Forty percent of food in this country is wasted. At the same time, nearly 2.8 million New Yorkers struggle to have enough to eat. Food also makes up 18 percent of New York State solid waste stream filling up landfills. The vast majority of this food is disposed of in landfills where it anaerobically decomposes, producing and releasing methane (CH4), a potent greenhouse gas (GHG) with a global warming potential of about 34 times that of carbon dioxide (CO2). When food is landfilled or otherwise wasted, all the energy, water, nutrients, and labor it took to produce that food is wasted. If global food waste were a country, it would be the third largest emitter of GHG after the United States and China. Several states including New York State have initiated regulations to recycle food waste.