Food waste is one of the most disheartening problems we face. Fully one-third of all food produced globally for human consumption is wasted. Fruits, vegetables and tubers are even worse off: fully half of these things are wasted. It is a loss at an economic, social and environmental level.
Each year, more than 25 million shipping containers enter the U.S. All too often, highly destructive forest pests are lurking among their imported goods. Wood boring insects arrive as stowaways in wood packaging, such as pallets and crates. Other forest pests and pathogens hitchhike in on foreign-reared plants bound for American nurseries.
