IFPA Takes on Tech

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Companies are fighting to end food waste in more ways than one, from packaging technology to supply chain innovations.

In this episode, I’m joined by Dana Gunders, Executive Director of ReFED, who discusses the scope of the food waste problem and effective solutions, and Aidan Mouat, CEO and Co-Founder of Hazel Technologies, Inc., who talks about the role of innovation and new technologies in reducing food waste throughout the supply chain.

In this episode we discuss:

• New and emerging technology in the war against food waste
• How to effectively implement supply chain and infrastructure innovations
• 3 ways the produce industry could reduce food loss

 

Vonnie Estes, IFPA

Hello and welcome to fresh takes on tech. Today we are tackling food waste. Our first guest is Dana Gunners executive director of ReFED. Later in the program, we will talk to Aiden Mouat, the co-founder of Hazel Technologieses, a technology that is used in the industry to cut down on food waste. But back to Dana, welcome to the show.

Dana Gunners, ReFED

Thank you, it's great to be here. Reset is a national nonprofit working to in food loss and waste across the US food system. It's my go to source for food loss and waste information, I've always going to the website and looking things up when I need to understand more about the issues. So please start by telling us the scope of the problem and food waste and produce.

Dana Gunners, ReFED

Sure, happy to well, you know, broadly about 35% of all of our food in this country is never eaten, and that totals to over $400 billion. But when you look specifically at produce is actually the largest part of that it's 34% of all the food that is surplus in this country is produced that has a value of almost $50 billion, the greenhouse gases that it takes to grow and cool and cook and transport that add up to over 20 million tons of co2 and it takes almost a billion gallons of water as well to grow that food. So, a huge just like huge numbers around this. And then if you look at it by the sector, by far the biggest sector, when you look at produce is the farm level, we estimate there's about 16 million tons of produce, that are surplus at the farm level with about 9 million of those being edible. And maybe we can talk a little bit more about that distinction in a bit. And you know, beyond that, the second most we estimate is actually in homes, a lot of produce going to waste in homes. It's the number one product that goes to waste in households across America.

Vonnie Estes, IFPA

So why is this happening? What are some of the causes of food being left behind in the field and also in other parts of the supply chain?

Dana Gunners, ReFED

Sure, well, first of all, say that, you know, people talk about this, like it's one problem, but it actually looks very different when you're looking at you know, farm level versus a restaurant or something like that. So, you know, when you look at the farm, some of the key drivers are one, just the variability of pricing with produce, you know, a lot of guessing games around what produce is going to sell for. And then you know, last minute decisions about whether or not it's worth harvesting, and things like that, certainly specifications are constantly hearing about, you know, the bent cucumbers or the slightly sunburned cauliflower, or the large broccoli heads that don't get harvested. Actually, I just spoke with one woman who drove past, you know, a 60-acre field of broccoli that went on harvested because the heads were too big, for instance. And so just the specifications limit that what gets harvested. And then you know, we hear about spot market versus longer term contracts playing a role, you know, growers really trying to make sure that they're able to make contracts by planting a buffer in terms of quantities, so that can add to it as well. And I think, you know, with produce, in particular, there's the food loss that's happening at the farm level, it's not necessarily the farmers that are doing that, right. There's a lot of like market dynamics that essentially manifest at the farm level. And I think that's why we see so much happening there.

Vonnie Estes, IFPA

So, what are some of the solutions out there that you're seeing, especially at the farm level, what types of things are people doing so that not as much food waste is happening, probably

Dana Gunners, ReFED

the most notable thing we've seen are some of these companies that are popping up and trying to buy up some of the surplus or they like to call it imperfect produce that is out there. You know, we've seen companies like imperfect foods, get to last I saw like a $700 million valuation just for buying up, you know, and now they've expanded beyond just produce, but really being able to absorb some of that slightly, you know, awkwardly sized or shaped or colored product as well, just the surplus that happens or some of those rejections that take place. But in addition to that, you know, we're seeing larger chains start to play around with the idea of offering, you know, expanding their specifications or offering you know, some of these, quote ugly lines separately, I think we're still waiting to see what I think is one of the fundamental solutions, which is just reevaluating what the main specifications are for produce, you know, by the large buyers and seeing if we can actually expand those to include, you know, a little bit wider variety of color shapes, size, ripeness, etc.

