A preliminary assessment of food policy obstacles in California’s produce recovery networks

Cristina Chiarella (), Yulia Lamoureaux (), Alda A. F. Pires (), Rachel Surls (), Robert Bennaton (), Julia Soelen Kim (), Suzanne Grady (), Thais M. Ramos (), Vikram Koundinya () and Erin DiCaprio ()
Additional contact information
Cristina Chiarella: Université Catholique de Louvain
Yulia Lamoureaux: University of California-Davis
Alda A. F. Pires: University of California-Davis
Rachel Surls: University of California
Robert Bennaton: University of California
Julia Soelen Kim: University of California
Suzanne Grady: Petaluma Bounty
Thais M. Ramos: University of California-Davis
Vikram Koundinya: University of California-Davis
Erin DiCaprio: University of California-Davis

Agriculture and Human Values, 2023, vol. 40, issue 3, No 30, 1239-1258

Abstract: Abstract California is a landmark setting for studying produce recovery efforts and policy implications because of its global relevance in agricultural production, its complex network of food recovery organizations, and its environmental and public health regulations. Through a series of focus groups with organizations involved in produce recovery (gleaning organizations) and emergency food operations (food banks, food pantries), this study aimed to deepen our understanding of the current produce recovery system and determine the major challenges and opportunities related to the produce recovery system. Operational and systematic barriers to produce recovery were highlighted by both gleaning and emergency food operations. Operational barriers, such as the lack of appropriate infrastructure and limited logistical support were found to be a challenge across groups and were directly tied to inadequate funding for these organizations. Systematic barriers, such as regulations related to food safety or reducing food loss and waste, were also found to impact both gleaning and emergency food organizations, but differences were observed in how each type of regulation impacted each stakeholder group. To support the expansion of food recovery efforts, participants expressed need for better coordination within and across food recovery networks and more positive and transparent engagement from regulators to increase understanding of the specifics of their unique operational constraints. The focus group participants also provided critiques on how emergency food assistance and food recovery are inscribed within the current food system and for longer term goals of reducing food insecurity and food loss and waste a systematic change will be required.

Keywords: Food insecurity; Food waste; Food recovery; Gleaning; Regulation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10460-022-10407-1 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:40:y:2023:i:3:d:10.1007_s10460-022-10407-1

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/10460

DOI: 10.1007/s10460-022-10407-1

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture and Human Values is currently edited by Harvey S. James Jr.

More articles in Agriculture and Human Values from Springer, The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().