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Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition

Tag: Jocelyn Boiteau

A pile of discarded vegetables

The First Step to Reducing Food Loss and Waste Is Deciding What It Is

As it makes its journey from the farm to consumers’ plates, around a third of the total food produced in the world is lost or wasted. Reducing such waste is key to efforts to achieve sustainable food systems, but before…
Crates of tomatoes at a market

Study Offers Clues for Reducing Food Loss and Waste in Perishable Supply Chains

Fresh fruits and vegetables are an important source of micronutrients, but access to them is limited in developing countries like India because of several factors, including food loss and waste. New research on tomato supply chains from the Tata-Cornell Institute…
Men looking at crates of ripe tomatoes

2020-21 Annual Report: Preventing Food Loss to Boost Fruit and Vegetable Availability

Led by Jocelyn Boiteau, a TCI alumna and postdoctoral researcher, TCI is working to address knowledge gaps in estimating food loss along perishable vegetable supply chains in India to inform effective loss prevention strategies.
Crates of tomatoes

The Tomato Lottery: Farmer Decision-Making and Food Loss Implications

On a brilliantly sunny day in June in Andhra Pradesh’s Chittoor district, red-ripe tomatoes shine like ornaments in a field of green. Seemingly absent is anyone harvesting these fruits that are just waiting to be plucked, sold, and consumed. Left…

Quality or quantity? Defining food loss and waste along the fruit and vegetable value chain

The FAO estimates that “one-third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted globally” (FAO, 2011). As I went about my summer exploratory work on food loss in India, I spent time reflecting on how ‘food loss and…

Interacting with value chain actors: What to do when your research subjects have work to do

Levels of food loss are product and value chain specific. An important first step in determining methods and metrics to evaluate food loss of perishables was to identify the product (or products) and map the value chains. The objective of…
bins of tomatos

Blistering in the Sun: Climate Change Worsens Food Loss for India’s Tomato Farmers

In this blog post, TCI scholar Jocelyn Boiteau details how rising temperatures and unreliable rainfalls are contributing to food loss among India’s tomato farmers. Standing in a lush, green field of tomato plants surrounded by swaying trees and rocky hills,…
damaged tomatoes

Tomato Trouble: Estimating and Understanding Food Loss in Vegetable Supply Chains

This piece from the TCI 2019-20 Annual Report presents TCI scholar Jocelyn Boiteau’s study of quality and quantity food loss in tomato supply chains in India. Download the full annual report to read more. The loss of fruit and vegetables—damaged…