Vonnie Estes, IFPA

So is some of that it seems to be happening a little bit of consumer education, like maybe your produce doesn't have to look perfect. And you're you'll still buy it so that it doesn't get left in the field.

Dana Gunners, ReFED

Yeah, exactly. And I think that's where some of these companies like the imperfect foods of the world are having an outsized impact, because beyond the, you know, what they're able to buy directly, they are starting to shift the consumer, you know, tolerance, I would say, for different looking product. Similarly, farmers markets, you know, you are more and more as farmers markets are out there, I think they are also changing people's just expectations around what produce is supposed to look like. So hopefully, all of that can add up to also provide grocers and others the ability to, you know, just test out what it would mean to expand their specs.

Vonnie Estes, IFPA

So, what are the tradeoffs that you're seeing with various solutions in produce? I mean, there's some good things and some bad things and some of the solutions.

Dana Gunners, ReFED

Yeah, you know, I think there are in anything, there are tradeoffs, certainly here there are as well, with produce, I think probably the biggest is packaging. You know, there are certain types of produce the English cucumbers are the great example that we hear a lot where, when you wrap them in plastic, they last a lot longer. But of course, that adds packaging waste. And so, there is this trade off that I think really comes down to product by product and how a particular product behaves as to whether or not it's worth it, but just how much packaging is the right amount, in order to do its fundamental job, which is protect a product and hopefully extended life. And we're starting to see some exciting things happening there. Like, you know, different forms of active and intelligent packaging that can communicate temperature exposure, you know, an ad, advances in compostable packaging, two types that are truly biodegradable and actually work within the commercial composting systems, I think that's been a little bit of a challenge as well. So certainly, packaging is one big trade off, you know, another isn't in fresh. And of course, there's a huge movement to increase, just consumption of fruits and vegetables now, and often that's, I think, interpreted as fresh. But of course, as people go out to buy more fresh produce, they also can wind up wasting more fresh produce as well, I think there's a little you know, there's potential for a nutrition type of trade off. I think, however, though, solutions, like frozen, have a lot to offer when it comes to increasing consumption, making it really easy for people to consume fruits and vegetables, but also not having them go to waste if they don't use them up in, you know, three, four days.

Vonnie Estes, IFPA

Now, so circling back to the scope of the problem, how are we getting data to even know what the problem is? I mean, I think about as I drive by farms and see some things that weren't harvested, nobody's really counting. So how do you get such amazing amount of data? How do you get that data? And how could that data be gathered better to give us better information?

Dana Gunners, ReFED

Yes, my favorite question that I could geek out on forever, but don't worry, I won't. Yeah, well, one of my favorite things is that you want to whatever. No one thinks they have waste, right? If you the average American, one of my favorite statistics is that the average American sorry, 75% of Americans say they waste less than the average American, which is Wow, artistically impossible. Right. And I think it kind of makes me chuckle. But also, you know, you talk to chefs, they have no waste, you talk to grocery stores, they don't have a lot of ways. And when you talk to farmers, they also, you know, will tell you they have very little waste. And so of course there's it's a loaded word waste, right. And we like to talk about surplus food and things like that. But oftentimes, I think people have become numb to it, and they don't see it. And so that's the first challenge in measuring it is that, you know, if you ask someone how much broccoli they left on a field, and they don't count the large heads on the small heads or the, you know, Loreta that come after the main harvest, well, then, of course, they have none. But if you when you start taking that second look, you can see it and so it can be a challenge. I think step one is trying to really get people to see what we're asking them to Measure. But once we've done that, it's challenging. Certainly, at the farm level, there's been very little actual measurement and collection. So, our estimates are based on just a handful of academic studies that have spent time in the field, drawing, you know, little squares in the field, counting everything that's edible, weighing it and kind of extrapolating across the whole field size. And so, we're really using that combined with estimates of acres planted and acres harvested to try to get a sense of what's happening at the farm level. But there's need and I think a lot of utility and trying to do better when it comes to farm scale, produce loss measurement, there's an effort called the stewardship index for specialty crops that has created a whole rubric around this and is building it into different software systems to try to help growers measure better. And I one thing I think that's so important about that is that it really facilitates a conversation downstream with customers about what's going to waste why, and you have a lot of these bigger buyers committing to huge reductions in food loss and waste, and I think, potentially open to a conversation around altering relationships in a way that could lead to less waste. But without the data on how much is going to waste, it's pretty difficult. So, I think it's a first step in that as well.

Vonnie Estes, IFPA

Is there any way to do like ministers, probably privacy issues, right, but satellite, you know, tracking? Like, just what, using satellites to just watch fields and watch how much is left? I mean, is anyone trying to do that?

Dana Gunners, ReFED

It's a great question. It's one I've thought about, but I haven't heard anyone actually doing it yet. I do think there's some opportunity there. I also think there's opportunity to use that technology as a solution. Because you know, one of the challenges is that there's a lot of guesswork in how much is planted of different crops. And so, you know, I'll hear the story that Oh, broccoli sold at $30 a case. And so, then the next year, everyone planted broccoli, and then it was selling for $6 a case, right. And so, if only there were transparency into how much was being planted in total for different crops, I think that would be really useful information for growers to adjust around. And I think there's potential for satellite imagery to play a role in that, but I haven't seen anyone do it yet.

Vonnie Estes, IFPA

Yeah, I think as you were mentioning, before, just thinking about contracting downstream, and having some of these smart contracts, where people know that they're going to sell what they grow, and they don't need to overgrow or under grow, and then also retailers know, you know, what they're going to get. And I think that whole transparency in the system is going to make a big difference of just making sure stuff isn't unused, because there isn't a market for it.

Dana Gunners, ReFED

Yeah, you know, in the UK, Tesco has sort of been experimenting with this concept of whole crop purchasing, where instead of buying, you know, fancy, great fancy apples, you know, a certain quantity of it, they actually will purchase like a percent of the farm. And then they will take ownership of all the grades of a product, and they will then find ways to use it. So, they'll send it to juicing, or they'll send it to processing or they'll sell it fresh. And it really spreads the risk around in a different way. So, I'm fascinated by that concept and trying to use it here, you know, if possible.

Vonnie Estes, IFPA

Yeah, that's a great idea. I was also talking to a woman in Australia recently. And it's working with technology throughout the chain. And in Australia, it's much more vertically integrated, where you've got, you know, the retailers will own the farms or own the product that comes off the farm, similar type of thing. And so, then you've just got, you may you're making different economic decisions when you're sharing the risk. So that does make sense, and maybe a way to move some of our system. So just to wrap up, I have one last question for you. So, what are three things that the produce industry could do to reduce food loss and waste?

Dana Gunners, ReFED

You know, I, my first wish for the previous industry is to sort of have a really candid cross supply chain conversation about kind of what we're talking about right now, like the risk, how to share risk, and how to how contracts and other buying arrangements can be altered in a way that lead to less waste because I have a hard time seeing fundamental changes take place without that. So, I think there's absolutely room for a really candid conversation and you need the big buyers in the room, and You need the girls in the room. And there needs to be a level of honesty that I think can be challenging sometimes in this setting. So that'd be one. I think. Secondly, as I mentioned, I, you know, I'm thrilled to see the imperfect and these alternative markets growing, I think there will always be extra and so continuing to support these alternative sales channels and alternative marketplaces is a key option and trying to build more of a critical mass so that almost like the Craigslist of produce where people can really put what they have on and someone else can buy it, I think that would be really useful. And lastly, taking another key look at specifications, as I mentioned, and having really experimenting in stores with expanded specs to see if that could make a difference. Are you know, products still sells?

