No Grain Left Behind

A WWF study finds that post-harvest losses for corn and soy in the US are significantly higher than industry expectations, with corn losses averaging 4.7% and soy 4.5%. These losses result in billions of dollars in economic waste and millions of tons of GHG emissions. The report identifies equipment sophistication and operator experience as primary drivers of loss and argues that reducing these losses can alleviate pressure to convert natural habitats into cropland.

• Global food loss is higher than previously thought, with new estimates suggesting 40% of all food grown goes uneaten, and approximately 1.3 billion tons of food lost on farms globally, representing 15% of all global food production.
• In the US, measured field-level losses for corn averaged 4.7%, significantly exceeding the 0.65% estimated by farmers and the 1% target encouraged by extension agents. This creates a loss overage of 3.7%, which scales to a national potential loss of 507 million bushels of corn valued at $2.1 billion based on 2019 data.
• Measured field-level losses for soybeans averaged 4.5%, surpassing the accepted industry loss of 3%. This 1.5% overage equates to a potential national loss of 53 million bushels of soy worth $0.53 billion.
• Combined corn and soy losses in the US amount to $4.3 billion in economic losses and 18,300,000 tons of GHG emissions. The scale of corn loss alone is nearly equivalent to the total 2021 US corn exports to Mexico.
• The primary factors determining harvest loss are the type of equipment used and the experience of the combine operator. Technologically sophisticated 'Flagship' combine models have a more significant impact on reducing loss than operator experience, and larger farms (over 1,000 acres) generally have lower loss rates than smaller farms due to access to this equipment.
• Reducing post-harvest losses could decrease the pressure to convert natural habitats into cropland. In the US, the land area effectively wasted due to corn and soy losses is projected to be four times greater than the area converted to cropland in the Great Plains in 2018.
• Government policies and subsidies, particularly those supporting ethanol production, influence land-use behavior and can discourage innovation in loss reduction. Ethanol plants incentivize corn expansion and may foster farmer loyalty by being less strict about grain moisture content docking than grain elevators.

APA

WWF International (n.d.). No Grain Left Behind. https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/181/3b6w6ibxh5_WWF_NoGrainLeftBehind_PART6_Final3.pdf

Chicago

WWF International. No Grain Left Behind. n.d. https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/181/3b6w6ibxh5_WWF_NoGrainLeftBehind_PART6_Final3.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=WWF International |title=No Grain Left Behind |url=https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/181/3b6w6ibxh5_WWF_NoGrainLeftBehind_PART6_Final3.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{wwfinternationalndgrain, author = {{WWF International}}, title = {{No Grain Left Behind}}, institution = {WWF International}, url = {https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/181/3b6w6ibxh5_WWF_NoGrainLeftBehind_PART6_Final3.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }