‘Whole Harvest’, Combating Food Waste with Ivanka Trump (Planet Harvest) & Hamdi Ulukaya (Chobani) in America in 2025

(Photo by Merve Aydın on Unsplash) In a Fortune commentary, Ivanka Trump (via Planet Harvest) and Hamdi Ulukaya (CEO of Chobani) put forward their ‘whole harvest’ solution. Practically, both entrepreneurs will launch whole harvest sourcing-contracts that buy the full crop, including off-size and “ugly” grades, then route it into processing where appearance doesn’t matter.

A while back, I wrote an article on food waste at hotel breakfast buffets, and how to battle this. But as you see with this initiative, food waste happens on a much bigger scale in agriculture.

America wastes 36 billion pounds of edible produce a year. Growers leave crops unpicked due to specs, forecast misses, and thin margins. Whole harvest sourcing fixes the leak: buy the full crop, route B/C grades to puree or frozen, and clear the tail via FDIA-protected donation. Do it with contracts, standardized specs, and cold-chain that moves within hours.

The goal is simple: turn waste into nutrition and stable farm income. I took some time to check out this new initiative, or rather, a strong reboot.

The partnership between Ivanka Trump and Hamdi Ulukaya

The idea of buying the entire crop and routing off-size or surplus into processed SKUs has been around for years under names like “whole-crop purchasing.” A UK retailer like Tesco has used multi-year whole-crop contracts since at least 2013 and paired them with “wonky” ranges. Processors have long used full-crop or processor contracts in potatoes and other produce.

What’s new is not just the branding but the real push to scale it in the U.S. as “whole harvest sourcing,” led by Planet Harvest and partners like Chobani, plus the digital marketplaces that let buyers contract all grades on program terms, and updated donation protections that reduce legal friction when surplus can’t be sold.

Planet Harvest is a profit-for-purpose company with a vision to maximize the amount of fresh produce that moves from farms to families. Chobani is a food maker with a mission of making high-quality and nutritious food accessible to more people.

The partnership between Ivanka Trump (co-founder, Planet Harvest) and Hamdi Ulukaya (CEO, Chobani) was announced on September 12, 2025. The partnership aims to channel “whole-harvest” produce – including surplus and cosmetically imperfect fruit – into Chobani’s ingredient supply (purees, frozen inputs, etc.).

What’s not disclosed (yet) are the operational details like volumes, crops, SKUs, or dollar terms. Neither party has published tonnage targets, contract lengths, or the first Chobani products to use Planet Harvest inputs. But we can safely assume that puree/frozen fruit streams will be first, given the fit with yogurt and smoothies.

The bottom line however is that this is a supply-chain partnership, not just a one-off donation drive. Planet Harvest aggregates multi-grade fruit; Chobani absorbs it where appearance doesn’t matter.

The problem of harvest waste

America lets 31% of its food supply go unsold or uneaten, with 27% ending up as true waste (landfill, incineration, sewer, or left to rot). That’s a whopping ~63 million tons and massive lost nutrition (and climate benefits). Produce is a large, visible slice of that loss. The Fortune piece pins 36 billion pounds of that to fruit and veg alone.

Globally, the scale is similar: about 14% is lost between harvest and retail and 17% is wasted at retail and consumer stages; food loss and waste drive 8–10% of global GHG emissions. GHG emissions are the release of gases, such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O), into the atmosphere.

What ‘Whole Harvest’ actually means

‘Whole harvest’ is procurement re-engineered. You buy the entire crop – A, B, and C grades – under whole harvest produce contracts that spell out volumes, specs, and indexed pricing. You route off-size or blemished fruit into formats where looks don’t matter: puree, frozen, diced. You lock flexible specs for secondary grades so growers harvest rather than disk under. You back it with plumbing – near-farm aggregation, cold-chain, and quick-processing – to absorb glut weeks. When commerce can’t clear the load, you move it through pre-approved donation partners.