Vonnie Estes, IFPA

Great. Well, thank you. It's always enlightening to talk to you. And please keep up all your good work. And I will catch you another time.

Dana Gunners, ReFED

That sounds great. Thank you so much for having me, Vonnie.

Vonnie Estes, IFPA

So now we have Aiden Mouat, the CEO and co-founder of Hazel Technologieses to join us and talk to us more about food waste. Welcome, Amy. Thanks for being here.

Aiden Mouat, Hazel Technologies

es Thanks for having me, Vonnie. Good to be here.

Vonnie Estes, IFPA

Yeah, so let's start talking about food waste throughout the produce supply chain. We know it's a problem on the farm, is food waste, primarily a production problem?

Aiden Mouat, Hazel Technologies

es I don't think so. And I think the data would suggest that we're kind of in an era where we've built up our food supply chain or food system to over produce in order to compensate for efficiency challenge as food moves down the supply chain. So, you think about sort of the centralized agricultural model, California being an excellent example in the United States, where you have a large quantity of agriculture condensed into sort of one coast of the entire country, that then radiates distribution outwards to the rest of the country, that I'm just talking to domestic supply chains here. You know, when you have that model, you start to put pressure on food in the post-harvest phase, and that those pressures really, I think, are what are driving food waste. So, from a sort of a theoretical perspective on the supply chain, if we can figure out a way to mitigate those pressures from a supply chain technology basis, we could actually, theoretically reduce the overall quantity of production in favor of reducing waste at the farm gate as well, I actually think it kind of flows backwards from the supply chain itself.

Vonnie Estes, IFPA

So, what role does innovation play to reduce waste throughout the supply chain, as you said?

Aiden Mouat, Hazel Technologies

es I think both historically, and from a from sort of a future perspective, innovation has a key paradigm shifter in how we get food from point A to point B. And, you know, not to go too deep into the history of everything. But you know, things that we think of is commonplace today, things like end-to-end cold chain or airflow control in conventional storage. Those used to be Technologiescal revolutions, actually, well, they are in some other countries.

Aiden Mouat, Hazel Technologies

es As well, that's a whole other Yeah, yeah, not to take a US centric view. A lot of the world could honestly, let me actually use that in the context of your question. A lot of the world doesn't have those, what we would consider standard infrastructural pieces of technology. And so, the result, we have an opportunity to skip a step in the trillions of dollars of infrastructure worldwide, that would require in order to reduce food waste, by using higher power, higher order innovations in order to reduce food waste instead. So, I think I don't think there could be a bigger frontier than sort of the classic example of new Technologieses, shifting the supply curve to the right to use, you know, conventional macroeconomic demand model. That's what the role of innovation really is in the food system.

Vonnie Estes, IFPA

And I think looking at as you're talking about the cold chain and that whole Supply Chain the way it is in the US. That's what we have. And that's what we have to work with. And so, when we think about bringing new technology, and we're not in the US, we're not going to replace all that. So how do we bring new Technologieses in that kind of lessen the problem while still working within that supply chain that we have?

Aiden Mouat, Hazel Technologies

es Yeah, I mean, I think that really is the that's the innovators dilemma in in postindustrial settings. I mean, it's a critical issue. You know, one way to talk about it from sort of a framework perspective, but the way that we think about it, the way that I think about it, and we meeting Hazel, it every time you sort of build a new component of a supply chain, a machine or a piece of infrastructure, essentially a permanent piece of technology or engineering, you're shaping the food supply chain to go through that checkbook. And that oftentimes can obsolete other equipment that can change the standard of production technology in specific supply chains, etc., etc., often leading to this sort of invest in replace cycle, which certainly has its place. I mean, technology continues to grow, there are certainly better pieces of H back equipment, you know, today than there were 10 years ago, etc. But I think a more powerful form of innovation is the one that doesn't intersect with that invest in replaced cycle. It's one where you can have an additive technology much in the way that if you think about digital architecture, you have a technology stack, the operational resources stay the same, but you increase the efficiency of the application, by increasing the layers of digital technology, we look at it the same way there have there has to be room within the existing architecture to create better solutions that don't rely solely on that architecture to deliver results. So, I think that's the real innovative challenge there.

