On LinkedIn, Nick Budden opened the floodgates asking how we can prevent food waste. He started out with three premises:

• We waste more than one-third of our food in the U.S.
• The largest portion of that waste happens at home.
• And more than one-third of our food waste is produce.

Then the comments started pouring in with one commenter questioning Nick’s premises, others proclaiming that they were not part of the problem, and another deciding to blame THE SYSTEM. With a background in investigating the postharvest handling system of fresh fruits and vegetables, I jumped in. I believe that the trip from farm to market is much more complex than many of us who buy fresh produce and cook it from home realize. To help flesh this situation out a little more I described a simple system from field to market. Here is an oversimplified SYSTEM for getting bell peppers from farm to home:

• The BANKER needs to be willing to loan enough money for the necessary equipment, supplies, seed, and labor to plant the pepper crop,
• The FARMER needs to take those funds to hire LABORERS to prepare the land, plant the seed, grow the crop, control the pests, harvest the peppers, load them into a conveyance, and take them to the nearest packinghouse,
• The PACKINGHOUSE OPERATOR must ensure that all FORK LIFT DRIVERS, SUPERVISORS, GRADERS, and other EMPLOYEES take care to prevent injury to the peppers during all handling operations including cooling, removing nonedible materials and unsalable items during sorting and grading, and packing them into appropriate containers for shipment to market,
• The LOADERS stack these containers on the truck carefully to minimize physical or heat damage during transit as the DRIVER delivers them to either a local market or across country,
• Cross country shipment will involve delivery at a wholesale warehouse where the WAREHOUSE MANAGER will ensure that receipt of the load is recorded into the computer, FORKLIFT DRIVERS will unload the pallets from the truck and lift them up to the proper location in the warehouse,
• Later, the pallet will be unloaded and broken down into the smaller packing containers (usually fiberboard boxes) and loaded onto a small truck with other produce to go to local supermarkets,
• Upon arrival at the first supermarket on the route, the pepper box(es) will be unloaded by the PRODUCE STAFF and directed to either the backroom cooler or directly to the produce department for direct loading on the shelf,
• Periodically the PRODUCE MANAGER will survey the whole produce section and direct members of the staff to replenish vegetables and fruits as necessary,
• The CUSTOMERS come into the store and usually start their journey in the produce section choosing the freshest looking peppers and place them in their shopping carts,
• When shopping is completed, it is on to the checkout counter where the CASHIER rings up the sale, and it is onto the vehicle to proceed home, and
• Meanwhile PRODUCE PERSONNEL come back to the shelves to restock the pepper display while discarding all the picked-over ones that are now unsaleable.

All the words above BOLD AND IN CAPS represent REAL PEOPLE. THE SYSTEM is made up of humans, all of whom expect compensation for their work. Are they all receiving a living wage? Probably not. Every piece of waste must be accounted for when compensating these individuals. Is any entity exploiting THE SYSTEM? Possibly, but THE SYSTEM tends to counterbalance itself as each step in the process looks for the lowest price at an acceptable level of quality. This principle tends to restrict wages throughout THE SYSTEM. Suppliers unable to meet these criteria over the course of several loads are likely to be dropped in future transactions if other suppliers can be found to take their place. Each person along the way is important from the FARMER to the CUSTOMER and can contribute to a healthy SYSTEM or a dysfunctional one.

The above represents a gross oversimplification of how peppers get to market. Even at LOCAL FARMERS MARKETS, not all items are brought direct from farm to market. Peppers transported to the market from the farm may have been sitting in refrigerated storage for a few days, not picked this morning. Check out the boxes at the back of the stall or on the back dock of a favorite restaurant. Do they represent a local farm or have they traveled from a distant one? Does the produce look fresher than what is found in the local supermarket or not? What happens to produce not sold at the end of the day affects the amount of waste generated. At the local farmers market where I shopped, unsold produce was donated to a food charity who distributed it locally. Since fresh produce deteriorates rapidly, not all items reaching the final consumer will be eaten.

Food loss and waste is an important consideration in achieving a sustainable environment. Inedible parts of plants are not considered as waste. Any edible food that is not harvested or is discarded before wholesale is considered food loss. Dr. Lisa K. Johnson is the leading authority on food loss on the farm. Every edible item discarded at wholesale, retail, or in the home is considered waste. Everyone in THE SYSTEM can help minimize loss or waste or can be part of the problem. Loss or waste occurs at each step along the way. Blaming THE SYSTEM for high produce prices, food loss, or food waste overlooks its complexity.

I spent years of research trying to document and understand the POSTHARVEST HANDLING SYSTEM of selected fresh fruits and vegetables. It seems like it would be easy to make simple changes to make THE SYSTEM better, but it is harder than we think. THE SYSTEM is perfect when all produce grown in the field makes it to market where all of it is bought and consumed before it spoils. Perfection is not achievable, but our behavior can influence how much is lost on the farm, during transport, and at the market. Bear in mind that everything in a system is interconnected. Any change at one step can affect operations at other steps in that system. For example demanding a fully stocked produce section every time we enter the store can lead to delivery of more peppers than can be sold and more waste in the produce department. Having said that, the greatest losses of fresh produce occur in the home from buying more than we can eat while items perish in the back of the refrigerator!

Further reading: There are many books on the topic, but a few give some insight on the complexity of THE SYSTEM. Here are my favorites:

Arriving Today: From Factory to Front Door—Why Everything Has Changed About How and What We Buy  Christopher Mims traces the complexity of the journey of a simple USB charger from a factory in Vietnam to our doorstep. It is not about food but it is the best description I know of how an inexpensive item can efficiently travel half-way around the world to our doorstep!

Food Routes: Growing Bananas in Iceland and Other Tales from the Logistics of Eating. Robyn Metcalfe brings that complexity to the travel of fresh and processed ingredients and foods from field or manufacturing plant to restaurant or supermarket across the country, on the other side of town, or in our neighborhood.

Garbology: Our Dirty Love affair with Trash. Edward Humes suggests that food waste is a much more serious problem in our world than plastic waste.

Postharvest Handling: A Systems Approach, 4th Edition. Wojciech Florkowski, Nigel Banks, Stan Prussia, and I provide a highly technical approach to the study of the system that bring fresh fruits and vegetables from the field to the location where we purchase them.

Postharvest Handling: A Systems Approach, 2nd Edition  Bernhard Brueckner combines with Wojciech, Stan, and me to describe the supply chain and handling system with less technical language.

Waste: Uncovering the Global Waste Scandal. Tristram Stuart blames consumers, supermarkets, manufacturers, and farmers among others for the mess we are in with most of the problem happening postmarket in affluent countries and premarket in poorer locations. It is the definitive book available on food waste.