With over 30% of the food produced across the world lost or wasted, policy makers are increasingly recognizing food waste as a key issue in finding solutions for food insecurity and environmental degradation. In a new book, Wasted Potential: Tackling Food Loss and Waste Across Transforming Food Systems (Springer, 2025), researchers at the Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI) provide an evidence-based framework for addressing food loss and waste as a means to improve access to healthy diets. 

In this "Chats in the Stacks" book talk, TCI alumna Jocelyn Boiteau and TCI director Prabhu Pingali will draw from their book to propose a policy agenda that builds demand for diverse, nutritious foods in order to incentivize the reduction of waste while mitigating tradeoffs between food security, environmental sustainability, and socioeconomic welfare. Their discussion will highlight the contributions of specific policies aimed at decreasing food waste for greater food security and sustainability—from stimulating demand and improving access for safe, nutritious foods; to increasing investments in innovative processing, packaging, and cold-chain systems.

Both in-person and virtual attendance at this book talk will be possible. For virtual attendance, registration is required here. 

This book talk is part of Cornell University Library's Chats in the Stacks book talk program. More information about other book talks featured this semester is available here.