The result: a surplus produce procurement becomes a system, cosmetically imperfect produce turns into ingredients, and brands get steady inputs – like upcycled fruit puree for yogurt, smoothies, and bakery fillings.

The video below shows adoption beyond Western markets.

Understanding the Whole Harvest Approach

Whole harvest is a contract-first way to stop edible crops from dying in the field. You commit to the entire crop. For this to work, you need to start thinking like an operator, and not seeing this approach as a simple campaign. Tie whole-harvest produce contracts to standardized specs for secondary grades and cold-chain logistics for produce surpluses. Build processing near farms. Wire reporting so finance trusts the numbers.

In practice, “whole harvest” requires the below four concrete moves:

1. Use the entire crop. Buy cosmetically imperfect, off-size, or surplus produce and route it into processed SKUs (purees, concentrates, frozen, diced) where appearance is irrelevant. USDA and industry pilots show cosmetic standards alone can scrap a large fraction of edible produce.
2. Lock in with contracts, not charity. Shift from episodic donations to multi-year purchase agreements with flexible specs and indexed pricing tied to quality grades and volumes.
3. Build the missing plumbing. Expand aggregation, cold-chain, and quick-processing capacity near farms to stabilize glut periods.
4. Backstop with donation. When the economics don’t clear, donation flows – protected by updated liability shields – should be frictionless. The Food Donation Improvement Act (2023) broadened protections to make this easier.

Where waste happens – and where ‘Whole Harvest’ bites hardest

Waste clusters at predictable choke points. On farms, strict specs and price swings leave edible crops unpicked. In packing houses, line changeovers and bad forecasts push pallets to the bin. In distribution and retail, planograms and demand spikes create culls. At home, date-label confusion and overshopping finish the job.

Stage	Primary waste drivers	“Whole harvest” levers
Farm	Cosmetic specs, volatile prices, labor gaps; crops left unharvested	Flexible specs; secondary grades; mobile processing; forward contracts
Pack/Process	Line changeover losses; forecast error	Multi-format utilization (fresh, frozen, puree); dynamic production planning
Distribution/Retail	Demand swings; strict planogram specs	Graded assortments; dynamic pricing/markdown; imperfect produce programs
Households	Overbuying in households; poor date-label literacy	Clearer date labels; pack sizes; meal planning; ambient-stable formats

If you target these pressure points with whole-harvest produce contracts you will flip losses into inputs.

• Buy A/B/C grades upfront.
• Push off-size fruit into puree, frozen, or diced formats where appearance is irrelevant.
• Pre-book cold-chain and near-farm processing to absorb glut weeks.
• When markets can’t clear, trigger donation under Good Samaritan rules.

You should use this as an operating plan: reduce farm-level produce waste, keep surplus produce procurement flowing, and turn cosmetically imperfect produce into steady ingredients for yogurt, smoothies, bakery, and food-service.

Policy and market tailwinds you can exploit now for whole harvest

The policy wind is currently at our back. New FDIA Good Samaritan protections cut legal friction for donation and low-price resale. State rules like California SB 1383 push organics out of landfill and into recovery streams. Retailers have also expanded imperfect produce programs. And investors pour money into upcycling and near-farm processing.

It’s very logical to exploit this moment. Bake whole-harvest produce contracts into procurement. Align surplus produce procurement policy with donation SOPs. Use compliance budgets to co-fund cold-chain and quick-processing. Turn mandates and incentives into throughput and integrate long-tail wins – cosmetically imperfect produce supply, FDIA food donation liability, SB 1383 organics compliance – directly into your profit and loss statement (P&L, also called the income statement).

In short you can use these policy and market moves:

• Liability protection, clarified. The FDIA (2023) updated Good Samaritan protections for donors and intermediaries, reducing perceived legal risk around donation and low-cost sale (“Good Samaritan reduced price”). Use it. Train your legal and ops teams on the updated fact sheet.
• State organics rules as a forcing function. California’s SB 1383 tightened organics diversion; it’s nudging infrastructure and practices, even as landfill outcomes remain mixed. Expect copycats in other states; plan now.
• Corporate momentum. Investment into waste-reduction solutions crossed $900 M in 2024; procurement leaders can now source from a broader ecosystem of upcyclers, marketplaces, and processors.

