Data and food tech key to optimizing sustainable supply chains

However you define sustainability, the process of measuring, reporting and iterating is foundational to optimizing production across the supply chain. The final installment of The Packer’s Sustainability Series looks at how food tech innovators are making more efficient, strategic decisions to improve overall sustainability in the life cycle of a fresh fruit or vegetable.

The Packer met with stakeholders across the fresh produce supply chain to learn what sustainability looked like on their farm, grocery story, organization and laboratory. Many are actively reducing their carbon footprint in the supply chain, focusing on priorities such as:

• Improving soil health;
• Emphasizing integrated pest management;
• Conserving water;
• Adopting packaging innovations;
• Reducing food waste; and
• Improving supply chain traceability.

Improving supply chains of all types

Across the fresh produce supply chain, suppliers, researchers and scientists are finding new ways to tighten their supply chain and reduce their carbon footprint. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step and produce innovators and producers are building sustainable food systems brick by brick.

Defining what is sustainable to each producer or business is as unique as the individual products they offer. What’s a valuable sustainable cultivation practice to a tomato producer looks completely different to a mushroom grower, not to mention the packaging supplier that provides the clamshells to protect the creminis until they land on a butcher block for dinner.

Chelsea Shelander, retail, food safety and fresh-cut brand manager at BioSafe Systems scrutinizes manufacturing for opportunities to be more efficient. “Our most-current initiative is an expansion of an ongoing carbon footprint reduction program, in where we strategically locate manufacturing in key demand areas to minimize the distance that our products have to travel, in turn lowering the negative environmental impact of carbon emissions,” Shelander said. “With the recent purchase of land in Yuma, Ariz., BioSafe Systems will be able to provide products in demand to our customers throughout that region with a reduced carbon footprint.”

CMO and Co-founder Pat Flynn at Hazel Technologies believes data is the key to increasing sustainability, even in the fresh produce industry.

“Food is extremely competitive at every stage in the supply chain, but to manage the challenges we’re facing now and those that will continue to intensify, we have to come together in some ways,” Flynn said. “The tracking and sharing of certain waste-related data that reach across the supply chain, will allow tech companies to identify critical blind spots and problem areas, and allow them to develop more earth-friendly solutions that [are] reducing waste while increasing sales.”

Josh VanDeWalle has a different vantage point as Bayer’s North America lead of global food chain partnerships.

“We have a unique role at Bayer,” he said. “We work with food chain partners and other stakeholders on sustainability collaboration.”

While growers are very nimble, there’s always ways to optimize and improve. And despite the many challenges to growing fresh produce sustainability right now, VanDeWalle remains optimistic.

“[I’m] excited about the technology that’s on the horizon,” he said. “Gene editing could be a game changer ... Other technology that’s exciting is robot weeding, drones and other ways to make it easier from a labor perspective. We need to make it easier for people growing the crops and to have new crop protection solutions.”

And while there are many perspectives on what characterizes a sustainable or climate-smart growing practice across the supply chain, what producers, shippers, buyers and customers can agree on is that that leading the charge and finding more sustainable ways of growing delicious food is the secret sauce.

Americans hope to be enjoying delicious grapes, apples, onions, oranges, avocados and corn for years to come and the innovative producers across the fresh produce industry are discovering clever solutions that deliver fresh fruit and vegetables to grocery baskets as sustainably as possible.

More sustainability

Part one of our Sustainability Series spotlights what growers and chemists are doing to improve soil health and the second installment examines strategies growers are pioneering to reduce impact through conserving water and integrated pest management. Part three of The Packer’s Sustainability Series, outlines what growers, retailers and innovators they are doing to improve product packaging and reduce food waste.