Miguel Gómez, an expert on food markets and supply chains, says food supply chains must become more flexible so that goods can be more easily directed to either supermarkets or food service establishments, wherever the need is greatest. Current inflexibility has resulted in milk and produce being discarded rather than distributed to the food banks that desperately need it. “So far, these two supply chains have worked completely independently,” he says.

Gómez is associate professor at the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management and a faculty fellow of the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability. His research focuses on supply chain competitiveness and sustainability, and on such concepts as demand response, buyer-seller negotiations and market power.

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