The harvest waste numbers that matter (and how to report them)

A whole harvest KPI framework turns surplus into decisions you can price, plan, and defend. Here’s how to report them.

1. Track the crop from field to SKU with produce waste reporting metrics that finance, procurement, and sustainability all accept.
2. Anchor the ledger in a few essentials. Count pounds diverted by grade. Convert them to CO2e avoided from produce waste with a stated method. Tie flows to cost per pounds diverted versus disposal and backhaul. Add nutrition delivered for donation lanes, and keep FDIA food donation reporting airtight with timestamps and chain-of-custody.
3. Use this when a glut hits. Your dashboard shows off-size peaches moving to puree, freezer inventory absorbing the rest, and donation triggers clearing the tail. Procurement sees volume secured. The CFO sees margin lift, not shrink. ESG sees real emissions avoided. That’s surplus produce procurement tracking doing more than paperwork.

And these are the track outcomes in a single ledger that finance accepts:

• Pounds diverted (by grade and product form).
• CO₂e avoided using accepted factors; food waste drives methane and embedded emissions.
• Cost per pound diverted versus status quo disposal + backhaul.
• Nutrition delivered (e.g., servings of fruit/veg) for donation channels.
• Farmer revenue recovered from secondary grades.

Use ReFED’s Insights Engine factors to keep methods auditable.

Execution playbook for brands, retailers, and processors

For whole harvest to work, it’s necessary to treat whole-harvest produce contracts as an operating system. It’s therefore necessary to lock A/B/C grades into a multi-year offtake. On top, near-farm processing to catch glut weeks has to be built or rented. Next you will need to pre-book cold-chain so crops move within hours, not days. And finally wire FDIA food donation SOPs into your WMS to clear the tail when markets don’t.

In the below playbook I will show the exact moves – procurement clauses, QC gates, logistics triggers – that convert surplus produce procurement into margin lift and measurable CO₂e avoidance. You can use it to absorb bumper crops today and to scale upcycled fruit puree for yogurt, smoothies, bakery, and food-service tomorrow.

Rewrite your specs

• Create Grade B/C specs for color, size, and superficial defects that hold for purees, sauces, yogurts, smoothies, bakery fillings.
• Codify micro and safety standards; relax aesthetics only.

Move from spot to structured buying

• Sign multi-year offtake with growers/co-ops for secondary grades at indexed pricing.
• Include surge clauses for bumper crops and emergency donation pathways (pre-approved 501(c)(3) partners + logistics SLAs under FDIA).

Stand up near-farm processing

• Fund or co-fund mobile or satellite processing (wash, chop, freeze, puree) near production to cut shrink in glut windows.
• Blend CAPEX with volume guarantees and flexible finance (green loans or outcomes-based contracts).

Route retail variability to dynamic channels

• Run dynamic markdowns and imperfect assortments where allowed; integrate surplus marketplaces and secondary channels.

Make donation a default

• Embed donation triggers in WMS/ERP when inventory crosses thresholds (date, demand delta).
• Train staff on FDIA protections; maintain chain-of-custody and temperature logs.

Design consumer-facing SKUs for ugly inputs

• Launch lines that normalize “whole harvest” inputs (e.g., “made with upcycled fruit puree”).
• Use compact pack sizes and clear date labels to reduce household waste.

Risks and frictions in whole harvest you must de-risk

Name each hazard and neutralize it upfront. Lock whole-harvest produce contracts with indexed A/B/C pricing. Publish standardized specs for secondary grades so QA argues less and moves faster. Pre-book cold-chain logistics for produce surpluses and add near-farm processing to cut hours (instead of corners). Wire FDIA food donation liability SOPs into your WMS to clear the tail when demand snaps.

