GLOBAL – World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) have collaborated to launch a new tool aimed at helping farmers combat food loss on farms.
The Global Farm Loss Tool, developed by WWF and tested with CGF’s Food Waste Coalition and growers, simplifies the process of measuring and reporting on-farm food loss.
This tool, which is also applicable to a wide range of crops, including fruits, vegetables, and tree nuts, helps farmers and buyers pinpoint and address causes of food loss, including the impact on scope 3 emissions.
Research from WWF and Tesco reveals that nearly 1.2 billion tons of food, roughly 15% of global production, is lost on farms around harvest time each year.
Farmers and buyers currently lack sufficient data on unharvested products, making it difficult to assess how much is marketable, non-marketable, or spoiled.
The Global Farm Loss Tool offers actionable insights for growers and buyers, allowing them to map their current loss levels and explore new channels to utilize more of the crops grown.
It estimates how much surplus, including mature crops left in the field post-harvest, remains unharvested and provides data on other stages in a farm’s operations such as processing and packaging.
The tool is compatible with existing reporting programs, including the World Resources Institute’s 10x20x30, WRAP’s Food Waste Atlas, and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s Food Loss Index.
CGF supported the tool’s beta testing through its 18-member Food Waste Coalition, which aims to halve global food loss and waste by 2030.
Working with its members, CGF and WWF plan to continue assessing the tool’s impact, aiming to improve user experience and expand its application to more food types, growers, and suppliers across the global supply chain.
The tool has received support from food loss specialists at Champions 12.3. It will also integrate into existing farm sustainability reporting frameworks, such as Sustainable Food Trust’s Global Farm Metric, and develop capabilities to estimate scope 3 emissions linked to on-farm food loss over the next year.
Pete Pearson, senior director of food loss and waste at WWF, emphasized the tool’s importance. “We need visibility to identify food loss hotspots and understand the reason behind them. The Global Farm Loss Tool is designed to be part of that solution, helping fill the crucial gap of tracking primary and actionable food loss data at the farm level of global supply chains.”
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