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”