AFBF Delegates Approve Cook County’s Policy Submittal on Food Waste
All of Illinois Farm Bureau’s (IFB) policy submittals, including Cook County Farm Bureau’s food waste policy submittal, was approved at the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) delegate session – a testament to the time and effort put into the proposals at the county and state levels.
About a dozen resolutions were brought forth by IFB, which was represented by 19 voting delegates, at the AFBF Annual Convention in Salt Lake City. Several proposals fell under the umbrella of food access, safety and waste, supporting ways to turn non-consumed food into a resource through composting and reducing the regulatory constraints for on-farm materials, urban food scraps, and processing facilities. This includes support of on-farm composting, streamlining, and simplifying the permitting process for compost facilities and a separate permitting pathway for anerobic digestion of source-separated food waste that includes requirements similar to those imposed on composting source-separated food waste.
Included in the approved food waste policy language is support for strengthening liability protection for food donors and rescue organizations and incentivizing farmers to donate surplus crops and offsetting the costs associated with the donation. The food waste and resource recovery submittal was researched, drafted, and submitted by Cook County Farm Bureau.
“I think the fact that most of our issues weren’t hardly discussed or debated shows the quality of those submittals at the very base of that process,” said IFB Vice President Evan Hultine. “A lot of work and time and effort and thought went into those at the county level, and it makes for a stronger process, and then an easy lift to get them to the national level.”