Food and Crop Waste: A Valuable Biomass Feedstock

The fact sheet identifies significant quantities of agricultural production left in fields and waste generated during food processing as viable, non-food-competing biomass for biofuels. It details the causes of crop loss, such as weather and health outbreaks, and highlights existing technologies for recovering value from potato, orange, and corn waste, as well as the potential for anaerobic digestion of wastewater to produce biogas.

• Farm-level food loss is estimated at 15-35% per crop, with total financial losses between $25-30 billion, often occurring when low yields make harvesting economically unfeasible.
• Weather events and health scares significantly impact crop yields; for example, in 2007, drought caused $1.3 billion in damage to major field crops in the southeast, and a 2008 Salmonella warning led to 32% of total U.S. tomato acreage being left unharvested.
• Food processing generates substantial waste, including 3.5 billion pounds of acidic dry waste annually from the Florida orange industry and approximately 50% waste in the potato industry.
• Existing recycling technologies can convert waste into profit, such as capturing raw starch from potatoes for $180 per 100 tons, producing ethanol from orange pulp at a cost of $.70-$.90 per gallon, or using anaerobic digestion to turn starch-rich wastewater into hydrogen gas worth approximately $5 million per year for a large plant.
• Post-consumer food waste is a significant potential energy source, with the EPA reporting over 31 million tons generated in 2007, representing more than 12% of the total municipal solid waste stream.

APA

Hacker, J., Mattingly, J., & Caputo, J. (2009). Food and Crop Waste: A Valuable Biomass Feedstock. Environmental and Energy Study Institute. https://www.eesi.org/files/foodwaste_factsheet_finaldraft_040609_0.pdf

Chicago

Hacker, James, Justin Mattingly, and Jesse Caputo. Food and Crop Waste: A Valuable Biomass Feedstock. Environmental and Energy Study Institute, 2009. https://www.eesi.org/files/foodwaste_factsheet_finaldraft_040609_0.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Hacker |first1=James |last2=Mattingly |first2=Justin |last3=Caputo |first3=Jesse |title=Food and Crop Waste: A Valuable Biomass Feedstock |publisher=Environmental and Energy Study Institute |date=April 2009 |url=https://www.eesi.org/files/foodwaste_factsheet_finaldraft_040609_0.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{hacker2009food, author = {Hacker, James and Mattingly, Justin and Caputo, Jesse}, title = {{Food and Crop Waste: A Valuable Biomass Feedstock}}, institution = {Environmental and Energy Study Institute}, year = {2009}, month = apr, url = {https://www.eesi.org/files/foodwaste_factsheet_finaldraft_040609_0.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }