On Wednesday, October 15, Food Tank will host an exclusive webinar featuring Lisa Kitinoja, founder of The Postharvest Education Foundation (PEF). The webinar, “Reducing Farm Losses from Farm to Market,” will take place at 12pm EST.
The majority of postharvest food loss is easily avoidable, yet it can affect 30 to 80 percent of perishable crops, especially in developing areas. This webinar will present current evidence of high levels of global postharvest food losses, identify the causes and sources of losses occurring between the farm and the market, and provide information on a wide range of options for using simple, cost effective practices and technologies for reducing food losses. Kitnoja will explain strategies that can be used on the farm and during transport for cooling perishable foods, for temporary on-farm storage, and for small-scale food processing and packaging to extend shelf life.
Much of Kitinoja’s 30 year career was spent as a private agricultural consultant, providing services for donor organizations, performing food loss assessments and writing training manuals and extension materials for postharvest capacity building. But she remained frustrated by many shortsighted, short-term assignments, and the lack of institutional support. “Historically, only 5 percent of the international funding spent on agricultural development is put toward preventing food losses,” Kitinoja told Food Tank, “while 95 percent goes to attempts to increase production.” This inspired Kitinoja to found PEF in 2011 as a direct means of providing education to young people all over the world on how to reduce food losses and waste.
The webinar will include a 30 to 40 minute presentation by Kitinoja and then 15 to 20 minutes for questions. Interested participants can register here.
