, Incorporated.

Frequent Questions about Landfill Gas | US EPA. (2022, April 21). EPA. Retrieved December 12, 2022, from https://www.epa.gov/lmop/frequent-questions-about-landfill-gas

Hunger in America. (n.d.). Feeding America. Retrieved December 12, 2022, from https://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america

NRDC: Recommendations to Strengthen the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Act (PDF). (n.d.). Center For Health Law and Policy Innovation. Retrieved December 12, 2022, from https://chlpi.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/recommendations-bill-emerson-good-samaritan-act-fs.pdf

Petition · Stop food waste and fight food insecurity by amending the Emerson Act · Change.org. (n.d.). Change.org. Retrieved December 12, 2022, from https://www.change.org/p/stop-food-waste-and-fight-food-insecurity-by-amending-the-emerson-act?source_location=topic_page

Promoting Sustainable Lifestyles | North America | UNEP. (n.d.). UN Environment Programme. Retrieved December 12, 2022, from https://www.unep.org/regions/north-america/regional-initiatives/promoting-sustainable-lifestyles

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