Rising Stars in Sustainability
For our Rising Stars series, we're featuring the next generation of leaders who are working toward a more sustainable world. We recently spoke with Anne Garsztka, Senior Program Officer, Food Loss and Waste Team at World Wildlife Fund to learn about her role, inspiration, and advice for those new to the field.
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© Anne Garsztka
What drew you to the intersection of food loss, waste, and circular supply chains? Was there a moment that sparked your passion for this work?
There are two answers to this. There is what drew me to sustainability more generally and then food waste specifically. In 2022 or so, I came across the statistic that, at that time, stated we had approximately 60 years of topsoil left to produce food. Our current agricultural production practices were slowly killing our ability to grow food. After validating this fact, it became the catalyst behind a move from a career in tech to one in sustainability.
My passion for the work was there but was solidified after starting the role at WWF. I had the opportunity to speak with a U.S. Food Waste Pact signatory at Bob's Red Mill and learn about the work they did to address food waste through employee engagement. To see how a simple act by a single employee could have an outsized impact was and remains so inspiring.
For someone unfamiliar with circular food supply chains, how would you explain the concept, and why does it matter?
There is the concept in physics that "matter never disappears - it only changes form." This holds true in circular food supply chains. The food we grow, process, package, prepare, eat and throw out, and which hopefully gets transformed back into the food system, simply changes form over its journey through the supply chain. And my goal is to make sure that the journey that food takes is a positive one and that it goes to its highest possible value: feeding humans and not feeding methane into the atmosphere.
What's the most persistent myth or misconception you encounter when engaging businesses on limiting food waste?
Waste is waste, it’s not so much a myth or misconception, rather it is what we call it. However, waste can have both cost and value. Cost in the sense that we pay for it to be "managed," whether that's in labor to dispose of it or fees to haul it. However, if it's seen as something of value given what has been invested in growing, processing, packaging and preparing it, the motivation changes to one of doing more with it; re-purposing, upcycling and diverting to the highest possible use.
Getting folks to see waste as something that costs them or could bring value would be a "myth" I'd love to see change.
© Anne Garsztka / WWF-US
What emerging innovations or models in the circular food economy are you most excited about?
The one I find most exciting is the use of black solider fly larvae to process food waste. There are lots of ways to manage diversion, but I love this one for the fact it taps into natural processes versus mechanical or chemical solutions.
How significant is food loss and waste as a driver of broader environmental and economic challenges, and do you think people grasp the scale of the problem?
This is what I love about being at WWF and working in this sector. A nature conservation organization working in food and food waste specifically, causes people to ask: What? Why?
And from there we have a very easy opening to explain the significance of the issue.
70% of biodiversity loss is due to food and agriculture production. This is why we, at WWF, focus on food production. We focus on food waste prevention and reduction because it is both a problem and a solution opportunity. According to the UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2025, one-fifth of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted globally. This amounts to one billion meals a day. And Food loss and waste generate up to 10 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
By addressing food waste, we protect nature, feed people and can start to turn the ship on greenhouse gas emissions. Again, it's a problem and a solution opportunity.
What would you say to someone reading this who wants to make their own food company more circular but doesn't know where to start?
Look around, bin and dumpster dive. Look at what is being thrown away and follow it back to the source. It's like us as individuals looking at our spending habits and where we are paying more than we should or still paying for something that we'd forgotten about. And it's not just a one-time action, make it annual or quarterly or even monthly to check for where food is being thrown away and follow it back to the source. Yes, quantification is important, but just seeing where there is waste is such an amazing catalyst to action.