Food Waste in the Farm

A new report has revealed the staggering levels of food waste coming from farms in the UK. The report describes food waste as an “ecological catastrophe of staggering proportion”. Research carried out by the food and environment charity Feedback has examined the role supermarkets play in driving the overproduction and subsequent waste of food on farms. As supermarkets have over 85 per cent of the market share of grocery stores, the report warned they have the power to burden farmers both with food waste and the associated costs. At the moment commitments to cut down on food waste do not include farms, meaning supermarkets are only held accountable for waste that occurs in their stores. 

Fruit and vegetable farmers reported they wasted up to 37,000 tonnes of produce every year – around 16 per cent of their crop. This quantity would be enough to provide 250,000 people with their recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables a day for a year. The overall quantity of wasted produce could keep cities the size of Birmingham or Manchester adequately supplied with fruit and vegetables.

 “Despite a government and industry focus on food waste occurring in homes, our pioneering research finds that waste on farms, often a result of supermarkets’ outsized power in the supply chain, is significant and pervasive,” said Carina Millstone, executive director of Feedback.

While some supermarkets have made public commitments to reducing food waste, the report concludes these measures have had little impact. In particular it notes that the inflexibility of supermarket contracts has “normalised overproduction and the resulting waste”. Over half the farmers surveyed agreed they were forced to overproduce because there is pressure to always meet buyer orders, or risk losing contracts. Produce being rejected for cosmetic reasons such as colour, shape and size was the major reason for food waste identified by farmers involved in the study. Nearly half those surveyed said retailers use cosmetic standards as an excuse to reject produce when they can get a lower price elsewhere, or else following a fall in demand.

While consumers can undoubtedly be fussy when choosing their food, the report suggests consumer fussiness is being driven by the supermarkets themselves. Moreover, the takeover of the market by major supermarkets appears to have left fewer outlets to sell “imperfect” produce.

“Farmers surveyed for our research reported an average 10-16 per cent food wastage in typical years, equal to around 22,000 to 37,000 tonnes: enough food to provide 150,000 to 250,000 people with five portions of fruit and vegetables a day for a whole year, about the same as the whole population of Wolverhampton,” said Mr Bowman. “Our surveyed farmers grew about 2.6 per cent of the fruit, vegetables and potatoes grown in the UK – based on rough and ready extrapolations from this small sample size, we estimate that 2-4 million people could be fed their 5 a day nationally on fruit and veg wasted on UK farms, equal to more than the population of Birmingham or Manchester.”