The world population is expected to increase exponentially within the next decade, which means that the food demand will increase and so will waste production. There is a need for effective food waste management as wasted food leads to overutilization of water and fossil fuels and increasing greenhouse gas emissions from the degradation of food. Global Initiatives for Waste Reduction and Cutting Food Loss explores methods for reducing waste and cutting food loss in order to help the environment and support local communities, as well as solve issues including that of land space. Covering topics that include food degradation, enzymes, and microorganisms, this publication is designed for policymakers, environmentalists, engineers, government officials, researchers, scientists, academicians, and students.
• New York Times bestseller • The 100 most substantive solutions to reverse global warming, based on meticulous research by leading scientists and policymakers around the world “At this point in time, the Drawdown book is exactly what is needed; a credible, conservative solution-by-solution narrative that we can do it. Reading it is an effective inoculation against the widespread perception of doom that humanity cannot and will not solve the climate crisis. Reported by-effects include increased determination and a sense of grounded hope.” —Per Espen Stoknes, Author, What We Think About When We Try Not To Think About Global Warming “There’s been no real way for ordinary people to get an understanding of what they can do and what impact it can have. There remains no single, comprehensive, reliable compendium of carbon-reduction solutions across sectors. At least until now. . . . The public is hungry for this kind of practical wisdom.” —David Roberts, Vox “This is the ideal environmental sciences textbook—only it is too interesting and inspiring to be called a textbook.” —Peter Kareiva, Director of the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, UCLA In the face of widespread fear and apathy, an international coalition of researchers, professionals, and scientists have come together to offer a set of realistic and bold solutions to climate change. One hundred techniques and practices are described here—some are well known; some you may have never heard of. They range from clean energy to educating girls in lower-income countries to land use practices that pull carbon out of the air. The solutions exist, are economically viable, and communities throughout the world are currently enacting them with skill and determination. If deployed collectively on a global scale over the next thirty years, they represent a credible path forward, not just to slow the earth’s warming but to reach drawdown, that point in time when greenhouse gases in the atmosphere peak and begin to decline. These measures promise cascading benefits to human health, security, prosperity, and well-being—giving us every reason to see this planetary crisis as an opportunity to create a just and livable world.
Even as malnutrition in the form of hunger and obesity affect the health and well-being of millions of people worldwide, a significant amount of food is lost or wasted every day, in every country, and at every stage in the supply chain from the farm to the household. According to a 2011 estimate by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), about one-third of food produced is lost or wasted globally. Beyond quantity estimates, however, less is known about the impacts on farmers, food prices, food availability, and environment of reducing food loss and waste. On October 17, 2018, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine organized a workshop to examine key challenges that arise in reducing food loss and waste throughout the supply chain and discussed potential ways to address these challenges. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.
This book examines policy responses to food waste and loss, an issue of significant, global concern, with one-third of food produced for human consumption lost or wasted. Investigating food waste and loss under an interdisciplinary lens, the contributors employ a variety of methodological approaches, including quantitative and qualitative techniques, drawing on in-depth case studies and action research. The volume is organised into four parts: Understanding Food Loss and Waste, International Programmes, National Policies and Local Initiatives. The first part introduces the reader to the concept of food loss and waste, how it can be measured, its causes and consequences, and how it can be reduced. The second part is dedicated to international and cross-country case studies, with six chapters reviewing national policies implemented in France, Italy, Romania, Japan, China and the United States. In Part Four, three chapters are dedicated to local food recovery and redistribution initiatives. By focusing on different territories and different levels of governance, the book provides a detailed evaluation of food loss and waste policies, the barriers and opportunities of implementing the policies, as well as the impact they are actually having. The chapters are both descriptive and evaluative and draw out lessons for designing, implementing and reforming programmes. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars working on food waste, food policy, sustainable food systems, agricultural production and supply chains and public policy, as well as policymakers involved with developing and implementing programmes and policies to regulate and reduce food waste and loss.
Global food insecurity is a growing issue. At a time when the world's population is increasing and agricultural production is challenged by climate change, it is estimated that around a third of the food produced globally is lost or wasted. This book examines the problem of food loss and waste (FLW) and the policies that could be enacted to remedy this fundamental global concern. Michael Blakeney provides a well-rounded view of FLW from production to plate. He begins by examining the problems associated with defining and measuring food waste, arguing that more reliable data on FLW is key to the creation of effective FLW reduction policies. He goes on to address the drivers of FLW, the environmental impacts of FLW and the moral and ethical considerations that are linked to the issue. Food Loss and Waste concludes with a critical assessment of FLW reduction strategies across the food supply chain. Providing the first comprehensive assessment of FLW and its remedies, this book will be of great interest to scholars working in the fields of food security, agricultural law and policy and rural economics. Policy makers involved in food policy and security will also find this a valuable resource as it identifies and analyses FLW policies on an international scale.
