Jake Slobe | March 6, 2017

This week’s On The Radio segment discusses Hy-Vee’s recent strategy to reduce food waste within their stores. 

Transcript: Iowa’s Hy-Vee supermarket chain recently announced an initiative to reduce food waste.

This is the Iowa Environmental Focus.

The employee-owned corporation began its “Misfits” program in mid-January, and now offers “ugly” produce in nearly all of its 242 stores. “Ugly” produce are those vegetables and fruits that typically are not sold at market due to industry size and shape preferences. The program’s produce offerings include peppers, cucumbers, squash, tomatoes and apples, among other fruits and vegetables. On average, consumers can expect to pay 30 percent less for the “ugly” items.

The United States Department of Agriculture estimates that 30 to 40 percent of the U.S. food supply goes to waste. Food waste makes up the vast majority of waste found in municipal landfills and quickly generates methane, which is a greenhouse gas that is 84 times more potent than CO2 during its first two decades in the atmosphere.

Hy-Vee’s Misfit program supports the USDA and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency effort to achieve a 50 percent food waste reduction nationwide by 2030.

For more information about Hy-Vee’s food waste reduction efforts, visit iowaenvironmentalfocus.org.

From the UI Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research, I’m Betsy Stone.