The Economics of Food Loss in the Produce Industry

Travis Minor is Cross-Commodity Analyst for Specialty Crops in the Crops Branch of the Market and Trade Economics Division of the United States Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service. Suzanne Thornsbury is Chief of the Crops Branch in the Market and Trade Economics Division of the United States Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service. Ashok K. Mishra is Kemper and Ethel Marley Foundation Chair in Food Management, Morrison School of Agribusiness, W. P. Carey School of Business, at the Arizona State University, USA.

Section I 1 Introduction to food loss in the produce industry 2 Loss and waste: are we really measuring a problem? 3 Existing efforts in measuring and modeling early value-chain food losses 4 Economic trade-offs in food loss policies 5 Empirical modeling of food loss in the produce sector Section II 6 USDA and EPA estimation methods for food loss and waste in the United States 7 Food loss in Canada 8 Measuring food losses at the national and subnational levels: FAO’s methodology for monitoring Sustainable Development Goals 9 Food loss on the farm: lessons learned from conversations with produce growers Section III 10 Tomato tales: comparing loss-reduction drivers and opportunities across U.S. fresh tomato supply chains 11 Case study on processing tomatoes 12 Case study on food loss in fresh potatoes 13 Strawberries: food loss and loss prevention opportunities 14 Understanding food loss in romaine lettuce 15 Peaches Section IV 16 Market price volatility and food loss at the farm level 17 The evolving role of labor availability in production decisions and food loss 18 The role of technology along the supply chain in mitigating food loss 19 Contracting and quality standards in fresh produce markets and how they impact food loss 20 From gleaning to for-profits: efforts to mitigate food loss and feed people 21 The role of policy in addressing food loss 22 Food loss as a wicked problem