Reducing food loss is key to improving farmers’ economic well-being and the sustainable management of water, energy, labour, and other resources. To develop appropriate solutions, we seek to identify the reasons for farm-level losses, and more specifically, why edible food intended for human consumption does not reach the intended recipients and remains unharvested in British Columbia, Canada. The study also explores the barriers to adopting solutions such as gleaning, food donation tax incentives, and selling “ugly” fruits and vegetables. We conducted forty interviews with farmers and stakeholders in the food and agricultural industry and found issues of overproduction due to power imbalances, gaps in infrastructure, rejected produce due to stringent aesthetic values, precarious labour, and economic and environmental reasons for farm-level losses. In this paper, opportunities to address food loss are also identified by farmers and other agri-food stakeholders. Drawing from practice theory, a wide array of structural factors beyond the farmers’ control often limits their scope for reducing food loss. As such, focusing exclusively on changing farmers’ practices is unhelpful. Recommendations from this study include investing in processing infrastructure, connecting farmers with alternative markets such as “farm to school” programs, focusing on the “food as a right” paradigm, and revising policies such as the current donation tax incentives in Canada, which fail in the long term to benefit many farmers and food-insecure households.

减少粮食损失是改善农民经济状况以及对水，能源，劳动力和其他资源进行可持续管理的关键。为了制定适当的解决方案，我们试图找出造成农场级损失的原因，更具体地说，是为什么供人类食用的食用食品没有达到预定的接收者，而在加拿大不列颠哥伦比亚省却仍未收获。该研究还探讨了采用解决方案的障碍，例如收集，食品捐赠税收优惠政策以及销售“丑陋”的水果和蔬菜。我们对粮食和农业行业的农民和利益相关者进行了四十次采访，发现了由于电力不平衡，基础设施方面的差距，由于严格的美学价值，不稳定的劳动力以及农场级损失的经济和环境原因而导致的产品不合格所导致的生产过剩问题。在本文中，农民和其他农业食品利益相关者也确定了解决粮食损失的机会。根据实践理论，农民无法控制的各种结构性因素通常会限制他们减少粮食损失的范围。因此，仅专注于改变农民的做法是无济于事的。这项研究的建议包括：投资于加工基础设施，将农民与替代市场（如“农场到学校”计划）联系起来，关注“以食物为权利”范式，以及修改政策（例如加拿大目前的捐赠税收优惠政策），但这些政策均未能如愿以偿。从长远来看，这将使许多农民和粮食不安全的家庭受益。农民无法控制的各种结构性因素通常限制了他们减少粮食损失的范围。因此，仅专注于改变农民的做法是无济于事的。这项研究的建议包括：投资于加工基础设施，将农民与替代市场（如“农场到学校”计划）联系起来，关注“以食物为权利”范式，以及修改政策（例如加拿大目前的捐赠税收优惠政策），但这些政策均未能如愿以偿。从长远来看，这将使许多农民和粮食不安全的家庭受益。农民无法控制的各种结构性因素通常限制了他们减少粮食损失的范围。因此，仅专注于改变农民的做法是无济于事的。这项研究的建议包括：投资于加工基础设施，将农民与替代市场（如“农场到学校”计划）联系起来，关注“以食物为权利”范式，以及修改政策（例如加拿大目前的捐赠税收优惠政策），但这些政策均未能如愿以偿。从长远来看，这将使许多农民和粮食不安全的家庭受益。