Vonnie Estes, IFPA

Yeah, and real challenge, because you can't if someone has already invested so much money, the switching cost, if you ask them to completely change over to some other different system, you know, the switching cost is going to keep them from doing that. So, if you can do something that's more additive, which I think brings us to Hazel. So why don't you talk a little bit about Hazel, and what the company does and what innovation you've brought and how it fits within the system that we're that we have now.

Aiden Mouat, Hazel Technologies

es Yeah, well, let me contextualize it to within the that particular question, you know, we wanted to find a way to add to the tech stack of standard operations in the supply chain today, whether they're in the postindustrial setting, or whether it's in a more global context, an area that's perhaps a little bit less infrastructural heavy. And so, the opportunity that we saw to do that was through controlling conventional biochemical signaling pathways in perishable food, the nature of perishable food is such that it is alive. And that's true even of things like cut meats, where the this is a bit of a rough analogy, but you can think of a piece of meat as essentially just a very injured animal. And that's a horrible way of framing of it from a biological perspective, it's actually fairly accurate. So if you'll forgive me the macabre analogy, the point being when you have perishable Yeah, when you have these living processes, they're undergoing aging, they're undergoing interactions with other biological organisms in the environment, Moby's that's, and so we got interested in figuring out if we could find a way to control those processes from within the storage and transit system, there are plenty of post-harvest controls, various chemical applications, things of that nature that have been done for many years, kind of at the point of harvest, and in maybe bulk post-harvest settings. But nobody has ever really tried to apply active biochemistry into the storage and transit piece to try to extend those shelf life and preservation benefits as the food moves downstream. So we said, well, you know, everything comes packed in something, whether it's a box, whether it's a reefer whether it's got to move from point A to point B, is there a way we can make an integration, so to speak of biochemistry integration, where we can activate that storage environment and use it to control the things that are limiting perishable food shelf life. And that's where we came up with this idea of creating packaging materials and packaging material inserts, that are that contain an active chemistry released volatile actives into the storage atmosphere of the food. So we don't have to be beholden to a spray type system, something that requires one to one food contact, something that has to go through a new piece of engineering, kind of the sort that I mentioned earlier, but rather something that could be dropped in into any environment in the world, any packaging, and any crop of any kind that responds to that biochemistry therefore is a is a part of the market that can benefit from it. And so that's what we did we created sachets pads, papers, things that contain storage materials that we have incorporated an active ingredient into and then can control the release of that in storage environments for perishable food and use that to control the aging process. And so how

Vonnie Estes, IFPA

difficult was it when you first started going out and Finding partners to work with and even in your beginning sales. Was this a story that that people say, oh, that makes sense. And they adopted it immediately. How did that early trialing period go?

Aiden Mouat, Hazel Technologies

es It's a good question that is partially answered by the fact, we got off to a bit of a false start, when we, when we thought we had identified our key market and key market partners in deploying the technology, we kind of started way downstream in the distribution and retail segments. And to be honest, no, we didn't get a lot of traction. And I don't think that was the fault of anybody that we were working with. I think that the truth is that those types of Technologieses, distributors, retailers, etc., they're not used to seeing that type of technology. And they don't have a clear use case for how they would deploy it. The workforce isn't oriented that way, their supply chains are a little bit ex post facto, etc. So we learned that lesson, this was back in 2016, honestly, and we decided that we wanted to work directly with the folks that are fully upstream, the growers, the Packers, the supply side of the when we got there, and we started getting out to farmland and actually working with directly with farmers and packers, we found they are aware of the problem. I mean, I think that there's nobody in the world that's more aware of food waste than the people that produce and sell the food. And so, we felt that we were addressing a problem that these customers really did have. And they were very quick to test. And when they saw the benefits of the technology very quick to start deployment. And that's really kind of the story of Hazel. That's fascinating,

Vonnie Estes, IFPA

because I actually didn't know exactly who you were you started with your customer base. So how did you have? How do you get them to buy the product? And what's the return on investment? Is it that there's less shrink? So, they, but the shrink happens later? A lot? So how do they actually get paid? And how do they get a return on investment in the product?

Aiden Mouat, Hazel Technologies

es You know, identifying the key lead value proposition, I think was probably how we got traction in the market. And it was to realize that if you're selling a technology, that's just waste reduction, that's good, right? That's not a bad thing. But it might be difficult to get people excited about waste reduction, because waste means a lot of things to a lot of different people, I think the example that I always use is, you know, to a consumer waste might mean well, you know, I don't want to throw away anything that I buy, I want to make sure that I can eat every single thing that that I buy, to, to grow waste means having a place to sell the thing that you grow, because otherwise, you're not going to be able to get it off your land, you might have already grown it and they might have nowhere to go, you might not be able to economically justify being able to move that piece of food. So, you know, we were dealing with different participants in the supply chain, we needed to understand how to speak the language that would be most meaningful to them in a waste reduction context. And so, we actually started focusing not on the drag that is waste reduction, but rather how can we help them grow their businesses and promote their businesses sustainably, but still have an opportunity for growth with this new technology that we're using. So, the flip side of waste reduction is quality extension, its radius extension, it's being able to reach new markets, it's being able to out price your competition because you have higher quality food because you have better tasting food because you have less waste in front of your customers like retailers’ industry. And I think the other key point there is making sure that the unit economics of the product match the market segment you're selling to so we didn't want to go to we didn't want to go to retailers with a solution that was super expensive, and say, hey, you know, push this on your customers push or push this on your suppliers, we thought that was going to be a losing battle. So rather than that, we went to the suppliers, and we said, well, we want to understand your side of the market and we want to sell you a product that the price point is right for the ROI you're getting from the product. You don't have to get anybody's permission to use it, you're going to see the reason to use it right away. And they said oh yeah, you know, at these prices you're talking about we see these benefits, but the benefits aren't just hey, you can reduce waste X percent it's you can increase your production capacity and sell into farther markets. It's you can have the latest season fruit out there that still quality, you could be the only person in the market sometimes if you're selling in the right place in the right category. Those are huge business drivers. And sometimes you're talking about doubling top line revenue in a particular SKU. And that becomes very exciting for these customers to be able to grow their business in that way but to do it in a way that is inherently lower waste. So that was that was one of the big key revelations.

Vonnie Estes, IFPA

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. What crops are you currently working in now?

Aiden Mouat, Hazel Technologies

es Well, quite a few. We are heavy on pretty much all the major fruits in North and South American production currently so all the orchard fruits apple pear cherry, pretty much across the board and stone fruit so plum peach apricot Nectarine, most of the melons. We're doing a huge push in grapes right now in table grapes. That we have one of the probably one of the only new market Technologieses that is very well studied to improve grapes shelf life and so we're deploying that heavily in the North and South America now and soon to be North Africa as well. We've got a couple of vegetables we've done some leafy green work we've done some we're moving into a we just did a launch in limes, we've done a ton of avocado work both on the hasp varieties in the grand scheme for I mean, so we're, we cover Oh, and of course, I should also mention the wide range of tropicals as well. So, we're all across tropical dragon fruit, passion, fruit, guava, mango, you know, etc., etc. And then, you know, we've got a couple of commercial launches coming out this year as well. So, berries are on deck for this organic grape, papaya, etc., etc. So, we've got a pretty heavy program, a large number of crops.

