Colorado chefs Tom Coohill, of Coohills in LoDo, and Daniel Asher, of River and Woods in Boulder, are heading to Washington D.C. July 25 and 26 for the Plate of the Union Farm Bill summit.

They are joining more than 30 chefs across the country — including big names like Tom Colicchio, José Andrés and Andrew Zimmern — for the summit to review and discuss food policies surrounding the 2018 Farm Bill, a bill that is passed every five years.

The group also met in April to report findings and recommendations to the House and Senate — including a call for more organic food farmers, a fight for national food security, a revitalization of land, a reduction of food waste and an investment in clean water and healthy animals. Learn more about the full platform here.

Tom Coohill. Photo by Glenn Ross.

“One of the main goals of this program that we’re working hard on is addressing hunger,” Coohill said. “We’re looking to revamp the labeling system in this country which, if it were done accurately with a standardized approach on the sell-by date, we could be feeding way, way more people with the food that just gets thrown away at the grocery store every day. If we were to get this through, it would basically cure hunger in the United States, because 40 percent of food just goes to waste right now.”

This comes shortly after Slow Food Nations — a three-day food festival in Denver that widely discussed these issues. Click here to see what we learned.