Freeze Drying Crops for Increased Climate Change Resilience in New Mexico

Original Article | Jackelyn Alessi | March 7, 2024

Introduction

Climate change threatens the local agriculture of southern New Mexico, where over 4,000 farms grow pumpkins, watermelon, chiles, onions, apples, pears, and pecans ( New Mexico Public Education Department, 2018 ). As a result of climate change, average temperatures in New Mexico may increase by up to 7°F over the next 50 years, decreasing water availability and subjecting crops to heat and drought stress ( Dunbar et al., 2022 ). Crops affected by heat and drought stress tend to be smaller, lower quality, and less in quantity. Crop yields are also threatened by extreme precipitation events, such as hail storms that damage crops or floods that destroy entire fields.

Before crops can be sold in markets, they must pass inspection of maturity, shape, color, size, and appearance ( Minor et al., 2020 ). While some damage caused by climatic factors is only aesthetic, such as sun scald, the imperfections render crops unsalable. These tough criteria cause farmers to throw out edible food and contribute to the 20 billion pounds of crops lost on American farms each year ( FoodPrint, 2023 ). As a result, farmers lose money and time, while local markets’ quantity of nutritious foods decreases.

In response, Backyard Farms, a farm with multiple sites throughout southern New Mexico, freeze dries the crops of farmers throughout the state to decrease the food lost to extreme weather. Backyard Farms buys imperfect crops from farmers, transports the crops from the farm to their manufacturing facility for freeze drying, and promotes the growing of alternative, drought-tolerant crops. Trough freeze drying, farmers can sell crops that would have otherwise been lost, less food is wasted and rural communities in southern New Mexico gain increased access to nutritious foods for longer periods of time.

Key Issues Addressed

Heat and drought stress, flooding, and damage from hail and wind storms stunt crop growth, reduce yields, and can kill entire harvests. When plants are exposed to extreme heat and low water levels in their early life stages, crops are more likely to become smaller and fewer in number. For example, early-season heat and drought can reduce the number of corn kernels per row ( Quinn, 2022 ). Flooding and heat also impact New Mexico’s famous green chiles, as fruit won't form in temperatures over 85°F, and extreme flooding events over-saturate fields and cause root rot. From 2009 to 2019, the number of hail storms per year in New Mexico increased from 99 to 168 ( The National Weather Service, n.d. ), causing financial losses for farmers.

Crops lost at the farm contribute to the total food thrown away in the country, an estimated 30% of the total food supply ( FoodPrint, 2023 ). Half of municipal waste is uneaten food, and rotting food has several environmental implications, including methane emissions and the pollution of freshwater supplies ( FoodPrint, 2023 ). Growing crops native to New Mexico that are adapted to drought conditions, such as nopales, can reduce food waste lost at the farm; however, there is not high commercial demand for such crops.

Preventing the loss of nutritious foods from the supply chain is of particular importance in New Mexico, where 20% of children and 14% of adults face hunger, and over 30% of the population is diabetic or pre-diabetic ( American Diabetes Association, 2017 ; Feeding America, 2023 ). The population in southern New Mexico is largely rural, requiring many families to travel long distances to buy groceries. This means families must bring coolers to transport perishable foods such as fruits and vegetables, increasing the likelihood families will purchase non-perishable foods with lower nutritional content.

Project Goals

Provide freeze-drying services to farmers to allow them to sell crops they would have otherwise lost
Reduce food waste in New Mexico
Incentivize farmers to grow drought-tolerant crops and promote regenerative agricultural practices among farmers
Increase community’s access to nutritious foods year-round, with a focus on access for low-income and rural populations