Vonnie Estes, IFPA

Wow, that's comprehensive. Is the sachet any different that goes into these different crops? Or is it the same?

Aiden Mouat, Hazel Technologies

es The we try to keep the same form factor, meaning for the most part, we like the sachets to look. But I should also point out by the way, we have many skews, we don't just sell sachets we have you know, things that trade controlled atmosphere warehouses and things that trade bins and yada So, but you know, across the different crop categories that are packed out in the MasterCase pallet type configurations, we like the form factor to look the same. Now, that doesn't mean they're getting the same chemistry every single time, we do have the ability to control and optimize the dose rates that we deliver on a per unit biomass at a per unit respiration, honestly. So, you're talking different crops have different respiration rates, etc. That knowledge base that technical sales pace is something that comes along with product deployment. And so, we work heavily with our customers to understand how to do those applications where those differences lie, it might seem as simple as just putting a sachet in a box. But you'd be surprised how, you know if you do it right after harvest versus you know, a holding period versus a cooling period versus what you might actually see different results. And so, we work with our customers to understand how that fits into their supply chain system. So yeah, there's there are definitely some differences.

Vonnie Estes, IFPA

So, I'm really intrigued by a new product that you're looking at called Hazel tracks. Can you tell us what that is? And is it scalable? And kind of where are you

Aiden Mouat, Hazel Technologies

es with that shirt? Yeah, trends are fascinating treks is it’s not just one product, it's a shorthand for a new category of technology that we're deploying pre farm gate. So, this is one of our big bridge pieces into the holistic supply chain is now our farmer customers can actually use Hazel products in field to achieve a new category of goal. And what tracks is to get the technical piece out of the way. It's an It's essentially a technology that allows us to obtain genetic information about the status of a harvest cycle in a given crop using a technology called qPCR. quantitative PCR analysis. So, there are some key market issues that we focus on with each iteration of atrax product, the one that we launched in 2018, was into the Kiwi industry. And so, we did a lot of work with that in New Zealand, and then this year, we're expanding into Italy Chela in the US as well, where budbreak and the application of budbreak enhancement is a major challenge to Kiwi farmers in ensuring that they have uniform yield, and therefore you don't want postharvest quality. And so what farmers of Kiwis can do is take a hazel Trek's Kiwi kit, they go to the field, they can take a kiwi, they mash it up, they send us a sample of that Kiwi with whatever level of sampling rate they want, I mean, you can do one to an acre, you can do one every half acre, you can do one every road, we give them a readout within a couple of days that says okay, you know, we understand the key markers of this keyword plant, we're able to tell you that you need to apply your budbreak enhancer in this 72 hour window, that's going to maximize your yield and your post-harvest quality, etc., etc., etc. Customers all of a sudden see a 15% increase in yield per acre, you know, just astronomical. And that's an example of how we leverage that qPCR platform to solve a specific challenge in a specific crop, we have, you know, similar outputs that are coming out this year, and Apple will be doing cherry as well. So, looking at harvest timing for cherry maturity, looking at ethylene production and stored apples to understand when the best time to release apples from their ca environments is etc. etc. But in each case, we're taking a key genetic piece of information from that crop. And we're using it to deliver actionable intelligence to the farmer or to the packer regarding what to do in realistic market situations about that. So that's a brief summary of the direct product.

Vonnie Estes, IFPA

Very cool. So, I'm really looking for a future where data like that that you get goes all the way down the chain to say Walmart and they know what's coming and how long it will last. And there's you know, it really tightens up the whole supply chain and growers get you know, they know what they're going to sell they know the price that they're going to get is that do you think that's a future that's going to come with technology?

