s

Earthmade Foods

From Field to Future – Tackling Post-Harvest Food Waste the Earthmade Way

in Uncategorized

As harvest season winds down, November marks a critical turning point in agriculture. The fields are quiet, but behind the scenes, farmers and businesses shift focus to what happens after the crops leave the soil – and that’s where one of the biggest challenges lies: post-harvest food waste.

At Earthmade, we believe replenishing nature with nature extends beyond how we grow – it’s also about how we protect what’s already been grown.

Why November Matters

By late fall, crops like grains, fruits, and vegetables move into storage and transport. Unfortunately, this is where much of our global food waste begins. Improper storage, handling, or cooling can cause spoilage long before food ever reaches a plate. According to global estimates, up to one-third of all food grown is lost or wasted – a staggering figure both economically and environmentally.

Building Stronger Systems from the Ground Up

When soil health is strong, crops are naturally more resilient to stress and decay, which can extend their post-harvest life. Earthmade’s bio-based treatments help create healthier plants that retain quality longer – reducing spoilage risks before food even leaves the farm.

We’re also inspired by emerging infrastructure solutions that mirror this biological balance: regenerative cold chains, compostable packaging, and microbial treatments that maintain freshness naturally. Together, these innovations can significantly reduce waste at the most vulnerable stage – the journey from field to fork.

A Season for Smart Planning

November isn’t just about reflection; it’s about preparation. As farmers analyze yield data and costs for the coming year, it’s the perfect time to ask:

  • Where are losses happening?
  • How can biological and logistical improvements prevent them next season?
  • Can regenerative practices strengthen both soil and supply chains?

Reducing post-harvest waste isn’t only good for the planet – it’s a business advantage. Less loss means more value from every acre. This November, let’s make our harvests last longer by protecting what nature provides – naturally. 

© 2023 Earthmade. All Rights Reserved. | Accessibility Statement | Privacy Policy
Site created by 789 glasses icon 789 Inc.

Show Your Support

Be our cheerleader! There are multiple ways you can support Earthmade, even if you aren’t a farmer or industry professional. Help us out by socializing online, downloading information, and getting the word out! Everyone can benefit from Earthmade, and can do something that is 100% Good for the earth!

Become a Partner

We are always looking for partnerships, industry professionals, educators, scientists, and distributors to help us make a difference! Get in touch if you are interested in helping us spread our mission and showing your support for better food, better health, and a better earth.

Become an Earthmade Farmer

Earthmade empowers our farmers, because they are our food champions! Join our coalition of farmers to help improve communities, the environment, and our future for generations to come- to truly Farm it Forward ™.

Refer a Farmer

It is Earthmade’s goal to form a strong global connection of farmers, and to find partners that share our vision of making a difference across the globe in sustainability. If you know someone that can help us fulfill our mission, refer them to us!

Earthmade_Website_MikeDobbins

Mike Dobbins

CEO, Vicentia

Mike Dobbins is developing bio inputs to replace pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers. His mission is to give farmers the tools they need to produce 100% chemical free food at the scale needed to feed the 9.8 billion people that will soon inhabit the earth. “If you want to look after biodiversity, and you want to improve our soil health, and you want to improve our chronic illness growth, we have to have NO chemicals. And in all fairness there has not been, on a worldwide basis, a solution to the problem.

 
Earthmade_Website_WalmartLogo

Walmart

A few years ago, Walmart embarked on a journey to become a regenerative company, dedicated to placing nature and humanity at the center of their business. As part of their commitment, they recently partnered with GEM Pack Berries, and will be distributing the first crops ever to be grown using an innovative cultivation method that eliminates the need for pesticides and soil-damaging heavy metals… game-changing strawberries from Earthmade. In keeping with environmentally friendly practices aimed at minimizing transportation distances, Earthmade strawberries are available in select Walmart locations in Southern California’s Ventura County.
Earthmade_Website_Duda

Duda Farm Fresh Foods

The Duda family has been growing fresh fruits and vegetables for nearly 100 years. It all started with Andrew Duda, who had just 40 acres of farmland, and his sights set on the American Dream. Now, six generations later, the Duda family continues this legacy by bringing their farm-fresh products to a restaurant or grocery store near you and ultimately, your kitchen table. Among their responsible farming practices, Duda has graciously partnered with Earthmade in running chemical-free farming trials on celery.
Earthmade_Website_GathFarms

