Org / Venture

Upcycled Food Association

Past Food Systems Climate Capital Markets

CEO, 2019 to 2022

A 501(c)(6) trade association for companies that turn would-be-wasted ingredients into food. I was one of its founders in 2019. CEO through 2022.

Visit upcycledfood.org

The signature line

Member Companies (companies)

while I ran it after I left (2022)

Elevating all food to its highest and best use.

Food waste costs trillions of dollars per year and is responsible for six percent of greenhouse gas emissions. If we took the 30% of all food that is currently wasted, made better use of it, and sold it, we’d avoid both of these problems.

Upcycled Food Association is the only trade association focused on preventing food waste by accelerating the upcycling industry. By the end of 2022, membership had grown to 250 companies around the world. Its certification program, Upcycled Certified, has tracked billions of pounds of food waste prevention. Look for the Upcycled Certified mark on hundreds of products to improve your shopping cart’s carbon footprint.

Upcycled Certified products now come from thirteen countries, and in 2026 the association opened a Canadian hub. The Foundation started a scientific research community in 2025 that runs a global symposium of its own, and in July 2026 two UFA scholars published From Valorization to Upcycling, a textbook on the field. When we started, there was no agreed definition of upcycled food. Now there is a literature.

I co-founded UFA in 2019 and served as CEO until 2022.

What's in the ledger

Modeled social value (2026 USD): $5,710,334
Total revenue: $4,024,781
Every dollar of revenue became: $1.42
Years of impact: 2019 to 2025
Tenure length: 4 years
Data points: 39

Every dollar, year by year

What I built, and what it became

What I built What it became

through 2022 today

Attributable Food Waste Prevented (Upcycled Certified) 1,702,998 pounds 1,702,998 pounds

Certified Brands 0 brands 137 brands

Certified Products 141 certified items 600 certified items x4.3

CO2e Avoided 2,935,287 kg CO2 equivalent 2,935,287 kg CO2 equivalent

Countries with Certified Brands 0 countries 13 countries

Dollars Raised $2,274,655 $4,024,781 x1.8

Member Companies 250 companies 169 companies

Program Food Waste Diverted (Upcycled Certified) 772,467 tonnes 3,202,467 tonnes x4.1

Research Fellows Funded 5 fellows 13 fellows x2.6

Studies and Reports Published 1 publications 3 publications x3.0

Every metric this Idea tracks

The numbers

Countries with Certified Brands: 13 countries

Social returns realized but not priced in the ledger

About these figures

None of the figures below is priced. Pricing a visit or a volunteer would mean guessing at what it is worth, and I would rather show the count than invent the price.

A small attributed share of the certified tonnage is priced on its own line and counts toward this venture's modeled value. more

A figure marked latest is the level that stood in the most recent year on record, because adding up year-end counts states a total that was never true on any single day.

Certified Brands (latest): 137 brands
Certified Products (latest): 600 certified items
Member Companies (latest): 169 companies
Program Food Waste Diverted (Upcycled Certified) (lifetime): 3,202,467 tonnes
Research Fellows Funded (lifetime): 13 fellows
Studies and Reports Published (lifetime): 3 publications

Linked writing

How to Quit: When You’re Doing Your Best read

Sources and confidence

Verified 28 Probable 2 Estimated 7 Modeled 2

2020 projects.propublica.org 1 row · visit 2019 to 2025 projects.propublica.org 3 rows · visit 2021 to 2025 upcycledfood.org 6 rows · visit

Public filings: IRS Form 990 filings on ProPublica .

Where these figures come from

Every figure on this page is one row in the impact ledger: a value, a year, a source, and a confidence grade. Dollar figures apply that metric's locked multiplier, CPI-adjusted to 2026 USD; capital raised is reported on its own and never counted as social value. Read the full methodology .