Project Highlights

Freeze-Drying Method: Several freeze dryers, including industrial-grade freeze-drying equipment, chills crops to subfreezing temperatures, then removes the ice crystals. Freeze drying differs from dehydrating in that the ice crystals are removed from the crop without heat. This allows the crops’ cell walls to stay intact, preserving vitamins and minerals. Freeze-dried foods can be placed in water to retake their original texture and form, and nutritional content. These results make freeze-dried crops more marketable than dehydrated crops, which become limp and mushy when re-hydrated. Backyard Farms buys the crops of local farmers to freeze dry them, providing farmers with compensation comparable to undamaged or marketable crops.
Incentivizing Drought-Tolerant Crops: By buying nopales, a culturally important prickly pear cactus native to the region, Backyard Farms incentives local farmers to grow drought-tolerant crops. Nopales require minimal irrigation, are adapted to New Mexico’s monsoonal rains, and are resistant to commercial crop diseases. Backyard Farms freeze dries the plant’s pads to make seasoned chips. Nopales pads come in a variety of flavors, have high nutritional content, and help stabilize blood sugar, an important health benefit for diabetics and pre-diabetics. In addition, Backyard Farms also works with Arrowhead Center’s American Indian Business Enterprise Center to freeze dry the crops of Native American farmers. Freeze drying adds value to crops, improving the profitability of their business. Backyard Farms hopes that by increasing the demand for native, culturally important, and drought tolerant crops, farmers can reduce costs and resources necessary to make a living.
Prioritizing the People: In collaboration with the New Mexico Grown Program , Backyard Farms provides to agencies that help low-income populations access nutritious foods. Backyard Farms prioritizes providing freeze-dried crops to local people at risk of food insecurity due to limited access to grocery stores. For example, Backyard Farms provides freeze-dried fruits to local daycares, senior centers, Tribal centers, food banks, food pantries, and schools across the state.
Meals for Disaster Relief: Backyard Farms is freeze-drying meal items to support those displaced by disasters. In collaboration with the El Calvario United Methodist Church in Las Cruces, they provide staple comfort foods culturally important in New Mexico, including posole, chile verde stew, New mexico style vegetable beef stew, green chiles, tamales, and enchiladas. The Methodist Church prepares meals for disaster relief, then Backyard Farms freeze dries the foods.

Lessons Learned

Backyard Farms discovered that nopales chips are high in demand by grocery stores, including larger grocery chains. To meet that demand, Backyard Farms will require more cold-storage capacity, a larger supply from farmers, and more trucks to transport crops from local farmers to the Backyard Farms facility in Las Cruces, NM.

At-home freeze dryers are available to the general public, but more advanced equipment and funding will be necessary for those interested in freeze drying large quantities of food. Backyard Farms purchased an industrial freeze dryer with assistance from Cruces Creatives and the USDA’s Rural Business Development Grant . The industrial freeze dryer can process 350 pounds of fresh produce per load, while extra large commercial freeze dryers can only process 35 pounds per load.

If consumers or small farmers are interested in freeze drying foods, an at-home freeze dryer is more affordable than the industrial equipment, and purchasing industrial equipment will likely require funding assistance from partnerships and grants.

Because farmers are used to a market in which they break even or lose profits on damaged crops, they undervalue crops sold to Backyard Farms. Backyard Farms offers more money for crops than farmers often think they are worth, demonstrating how the continual loss of profits has discouraged farmers from asserting the true value of their crops.

Next Steps

Continue to work with the New Mexico Grown Program and the regional Farm to Food Bank Program to increase storage capacity and provide freeze-dried complete meals to at-risk populations.
Continue to work with the United Methodist Church, and reach capacity to supply freeze-dried ready-made meals for larger disaster relief programs such as the Red Cross, and eventually the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). FEMA requires disaster relief foods be provided in quantities large enough to fill a semi-truck, so supplying comfort foods of New Mexico to the Red Cross is a good intermediary step.
Increase storage capacity and supply to sell nopales chips to large grocery chain stores: this will promote the growing of a drought-tolerant crop, provide stable income to local farmers, and allow consumers to enjoy a nutritious and native New Mexican staple.