Gath Farms

Gath Farms has a strong foundation of four generations dedicated to the land. They base their business on relationships, and understand the importance of face-to-face business practices built on honesty and integrity. Working together to build and grow their own successful farming operation provides the foundation upon which they can help others grow their operations, increase their profits and protect the land for generations to come. Gath Farms has partnered with Earthmade to run trials of chemical-free farming on commodities such as corn and soybeans.
GEM-Pack-logo

GEM Pack Berries

With an eye on the future, an ace coalition of California farmers known as GEM Pack Berries long ago embraced the organic farming practices standardized in the late 1980s. When they banded together in 2015, they wanted to find even more sustainable, soil friendly methods. They soon partnered with Vicentia, which was conducting innovative research on developing a special kind of good bacteria as a substitute to both artificial and heavy metal-based pesticides. GEM Pack understood that, if Vicentia scientists were successful, their advancements could solve a long list of health, agricultural, sustainability, and environmental issues. GEM Pack allocated a sizable plot of farming land so Vicentia bioscientists could conduct multi-year research on the cultivation of multiple commodities.
Earthmade_Website_Vicentia

Vicentia

Australian bioscience company Vicentia’s bio inputs have not only protected crops all around the world from pests that prey on them; they also eliminated the need for heavy metals, which have been found to affect the biofertility of the soil. Better yet, these revolutionary innovations could be adopted by farmers everywhere to grow all varieties of crops, thereby potentially transforming currently problematic farming practices into healthy, earth regenerating, sustainable practices. Vicentia’s groundbreaking solution also lowered production costs while maintaining or increasing yield and crop quality. Today, Vicentia’s regenerative agricultural advances are being trialed in seven countries.
Earthmade_Website_HowardShapiro

Howard Shapiro

Professor

Howard Shapiro has made it his life mission to understand the health of our plant. He has been involved with sustainable agricultural and agroforestry systems, pattern recognition, plant breeding, molecular biology and genetics for over 40 years. He has worked with indigenous communities, NGO’s, governmental agencies and the private sector around the world. A former university professor for 15 years, Fulbright Scholar, Ford Foundation Fellow, Fellow of the World Agroforestry Center, Chairperson of the External Advisory Board of the Agriculture Sustainability Institute at UC Davis, and numerous additional accolades, Shapiro has certainly proved he has the experience and vast knowledge of the very critical status of the world’s agricultural crisis.
mark gath

Mark Gath

Owner, Gath Farms

Mark Gath is the owner of Gath Farms, and comes from a multi-generational line of mid-western farmers and growers. As a cancer survivor (brought on by years of chemical-reliant farming), Gath has been a champion of non-chemical farming and agriculture practices. He enthusiastically grows chemical-free corn on his Arizona farm, andis running chemical-free trials of soybeans on his mid-west farms.
Earthmade_Website_CarlosMeza

Carlos Meza

Bioscientist, Vicentia Farmer

Carlos is an organic farmer and bioscientist hailing from Chile, where he was one of the first certified organic exporters in the 1990s. Disturbed by the amount of chemicals that are still widely used in certified organic systems, he’s developing fully biological alternatives to chemical pesticides and herbicides. These bio inputs harness the power of naturally occurring microbes to naturally control pests. Carlos’ vision is to remove all chemicals and heavy metals from conventional and organic farming systems.
Earthmade_Website_AGKawamura

A.G. Kawamura

Owner, Orange County Produce, LLC

A.G. Kawamura is the former Secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture. He is a third generation fruit and vegetable grower from Orange County. He is co-chair of Solutions From the Land, a non-profit organization that collaborates with farmers, ranchers, foresters and stakeholders to implement climate smart land management practices and strategies.
Earthmade_Website_MikeEtchandy

Mike Etchandy

Owner, Etchandy Farms Co-Owner, GEM-Pack Berries

Mike Etchandy is a fourth generation organic and conventional Orange County strawberry farmer. Jaded by the ambiguous organic certification system and the heavy metals it relies on, he has been testing new bio inputs on his strawberry fields to reduce his dependence on harmful chemicals.