Chellie Pingree

I think you'll agree it's unconscionable that so much food ends up in landfills.

When I tell people that 40 percent of the food that is produced in this country is wasted, they are usually shocked.

I would like to thank Chairman Conaway, Ranking Member Peterson, and Members of the House Committee on Agriculture for holding a hearing on food waste and for inviting me to speak today.

It would create much less waste, something that most of us agree on, and you will find most of the manufacturers and others agree on it as well.

Our idea is to ask the USDA and the FDA to work together to create a label, one that says expires on, for those foods that really do have a safety issue.

We actually submitted a bill last week with Senator Blumenthal about date labeling to try to bring some sensibility into this.

Making sure that there are Federal funds available to municipalities who want to do that is another part of this.

In my own state, we have a supermarket chain that is also committed to zero food waste.

There is certainly no single way to go about solving this problem, and I know as you dig deeper into it today and you hear from the wonderful panel that you have chosen, you will start to hear that it is something we have to face on all…

It is wonderful to see that the USDA and the EPA together have announced a food waste reduction goal.

And when there is confusion around date labeling or how food can be disposed of, with the good Samaritan laws that we have talked about, it just makes it that much more difficult for restaurants and retail stores to find out how to make…

We do have 50 million people in this country going hungry.

40 percent of the food, as you mentioned, is wasted in this country.

I have introduced a bill called the Food Recovery Act, because I do think this is something that we have to take on and challenge.

We are hoping that many members of the subcommittee who would like to come and visit when we have our celebration will come.

We appreciate the work that you do. We appreciate all your employees.

I would express my alarm and concern that there is not sufficient funding, and certainly encourage you to do whatever is possible.

Your request for additional funding is something I certainly support, and I hope that we can continue to enhance this

We have to address it when we are back in our home State, and people are always asking us, how is the Federal government helping?

How much of an impediment is having to go through this to you and other businesses like yours?

It is a fundamental unfairness, because there is another layer of paperwork and there are more fees involved.

I do think again--we are talking about the separation here--about whether this is an import into Maine for processing and an export from Maine.

I appreciated Ranking Member Huffman's suggestion--of all the possibilities, wouldn't it be possible to do this as a spot check, you know, once in a while look into this?

I think the fishermen, working with the legislature and the Maine Department of Resources, have done a phenomenal job of regulating the fisheries appropriately.

It is very hard to go back and explain to people why we have to defend this practice.