NARA supports push to recognize rendering on Wasted Food Scale

WASHINGTON — Twenty-eight members of the House of Representatives, led by Representatives Nick Langworthy (R-NY) and Jim Costa (D-Calif.), wrote to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), asking it to revise the recent ranking of waste management technologies to once again include rendering of agricultural waste.

The representatives voiced concern that such an omission could create problems for producers and commercial establishments by preventing the conversion of recyclable organic materials into high-quality finished products.

“We believe the exclusion of rendering, and these important energy and industrial uses, from the Wasted Food Scale will significantly impair food and organic waste reduction efforts by confusing future local, state and federal action,” the letter said.

In June, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released the “National Strategy for Reducing Food Loss and Waste and Recycling Organics,” with the goal of preventing food waste while increasing the recycling of food and organic material. With this release, the USDA revised the infographic that has historically prioritized the conversion of food waste to no longer mention rendering.

Through their letter, the lawmakers urged the EPA to work with the USDA and FDA to revise the Wasted Food Scale to again highlight the importance of rendering.

More than 30 agricultural businesses and organizations supported the move, including the North American Renderers Association (NARA), the American Association of Meat Processors, American Farm Bureau Federation, Pet Food Institute, Clean Fuels Alliance America, Energy Marketers of America, National Pork Producers, National Cattleman’s Beef Association, National Chicken Council, United Egg Producers and the Meat Institute.

“NARA would like to express our gratitude to Representatives Langworthy and Costa, and this bipartisan group of members, for recognizing the longstanding and critical role rendering has played and still plays in reducing food loss and waste; and shrinking our overall food production footprint,” said Kent Swisher, NARA president and chief executive officer.

“The North American rendering industry has been upcycling otherwise lost and wasted food since the 1800s,” he added. “We are the original recyclers and were a part of the circular economy even before the term was coined. We urge Administrator [Michael] Regan and the EPA to acknowledge rendering’s important role in FLW [Food Loss and Waste]. Leaving out rendering, our nation’s largest organic recycler, from our national food waste strategy will only hinder us from achieving America’s goal to halve food loss and waste by 2030.”

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