Then measure everything with surplus produce procurement tracking – pounds diverted, CO₂e avoided, cost per pound. Miss these controls and “whole harvest” stays boutique. Nail them and you feed lines.

So, pay attention to these risks:

• Quality drift. Secondary grades vary. Invest in rapid QC and blending to hit sensory targets.
• Cold-chain pinch points. Surplus spikes strain reefer capacity. Pre-book lanes; deploy reefer pods on farms during peak weeks.
• Regulatory patchwork. Donation and date-label rules still vary. Maintain a compliance matrix; align legal, QA, and logistics.
• Retailer pushback. Planograms and strict specs die hard. Pilot in private-label and food-service channels first, then scale.

“Whole harvest” works only when you nail three levers: economics, specs, logistics. Price the blend with whole-harvest produce contracts. Publish standardized specs so secondary grades move without debate. Build the plumbing – near-farm processing and cold-chain logistics for produce surpluses – with a donation fallback under FDIA food donation liability.

In short, your operating plan needs to be structured so, that surplus produce procurement stops being boutique and starts driving margin across your cosmetically imperfect produce supply chain.

(Editor’s note: This article will be updated when filings, label copy, or a Chobani newsroom post names SKUs.)

Disclosure: WINSS has no financial or operational ties to Planet Harvest, Chobani, or related entities; this article is editorially independent.

Sources

• “Over 36 billion pounds of good produce is wasted every year, a ‘whole harvest’ solution can help,” Fortune — Ivanka Trump & Hamdi Ulukaya (September 12, 2025): https://fortune.com/2025/09/12/ivanka-trump-hamdi-ulukaya-chobani-wasted-fruit-wasted-opportunity/
• “ReFED Insights Engine 2024–2025, U.S. food waste data,” ReFED (accessed September 14, 2025): https://refed.org/our-work/data-and-insights
• “Food Donation Improvement Act of 2023, legal overview,” Harvard Food Law & Policy Clinic (2023): https://chlpi.org/news-and-events/news-and-commentary/commentary/flpc-publishes-updated-legal-guide-on-federal-liability-protections-for-food-donation/
• “Food Loss and Waste, key facts,” Food and Agriculture Organization (2024): https://openknowledge.fao.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/82e4fdce-6cbb-4837-a615-e249e876acc1/content
• “Food Waste Index Report 2024,” United Nations Environment Programme (2024): https://www.unep.org/resources/publication/food-waste-index-report-2024
• “SB 1383, organics waste reduction requirements,” CalRecycle (updates 2021–2025): https://calrecycle.ca.gov/organics/slcp/
• “Food Loss and Waste, resources and initiatives,” U.S. Department of Agriculture (2024): https://www.usda.gov/about-food/food-safety/food-loss-and-waste

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FAQ on whole harvest sourcing & the Planet Harvest / Chobani partnership

Q1. What is “whole harvest sourcing”?

You buy the entire crop – A, B, and C grades – then route off-size or blemished produce into formats where looks don’t matter: puree, frozen, diced, sauces. It’s a fast way to turn waste into nutrition and farm income.

Q2. Is this new?

No. UK retailers have used whole-crop purchasing since at least 2013, alongside “wonky” ranges. The push in the U.S. under the label whole harvest – and its tie-in to donation protections and near-farm processing – is the newer twist which could giev the model its much needed uplift.

Q3. Who are the players here?

• Planet Harvest: Profit-for-purpose company co-founded by Ivanka Trump and Melissa Melshenker Ackerman to move more fresh produce from farms to families.
• Chobani: Food maker led by CEO Hamdi Ulukaya, focused on accessible, nutritious products.
  They announced a collaboration on Sept 12, 2025, to operationalize whole-harvest streams.

Q4. What problem are they solving?

In the U.S., 31% of food goes unsold or uneaten; 27% ends up as waste. Produce is a visible slice, with Fortune citing 36B lbs of edible fruit and veg wasted yearly. Globally, food loss/waste drives 8–10% of GHG emissions.

Q5. How would Planet Harvest × Chobani use whole-harvest produce in practice?