Aiden Mouat, Hazel Technologies

es I think so, I mean, I think you have to remember this is a new category of information entirely. You know, there's all kinds of methods for trying to figure out harvest timing, chemical application, timing, storage, timing, etc. Aerial Photography, satellites, infield monitoring, you name it. There are many different ways of approaching it. I'm not familiar with any of those technology models that provides you per parcel granularity on the literal genetic information of an individual crop plant in whatever area you like. And so, we have a, we have the ability to build a database of information, so specific and so quantitative, that it's just a new frontier entirely from what's being done with kind of aggregates overview type data. And I think that the ultimate Gameplan for that is, is how do we use that to not only improve outcomes for the customer directly? But how do we take that as a company that provides shelf-life solutions that provides logistics Information Solutions all up and down the supply chain? How do we take that information? We use that to improve outcomes all the way until the point something gets eaten. So yeah, that's the future that we envisioned for sure.

Vonnie Estes, IFPA

Yeah. Okay, one last question for you. So, what are three things that you think the produce industry needs to do to tackle food waste specifically?

Aiden Mouat, Hazel Technologies

es Yeah, I mean, I think there's a lot of opportunities. One is I'd love to point at the legislation that emerged in California this year regarding food way, position, right. So that's I know, there's a lot of controversy around that as well, because one of the challenges there is that the government sort of said, well, we have to do this. And that's fair. But the only real outlet that's been presented for how you divert organic waste from these large areas is composting, which is fine. But I don't think that's I don't think that's going to be a big enough scale solution for the types of challenges that some of these farmers are facing in terms of their infield and post field waste. So, I think I think the investing in new technology piece is pretty key, I think, being open to solutions that conform to those requirements. I'm using the state of California as an example. But I think, honestly, that's one of the first pieces of legislation I've ever seen that actually addresses food waste as its own category of environmental problems. And I think there's going to be more of that all over the world. So, I think everybody needs to be thinking about how we deploy solutions that address these concerns directly. And that's going to require new technology. I mean, as we started off this conversation, that's the innovation piece, right. I also strongly encourage participation in alternative marketplaces and to be creative with skew generation. So, you know, I know that not everybody's operation is set up this way. And look, I get it, it is what it is. But I think that there are many opportunities arising from companies that are growing out of the idea of how do we do substandard quality food items into other categories, the juices, the packed foods, the cut foods, the even the secondary marketplaces like full harvest, or imperfect produce, or what have you, there are outlets arising where if you're willing to just do the work of putting a new SKU on something that might otherwise go to waste, that's a really good way of making some money off of it, and also diverting food from landfill. And then lastly, I think the engagement pace between farmers and between regulatory bodies, I think is critical. I know that nobody in the farm industry is a stranger to the idea of lobbying and happens with the US farm bill every single year, or every single year that there is a US Farm Bill. But I think that like the California example, we're not going to get better legislative direction. And we're not going to get better programs designed to divert food waste, until farmers can actually tell the people who are making decisions. These are where the problems lie. Here's what we need to help solve the problem. The example that I like to give is, in the early days of the pandemic, and 2020, we had this sort of disaster situation that made no real sense where huge quantities of food were going to waste because the retail environment in the food service environment had shifted dramatically. Meanwhile, you also had through the roof demand at public food distribution, NGOs, all of a sudden, you had this weird situation where demand was super high, and supply was super high. And meanwhile, the government was giving out free money. And the free money did nothing to resolve that issue whatsoever. And so, the question becomes, what could we have done better with those resources? How could we have directed those resources to set up temporary supply chains to improve market out to figure out new ways of distributing food that would otherwise go to waste? I think that might have been a better policy direction, to be completely honest. And I think that if we had the ability to have a good feedback mechanism, or a tighter feedback mechanism between the growing community and the folks that were legislating, you know, both in state government and in federal, that could have been something that we could have avoided or at least mitigated the damage from so those are kind of the three categories that are off the top of my head. Lots of opportunities out there, I think.

Vonnie Estes, IFPA

Yeah. Great. Well, thank you very much for your time and very thoughtful engagement and we'll talk to you again soon.

Aiden Mouat, Hazel Technologies

es Bye, guys very much. Always a pleasure, Vonnie.