DEQ's Commitment to Reducing Food Impacts
DEQ prioritizes efforts to reduce the environmental and social impacts of food through a systems-based approach. Food is essential to life, well-being, and economic stability, but it also carries significant environmental burdens across its entire value chain. An estimated 38% of all food produced or imported for consumption in the U.S. is never eaten, resulting in wasted resources, unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions, and lost opportunities to nourish communities. Preventing food waste remains a core strategy due to its outsized benefits for reducing environmental impacts; however, DEQ's approach now extends beyond waste prevention to a broader food systems framework that supports sustainable production, consumption, and waste management.
Oregon's Evolving Approach to Food Systems
Since publishing the 2017 Strategic Plan for Preventing the Wasting of Food, DEQ has deepened its understanding of food systems and refined its approach to reducing food impacts. The newly adopted Reducing Food Impacts: A Strategic Plan for Oregon (2025) establishes an updated vision for Oregon's Materials Management Program, emphasizing a whole-systems, equity-centered approach to food. This plan outlines the three key priority areas for DEQ's future work in food systems:
- Sustainable Food Production: Supporting lower-impact agricultural and food production practices, including those that reduce chemical inputs, sequester carbon, and improve soil health. This includes exploring opportunities to support small-scale and community-based food production.
- Sustainable Food Consumption: Preventing food waste while increasing food access, supporting localized food systems, and promoting lower-impact dietary choices in collaboration with health and nutrition partners.
- Sustainable Food Waste Management: Improving food waste recovery through composting and anaerobic digestion, with a focus on leveraging organic material to enhance soil health, reduce reliance on chemical fertilizers, and generate renewable energy.
DEQ's Food Action Plan
The Food Action Plan will translate the priorities, principles, and values of the Strategic Plan into concrete projects and activities over a shorter timeframe. While the Strategic Plan sets long-term policy priorities, the Action Plan focuses on implementation, guided by DEQ's operating principles. It is designed to be adaptable, evolving based on progress evaluations, emerging challenges, new data, and partnership opportunities. Additionally, the Action Plan outlines the processes DEQ will use to update and refine activities over time.