@article{johnson_bloom_dunning_gunter_boyette_creamer_2019, title={Farmer harvest decisions and vegetable loss in primary production}, volume={176}, ISSN={["1873-2267"]}, DOI={10.1016/j.agsy.2019.102672}, abstractNote={The topic of food loss and waste has risen in importance since the revelation that an estimated 40% of food in America is never consumed. Losses at the field level, however, are not well understood, and economic and growing conditions that dictate decisions made by fruit and vegetable growers can determine how much food is left unharvested. Many strategies have been suggested to reduce food loss and waste, but their development has been informed by concerns at the consumer level, and may not motivate growers to reduce losses. This study sought to understand how growers make decisions regarding when to end the harvest, and explores growers' perceptions of strategies that would incentivize them to reduce losses. The authors conducted seventeen semi-structured interviews with mid-sized to large commercial vegetable growers in North Carolina. The resulting findings clarify the primary decision-making drivers affecting food loss in the field, including whether growers have an interested buyer, the quality of the produce, the available price, the financial risk of product rejection, and the priority of another field becoming mature and ready to harvest. Growers did not perceive losses to be of high enough volume or value to measure crops that were left unharvested in the field, though research indicates that the volume is actually significant. We also asked growers about their perceptions of strategies for reducing farm level losses that have been promoted in industry reports on the subject. These strategies include facilitating donation and supporting emerging markets that focus on imperfect produce. Neither of these aligned well with strategies that growers perceived as important, such as increasing demand, providing processing infrastructure, and facilitating a consistent market and prices. While some growers donate produce or participate in gleaning, these activities can be limited by continued negative perceptions. Findings from this research suggest that, in order to effectively reduce the loss of edible food at the farm level, growers must be included in the development of strategies, and those strategies must incentivize their participation in order to be effective.}, journal={AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS}, publisher={Elsevier BV}, author={Johnson, Lisa K. and Bloom, J. Dara and Dunning, Rebecca D. and Gunter, Chris C. and Boyette, Michael D. and Creamer, Nancy G.}, year={2019}, month={Nov} }
 @article{johnson_dunning_bloom_gunter_boyette_creamer_2018, title={Estimating on-farm food loss at the field level: A methodology and applied case study on a North Carolina farm}, volume={137}, ISSN={["1879-0658"]}, DOI={10.1016/j.resconrec.2018.05.017}, abstractNote={Current estimates of food loss at the farm level are either carried forward from decades-old estimates that rely on data from small farms using alternative agricultural practices, or they are based on grower estimates reported during interviews. A straightforward protocol adaptable to many crops is necessary to provide comparable data that can begin to fill gaps in knowledge on food loss in the US. Accurate estimation of on-farm losses for fruits and vegetables can inform ongoing national food loss and waste discussions and farm-level business decisions that hold potentially positive impacts for farm viability and resource-use efficiency. This paper describes a straightforward methodology for field-level measurement and demonstrates its utility on six vegetable crops harvested in 13 fields of a 121-hectare North Carolina vegetable farm. In this case, results showed that on average, approximately 65% of the unharvested crop that remained in the field was of wholesome, edible quality, although the appearance may not meet buyers’ specifications for certain markets. The overall estimated average of vegetable crops that remained unharvested, yet were wholesome and available for recovery, was 8840 kg per hectare on the case study farm. The portion of the grower’s reported total marketed yield that remained unutilized in the field averaged 57%, a figure greatly exceeding current estimates of farm level loss. Developing strategies to utilize these losses could enable growers to increase the amount of fresh produce moving into the supply chain, and represent a path towards sustainable intensification of vegetable crop production.}, journal={RESOURCES CONSERVATION AND RECYCLING}, publisher={Elsevier BV}, author={Johnson, Lisa K. and Dunning, Rebecca D. and Bloom, J. Dara and Gunter, Chris C. and Boyette, Michael D. and Creamer, Nancy G.}, year={2018}, month={Oct}, pages={243–250} }
 @article{johnson_dunning_gunter_bloom_boyette_creamer_2018, title={Field measurement in vegetable crops indicates need for reevaluation of on-farm food loss estimates in North America}, volume={167}, ISSN={["1873-2267"]}, DOI={10.1016/j.agsy.2018.09.008}, abstractNote={Food loss and waste in the US has been estimated at 40%, a figure that does not include losses at the agricultural level. Consumer food waste is expensive and environmentally damaging as it travels the length of the supply chain and largely ends up in the landfill. Most research and campaigns emphasize the consumer level, which has resulted in the omission of data collection and development of solutions for producers of fruit and vegetable crops. The available estimates of edible produce lost in the field are based on assumptions and estimates, rather than field data. Therefore, this project aimed to measure losses in the field in order to understand if estimates are accurate. Sixty-eight fields of eight vegetable crops were evaluated on nine North Carolina farms during the 2017 production season, using a sampling and scaling method. Combining the unharvested crops of marketable quality and edible but not marketable quality (produce that does not meet appearance quality standards), the average produce volume available after the primary harvest was 5114.59 kg per hectare. Totaling an average of 42% of the marketed yield for these crops, these high figures indicate the need for a reevaluation of the food loss estimates at the agricultural level in the US, and a focus on solutions.}, journal={AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS}, publisher={Elsevier BV}, author={Johnson, Lisa K. and Dunning, Rebecca D. and Gunter, Chris C. and Bloom, J. Dara and Boyette, Michael D. and Creamer, Nancy G.}, year={2018}, month={Nov}, pages={136–142} }