Managing Agricultural Resources
Peter Ricardo
Beth Seeley
The waste of plenty is the resource of scarcity.
Thomas Love Peacock
Puente Hills Landfill, Los Angeles, CaliforniaCovering roughly 700 acres and towering almost 500 feet high, Los Angeles’ largest landfill, Puente Hills, takes in 12,000 tons of garbage a day and currently holds 3.7 million tons.(Photo: Wallofhair/Creative Commons)
Produce donations: A valued resource
• Economic value
• Nutritional value
• Community / collaborative value
• Educational value
North American Food Waste Facts
• In the USA, organic waste is the second highest component of landfills, which are the largest source of methane emissions
• In the USA, 30-40% of the food supply is wasted, equaling more than 20 pounds of food per person per month
Agricultural Donation Pathway
Farm Partners
Transportation
Food Bank of Central New York
Retail
Partner agency
GardenersFarm
partnersFriends and Neighbors
INPUTS OUTPUTS
INPUTS OUTPUTS
*Food Bank and #Partner Agency
Inputs
• *# Facility
• *# Staffing
• *# Equipment
• *# Fuel
• *# Packaging
• *# Volunteer management
• *# Storage
Outputs
• *# Distributions
• *# Reporting
• *# Education
• *# Recipes
• *# Advocacy
• *# Training
• *# Waste
Together We Achieve
1,321,262 pounds of produce
in 2010
Reasons for donation
• Surplus crop yield
• Timing: crop is too early, or too late. Supply conflicts with market
• Spec issues
• Grade issues
• Contract conditions
• Intentional
Market Form
• Volunteer gleaning
• Machine harvest, bulk load
• Field boxes
• Boxed/bagged
Transportation Food Bank of Central New York p/u at farm, distribute to network
Partner agency p/u at farm, distribute to client
Delivered (less typical, never expected) farm-to-agency or food bank
Independent carriers
Storage and Transition
• Ambient or refrigerated
• Culling, sorting, boxing by volunteers
• Loss management
• Promotion, order, pick, load
Distribution
• Regular deliveries
• Fresh Foods program
• RPP auxiliary deliveries
• Partner agency p/u
Shared with service recipients
• Bagged, given loosely, self-serve
• Recipes, suggestions, videos, demonstrations
Together We Achieve
Pounds of produce in 2015..
2,336,353
Product that doesn’t make it
• Animal food
• Compost
• Reintroduced (plowed-under)
• Dumpster/landfill
Making the most of resources
• If 1-2 cuts will leave you with 70% of the item, use it.
• Culling: whole affected fruit/veg taken out to preserve the remaining stable item
• Extend usable life via recipe preparation, preserving, and other methods (recipe ready, purees, oils, butters, etc.)
• Use it before you lose it
• Discuss
Sharing Ideas for Sharing Garden
Bounty
Create a habit for people…drop off your garden excess (just prior to distribution), free to neighborhood day after dist.
Cart
Now…YOU share some ideas !!
Questions and discussion
• Ag experiences
• Ideas for “Growing Neighbors”