I have to paraphrase a post that I made on the Tucson, AZ forum last week:
Last year, when I arrived here, I started attending a number of the farmers market and found out quickly that it would not help my family's food budget. And the quality was not different from what I was buying in the supermarkets.
What bothered me was that the Tucson area should be one of the cheapest produce areas in the US due to its proximity to the farms of Western Mexico (through Rio Rico) and California. Instead, I found the prices to be consistently higher by 20% over what I was paying in the Chicago suburbs.
Several of my neighbors work at the two food banks in Sahuarita and Green Valley and steered me toward an organization called the 3000 Club near downtown Tucson. They offer a "Market on the Move" where you can buy 50# of produce for only $10. They are selling surplus produce donated by the many produce wholesalers and brokers in Rio Rico, AZ. Their expectation is that you will buy and take all 50#, take it home, and distribute it around your neighborhood. What many people do is take the produce home and what they cannot use is donated to the local food bank which is always in need of food in Southern Pima and Santa Cruz counties.
The 3000 Club - A Local and International Service Charitable Organization
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This program is possible because charities like the one noted above approached the hundreds of produce wholesalers and distributors in Rio Rico, AZ, a major produce terminal that distributes Mexican produce around the US. The companies get a tax break for their contribution and they avoid the costs of disposing the produce (and there is a cost as disposal is NOT free.). The charities sell the produce raising money to cover all costs and then some. The consumers get the benefit of receiving produce at a cut rate price. We generally buy the produce. We use what we can and distribute the rest to neighbors and to the local food banks.
In cities like St. Louis and Cleveland, many small businessmen purchase the surplus from wholesalers and sell at their local markets (Soulard & West Side Market).
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Back to the OP.
There are a lot of reasons why a lot of produce goes straight to the dump. Many of them relate to state laws and contracts with large retailers.
For example, some states require that fruit be of a certain size to be sold out if state. Nectarines and peaches have to be a specific size to be shipped. Fruit that is too small, can only be sold locally or tossed.
On some crops, farmers have certain allotments that they can produce. The rest needs to be destroyed.
Certain large retailers specify that producers pack special size packages of produce for them that cannot be sold to other retailers or grocery chains. The producer may be required by contract to have 150k packages a week; If the retailer only orders 120k, the rest will be disposed of. Most other businesses would probably offer the rest to another buyer BUT the retailer does not want to see the product hit the local surplus stores at 25-50% of their retail price.
In the OP's article, Taylor Farms is a major Costco supplier of lettuce and other salad greens.
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I want to do my part of eliminating waste (and helping my food budget). Last month, I was in Indiana and Ohio at a number of the salvage grocery stores purchasing most of the packaged goods that we will be using for the next year. Generally, I can fill up a whole banana box with various groceries for about $30. Buying the same thing at normal retail would approach $100-150 depending on the day.
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