Food Waste: Quantifying on-farm vegetable losses

Food Waste: Quantifying on-farm vegetable losses

Summary

This project aims to determine what portion of three important North Carolina crops is edible, but remains unsold because it does not meet USDA standards. Edible crops that do not meet grade standards can still be of high nutritional quality, and could be marketed to commercial or institutional kitchens, discount grocery stores, retail stores, food banks, or processing industries. Quantifying food waste at the production level has been recognized as an important step in reaching the ultimate goal of reducing food waste. Increasing production efficiency and improving profit and competitiveness creates added benefit for North Carolina and southeastern vegetable growers.

Objectives/Performance Targets

1. Determine volume of edible crops that remain in the field after harvesting to typical USDA standards for three crops in North Carolina. Determine reasons behind the loss of these crops.
2. Determine volume of edible crops that are culled out of an on-farm packing line due to not meeting USDA standard on three farms in North Carolina.
3. Determine what volume of edible crops was rejected at the buyer level from the partner farms.

Accomplishments/Milestones

Background work for this project is underway, including identifying grower participants and uncovering trends in policies and practices related to edible but unmarketable vegetables that never leave the farm. Supplies needed for weighing crops in the field have been purchased. USDA Produce Inspection Training will occur in May, and field data collection will begin this summer.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

Quantifying food waste at the production level is the first step in reaching the ultimate goal of increasing production efficiency and improving profit and competitiveness for North Carolina and southeastern vegetable growers. Edible crops that do not meet grade standards can still be of very high nutritional quality, and could be marketed to commercial or institutional kitchens, discount grocery stores, retail stores, food banks, or other industries. The act of measuring what is left in the field creates awareness among growers that this portion of the crop could be marketable.

Based on current estimated numbers of food waste, the economic potential of this project could be very high, but is difficult to quantify. The available supply of healthful food will be increased as a result of harvesting all that is planted. In addition, the amount of cropland in use and fertilizer and water inputs will remain at the same level. The benefits of harvesting and marketing all that is planted are extensive. The loss of valuable nutrients in the vegetable crops would be reduced. The harvesting process could be more efficient, as field grading will be reduced. Less sorting and packing equipment could be required with a reduced need for size and shape sorting, which could lead to fewer culls from excessive handling. In addition, less equipment to purchase gives an opportunity to smaller producers entering the market.

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