Describing where food loss occurs in the food system
This course is concerned with food loss, which as, already described, occurs during primary production. Primary production is the first stage of a longer food system that takes food ‘from farm to fork’. Figure 1 below provides a reminder of the key stages:
- Produce: Food is grown (e.g. fruit, vegetables and grains), produced (e.g. meat and dairy) or caught (e.g. fish). Some food may undergo simple changes (e.g. refrigeration or freezing) before it leaves the ‘farm gate’ or site of production.
- Process: Food may undergo varying degrees of processing to make products such as cheese, baked beans, biscuits or ready-meals.
- Move: Food is transported to wholesale markets, supermarket chains, and individual retailers.
- Sell: Food is sold to individuals, restaurants and caterers.
- Eat: Food is eaten, for example in the home or in restaurants.
Figure 1: Key stages of food system
To reduce food loss, we first need to understand the scale of the loss (through measurement or estimation) and the causes of the loss. It’s important to remember that while food loss occurs during primary production, loss is also influenced by actions and decisions taken further along the food system. This means a wide range of stakeholders (not only farmers) can help reduce food loss.
Direct causes
Let’s start by focusing on the key causes of food loss during the primary production stage. You read in Step 1.6 that food loss can occur before, during or immediately after food is harvested, slaughtered or caught. The table below lists some key examples of ‘direct causes’. These reflect behavioural, societal and environmental factors that take place on the site of production. For example, pests eat the crops (environmental factor), not enough labour is available at harvest time (societal factor) or crops are damaged through improper machinery use (behavioural factor).
| Behavioural | Societal | Environmental |
|---|---|---|
| Lack of training | Lack of available labour | Unexpected climate and weather events |
| Lack of knowledge of technologies and methods | Inadequate storage infrastructure | Natural weather conditions |
| Improper product handling | Pests, diseases and phytosanitary issues | |
| Poor timing of harvest/collection | Eaten or damaged by insects, birds, microbes, rodents and predators | |
| Inappropriate choice of product variety | Ageing plantations (e.g. in orchards) | |
| Soil deterioration |
Indirect causes
The ’indirect causes’ highlight how food loss is also influenced by what happens after the primary production stage. Let’s look more closely at one example. Market prices can drop when the market is already saturated with a given product, at the end of the season or when demand is lower than predicted. Ultimately this could mean crops or produce go unharvested because there is no financial benefit to farmers in making such a harvest.
| Behavioural | Societal | Environmental |
|---|---|---|
| Overproduce to ensure contract terms are fulfilled | Low market price | Overproduction due to better-than-expected weather |
| Scale of planting/ breeding does not match market demands | Low market power of farmers | |
| Bycatch (e.g. unintended capture of non-target or undersized marine animals) | Lack of downstream storage and processing capacity | |
| Marketing and industry standards (weight, size, shape, quality) | ||
| Direct subsidies on production |
The example below shows that financial factors can play a key role in deciding whether it is worth spending time and further expenditure to harvest a crop and how primary production food losses are driven by such examples of wider food system dynamics. Farmers have to consider the following to determine whether to harvest a vegetable crop:
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Figure 2: Decision tree illustrating the questions growers use to determine whether or not to continue the harvest in vegetable crop production, as summarized by seventeen commercial growers in a North Carolina study © Johnson, LK et al (2019) Farmer harvest decisions and vegetable loss in primary production. Agricultural systems 176 Click to expand diagram.
This can mean that food loss results from ‘distant’ factors such as pricing structures, quality standards, and customer preferences as well as from on-farm management decisions and practices.
Resources
- FOLOU 2nd Meeting (2024) Navigating Reliable Diagnoses for Measuring Food Losses in the Primary Sector of the Supply Chain.
- Johnson, LK et al (2019) Farmer harvest decisions and vegetable loss in primary production. Agricultural systems 176
- WRAP (2021) Supporting farm measurement in groups: slide deck for farmers
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