They will aggregate multi-grade fruit, process quickly (puree/IQF/diced), feed those inputs into yogurt, smoothies, and bakery fillings. And they will move any commercial tail to donation through pre-approved partners. That’s the stated intent; SKUs and volumes aren’t public yet.

Q6. Are there policy tailwinds that make whole harvest easier?

Yes. The Food Donation Improvement Act (2023) expanded Good Samaritan protections, including for “reduced-price” donations and direct distribution – lowering legal friction when commerce can’t clear the surplus. EPA/USDA pages reflect these updates.

Q7. How do whole harvest produce contracts actually work?

Multi-year offtake with indexed pricing for A/B/C grades; flexible cosmetic specs; strict micro and residue limits; surge clauses for bumper crops; donation fallback inside SOPs. This aligns with earlier whole-crop models proven in UK retail.

Q8. What logistics make or break the whole harvest model?

Hours matter. Chill within 6–12 hours, process within 24–36, or lock stable forms (IQF/puree). Pre-book reefers, add near-farm processing, and wire WMS triggers for donation. Without cold-chain and quick processing, surplus will rot.

Q9. How do you measure the success of the whole harvest model?

You can track five essentials: pounds diverted by grade, CO₂e avoided, cost per lb diverted, nutrition delivered for donation, and farmer revenue recovered. ReFED’s definitions and reports provide accepted framing and factors.

Q10. What’s the P&L impact of of the whole harvest model?

• COGS: Secondary-grade inputs can lower unit cost in processed SKUs.
• Shrink: Less write-off lifts gross margin.
• Opex: Lower disposal fees; smoother logistics.
• Top line: More sellable volume from the same acreage.
  This is why procurement treats whole harvest as an operating lever, and not as a campaign.

Q11. What are the main risks for whole harvest – and how do you de-risk them?

• Quality drift (Brix/pH/micro): enforce rapid intake QA and blending.
• Cold-chain bottlenecks: pre-book capacity; deploy reefer pods.
• Spec fights: publish standardized secondary-grade specs.
• Legal hesitancy: train teams on FDIA pathways and documentation.

Q12. Isn’t this just “ugly produce” rebranded?

No. “Ugly produce” skews retail-facing. Whole harvest is contractual and systemic: it commits to buying all grades, then engineers processing and donation routes so farmers harvest instead of discing under. UK whole-crop precedent shows how it scales.

Q13. Where does whole harvest bite hardest in the chain?

On-farm culls from strict specs; pack-house losses from changeovers; distribution spikes; retail planograms; household waste. Buying all grades upfront, then pushing B/C grades to processing, addresses the earliest – and biggest – loss nodes.

Q14. What’s the climate angle in plain numbers?

Food loss/waste contributes 8–10% of global emissions. Cutting on-farm and early-stage waste prevents methane from rotting produce and preserves embedded emissions in water, land, and energy.

Q15. Does this align with global stats, not just U.S. data?

Yes. UN/FAO and UNEP estimate ~13–14% lost between harvest and retail, and ~17–19% wasted at retail/households. These numbers are consistent with the need for systemic capture.

Q16. What proof exists that retailers can use whole crops at scale?

Tesco and peers expanded “wonky” lines and used whole-crop approaches, moving premium grades to fresh and lower grades to prepared, frozen, and private-label – documented in corporate posts and inquiries.

Q17. What’s confirmed – and not – about Planet Harvest & Chobani right now?

Confirmed: intent to operationalize whole-harvest streams into Chobani’s supply chain (announced Sept 12, 2025).

Not public: tonnage, crop lists, contract terms, or named SKUs. Expect processed fruit inputs first, given category fit.

Q18. Give one concrete use case of whole harvest.

Heat spike accelerates ripening in California strawberries. A retailer cuts orders; fields risk rot. With whole harvest offtake, trucks move B/C fruit to a nearby puree line within 24 hours; the commercial tail triggers donation under FDIA protections. Waste avoided; revenue recovered.

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