Research

What’s the Matter with Small Biz?

Posted on August 19, 2014August 19, 2014 by Robin Bose in Economics, General, Research

The following is a guest post from Robin Bose. There’s a truism that small businesses are the backbone of the American economy. I happen to think it’s true that small businesses make local economics more resilient to shocks and changes in the overall mix of market forces. If we accept that, then we should all be a little worried. A mildly alarming study The Brookings Institution published shows a 30 year decline in what the US census calls “new firm formation” (i.e., baby businesses getting formed) accompanied by no real change in “firm exits” (small business owners closing up shop). Some surprising highlights: Troubling 30 year secular decline across multiple business cycles and political administrations Trend is prevalent across all 50

Sustainable Approaches to Reducing Food Waste in India

Posted on January 14, 2013April 13, 2017 by Sam Kornstein in General, India Food Waste, Research

About a year ago I spent a month in India working on an MIT research project focused on food waste with a classmate and close friend, Paul Artiuch. Throughout that month, we blogged extensively about what we learned both on the MIT Public Service Center website and on this site. Here’s a summary of what we wrote: 1. Battling Food Waste in India 2. More on Azadpur Mandi 3. India’s Cold Storage Capacity 4. A Look at India’s Agricultural Supply Chains 5. The Punjab Potato Party 6. India’s Grain Storage Problem 7. India’s Lack of Food Processing 8. Smaller Markets in Rajasthan 9. Four Problems with India’s Food Supply Systems 10. Pune: A (Nearly) Waste-Free City Since we returned, we’ve

Low-Tech Farming

Posted on January 31, 2012January 3, 2015 by Sam Kornstein in India Food Waste, Photography, Research

From my friend who was in India for a couple weeks last year: a great shot capturing some low-tech farming, which is still quite common in many regions of the country:

Pune: A (Nearly) Waste-Free City

Posted on January 26, 2012January 3, 2015 by Sam Kornstein in India Food Waste, Research, Technology, Travel

Note: This blog post was originally published on the MIT Public Service Center website. It’s the tenth post in a blog series sharing findings from a research project I’m working on throughout the month of January. January 26, 2012 Paul Artiuch and Sam Kornstein are graduate students at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Throughout the month of January they are in India researching market-oriented approaches to reducing agricultural food waste. They will be sharing their project scope and some of their findings in this blog series. Until now, we’ve spent the majority of our time exploring upstream agricultural supply chains – learning about what happens to food between farms and markets, before it reaches end consumers. Unlike many western countries, Indian

Four Problems with India’s Food Supply Systems

Posted on January 24, 2012January 3, 2015 by Sam Kornstein in India Food Waste, Research, Travel

Note: This blog post was originally published on the MIT Public Service Center website. It’s the ninth post in a blog series sharing findings from a research project I’m working on throughout the month of January. January 24, 2012 Paul Artiuch and Sam Kornstein are graduate students at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Throughout the month of January they are in India researching market-oriented approaches to reducing agricultural food waste. They will be sharing their project scope and some of their findings in this blog series. We’ve spent the past three weeks in India researching agricultural supply chains to see if we could uncover the reasons why an estimated 30-40% of food grown in the country goes to waste. Over this

Smaller Markets in Rajasthan

Posted on January 23, 2012January 3, 2015 by Sam Kornstein in General, India Food Waste, Photography, Research, Travel

Note: This blog post was originally published on the MIT Public Service Center website. It’s the eighth post in a blog series sharing findings from a research project I’m working on throughout the month of January. January 23, 2012 Paul Artiuch and Sam Kornstein are graduate students at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Throughout the month of January they are in India researching market-oriented approaches to reducing agricultural food waste. They will be sharing their project scope and some of their findings in this blog series. Earlier this month, we visited Azadpur Mandi, the largest wholesale produce market in Asia. We found that while the marketplace is extraordinarily chaotic, it’s actually quite efficient, and little food goes to waste

India’s Lack of Food Processing

Posted on January 21, 2012January 3, 2015 by Sam Kornstein in India Food Waste, Research, Travel

Note: This blog post was originally published on the MIT Public Service Center website. It’s the seventh post in a blog series sharing findings from a research project I’m working on throughout the month of January. January 21, 2012 Paul Artiuch and Sam Kornstein are graduate students at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Throughout the month of January they are in India researching market-oriented approaches to reducing agricultural food waste. They will be sharing their project scope and some of their findings in this blog series. Fresh produce, such as fruits and vegetables, generally spoils quickly. As we’ve previously discussed, cold storage is an effective method of extending shelf life. In most cases, however, the cost of such storage is

India’s Grain Storage Problem

Posted on January 18, 2012January 3, 2015 by Sam Kornstein in India Food Waste, Research, Travel

Note: This blog post was originally published on the MIT Public Service Center website. It’s the sixth post in a blog series sharing findings from a research project I’m working on throughout the month of January. January 18, 2012 Paul Artiuch and Sam Kornstein are graduate students at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Throughout the month of January they are researching market-oriented approaches to reducing agricultural food waste in India. They will be sharing their project scope and some of their findings in this blog series. India is one of the largest wheat producers in the world, with the most recent harvest bringing in over 80 million tons of grain. As we’ve mentioned in previous posts, the government buys

The Punjab Potato Party

Posted on January 17, 2012January 3, 2015 by Sam Kornstein in India Food Waste, Research, Travel

Note: This blog post was originally published on the MIT Public Service Center website. It’s the fifth post in a blog series sharing findings from a research project I’m working on throughout the month of January. January 16, 2012 Paul Artiuch and Sam Kornstein are graduate students at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Throughout the month of January they are researching market-oriented approaches to reducing agricultural food waste in India. They will be sharing their project scope and some of their findings in this blog series. As we mentioned in our post on cold storage, this year there’s an excess supply of potatoes in India, and prices have plummeted. After spending a day speaking with professors at the Punjab Agricultural University, we

A Look at India’s Agricultural Supply Chains

Posted on January 16, 2012January 3, 2015 by Sam Kornstein in India Food Waste, Research, Travel

Note: This blog post was originally published on the MIT Public Service Center website. It’s the fourth post in a blog series sharing findings from a research project I’m working on throughout the month of January. January 15, 2012 Paul Artiuch and Sam Kornstein are graduate students at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Throughout the month of January they are researching market-oriented approaches to reducing agricultural food waste in India. They will be sharing their project scope and some of their findings in this blog series. Over the past week, we’ve learned quite a bit about how food gets from farmers’ fields all over India to the plates of the country’s 1.2 billion people. What struck us most is