Bell pepper left unharvested because the price dropped below the harvest cost

🫑 41,189 pounds in this field were fresh, healthy, and safe to eat.

🌎 This equates to 4,652 pounds per acre in this small-ish field of less than 9 acres. It's actually a little low, based on my research. On average, over 10 fields on different farms with different management practices, I found 5,825 pounds per acre, again, fresh, healthy, and safe to eat. There are a wide variety of drivers that lead to these losses. The price dropping over the course of the season, at the same time as the "quality" dropping is very common.

I keep hearing that we'll need to increase production over the next few years. The OTHER way to do this, is to reduce foodloss and foodwaste. This requires supporting and valuing growers by providing markets for their entire crop, developing processing facilities, and paying a fair price for products.

By Dr. Lisa K. Johnson

#postharvest #freshproduce #sdg12