[GUEST BLOG] From Field to Future: How Persistence, Partnerships, and Innovation Can Reduce Food Waste

Food waste is often discussed as a moral or environmental imperative, but inside food manufacturing and distribution, it’s also an operational reality filled with tradeoffs, friction, and uncertainty. At the DNO Produce group of companies, we’ve learned that reducing food waste rarely comes from a single breakthrough. More often, it’s the result of sustained investment, cross-sector collaboration, and a willingness to keep moving forward even when solutions cost more or take longer than expected.

One area where this reality has come into sharp focus is upcycling.

For decades, broccoli stems were largely treated as a byproduct of harvest, tilled back into the soil, offering limited economic value beyond soil health. Through a partnership with Bayer and their High Rise^TM broccoli varietals, and with support from ReFED’s Catalytic Grant Fund, we set out to change that. Our goal was to create a marketable product from broccoli stems that benefits farmers, workers, and consumers alike, something approachable, familiar, and craveable. Internally, we like to call it our attempt to create “the chicken wing of vegetables.”

The upside is real. Farmers are able to monetize more of the crop. Harvest crews benefit from clearer specifications and the potential for safer, more automated harvesting approaches. And a product that was once considered waste becomes part of the human food supply.

But the challenges have been significant. To be viable for processing, broccoli stems must be harvested to precise length and trim requirements, which adds complexity in the field. Even then, the outer cambium layer of the stem is tough, and there is no off-the-shelf processing equipment capable of handling it at commercial scale. Progress has required close collaboration with equipment manufacturers, custom design, and countless iterations - none of them fast, and none of them cheap.

Packaging has presented a similar mix of progress and friction.

For our K–12 customers, we’ve transitioned many products to a biodegradable-enhanced flexible film that can break down in a typical landfill environment over approximately seven years. This was an intentional step toward reducing persistent plastic waste, even though the material carries a cost premium. Compounding the challenge, once we identified and qualified a supplier, that product was discontinued, forcing us back into the market to find an alternative and revalidate performance.

We’ve also implemented a compostable cup program for rigid-pack school products, an initiative that aligned well with our sustainability goals until tariffs dramatically increased costs, in some cases by as much as 400%. We’re actively searching for new solutions, but this experience underscored how quickly external policy and market dynamics can disrupt even well-planned sustainability efforts.

Beyond products and packaging, we’ve made a commitment to ensure that minimal amounts of our organic waste end up in a landfill. Today, all trimmings and scraps are diverted to a local dairy farm, where they’re repurposed as animal feed. Reaching this point took years of searching, negotiation, and operational redesign. The solution remains slightly more expensive than landfill disposal, and to make it work logistically, we invested in a press to remove excess liquid from organic scraps, reducing haul weight and cost.

Across these initiatives, a few lessons stand out:

• First, sustainability is rarely the lowest-cost option in the short term.

• Second, food waste reduction is a systems problem, success depends on alignment across agriculture, manufacturing, logistics, policy, and markets.

• And third, progress often comes from choosing persistence over perfection.

If we want meaningful reductions in food waste, governments need to incentivize innovation and environmental stewardship. Companies need to invest even when the ROI isn’t immediate. And consumers, from school districts to households, need to reward the organizations doing the hard work behind the scenes.

Solutions don’t have to be finished to matter. They just have to move us forward.

Food waste reduction requires collaboration. If you’re a grower, manufacturer, policymaker, funder, or fellow solution provider interested in advancing upcycling, sustainable packaging, or organic waste diversion, we welcome the conversation. Progress happens faster when we build it together.