The importance of reducing food loss and food waste has captured the public imagination since it became one of the targets of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The urgency of this issue and the awareness of its significance to the development community has been growing steadily. Even so, policies to address food insecurity or the increasing pressure on the world’s available land that is being caused by growing populations and changing diets have aimed mainly at increasing agricultural yields and productivity. These efforts are often cost- and time-intensive and do not consider food loss and waste reduction as a tool to help meet growing food demand; nor do they consider food loss reduction as a means to ease pressure on land. Food loss also entails unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions and excessive use of scarce resources including land (FAO 2019); thus, policies to reduce food loss will also benefit the environment. Finally, cutting food loss can help disadvantaged segments of the population, as the loss of marketable food can reduce producers’ incomes and increase consumers’ expenses. Most of the literature uses the terms postharvest losses (PHL), food loss (FL), food waste (FW), and food loss and waste (FLW) interchangeably, but they rarely refer consistently to the same concept. Recent publications (FAO 2014, 2019; HLPE 2014; Lipinski et al. 2013) have tried to clarify this by defining FL as unintentional reductions in food quantity or quality before consumption, that is, from the producer to the wholesale market, inclusive. These losses usually occur in the earlier stages of the food value chain—between production and distribution. This definition, however, does not include crops that are lost before harvesting or are left in the field; nor does it include crops that are lost due to poor harvesting techniques or sharp price drops; nor crops that are not produced because of a lack of adequate agricultural inputs, such as fertilizer, or because of a shortage of available labor. In 2019, the FAO developed the Food Loss Index (FLI), following the definition of food loss mentioned above. According to the FLI, an estimated 14 percent of food produced is lost every year. The major losses are in Central Asia and Southern Asia (20.7 percent), as compared to sub-Saharan Africa, which experiences a 14 percent food loss (FAO 2019), and Latin American and the Caribbean where 11.6 percent is lost. When examining losses in terms of food groups, the highest level of loss is reported in roots, tubers, and oil-bearing crops, followed by fruits and vegetables. It is not surprising that fruits and vegetables incur high levels of loss (more than 20 percent) given their highly perishable nature.
This book adds a new dimension to the sustainability assessment of food waste reduction and valorisation: policy analysis. Featuring a transdisciplinary analysis by key experts in the field, it identifies the drivers of change in food-waste reduction and valorisation technologies by looking, for example, at the regulatory framework and at policy actions undertaken by local and global actors. The book explores the development of regulations and policies for food-waste prevention, management, and valorisation at a global as well as European Union level. It also discusses the notion of food waste in legal terms and investigates the effects of the lack of a standard, universal definition of food waste on the efficient use of by-products, promising processes and products for technological and commercial exploitation. Utilising mathematical mapping methods to assess food consumption impacts and providing supply chain models that allow the testing of consumption scenarios, the book goes on to discuss a series of emerging technologies (tested at lab scale and/ or pilot scale) and opportunities for the valorisation of food waste.
Approximately 30 percent of the edible food produced in the United States is wasted and a significant portion of this waste occurs at the consumer level. Despite food's essential role as a source of nutrients and energy and its emotional and cultural importance, U.S. consumers waste an estimated average of 1 pound of food per person per day at home and in places where they buy and consume food away from home. Many factors contribute to this wasteâ€"consumers behaviors are shaped not only by individual and interpersonal factors but also by influences within the food system, such as policies, food marketing and the media. Some food waste is unavoidable, and there is substantial variation in how food waste and its impacts are defined and measured. But there is no doubt that the consequences of food waste are severe: the wasting of food is costly to consumers, depletes natural resources, and degrades the environment. In addition, at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has severely strained the U.S. economy and sharply increased food insecurity, it is predicted that food waste will worsen in the short term because of both supply chain disruptions and the closures of food businesses that affect the way people eat and the types of food they can afford. A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level identifies strategies for changing consumer behavior, considering interactions and feedbacks within the food system. It explores the reasons food is wasted in the United States, including the characteristics of the complex systems through which food is produced, marketed, and sold, as well as the many other interconnected influences on consumers' conscious and unconscious choices about purchasing, preparing, consuming, storing, and discarding food. This report presents a strategy for addressing the challenge of reducing food waste at the consumer level from a holistic, systems perspective.
"Food losses and waste (FL&W) in the Near East & North Africa (NENA) region are high and contribute to reduced food availability, aggravated water scarcity, adverse environmental impacts and increased food imports, in an already highly import-dependent region. This document outlines a Regional Strategic Framework for reducing food losses and waste in the region. It responds to the FAO NERC-31 (in May 2012) recommendation calling on FAO to 'assist member countries in addressing the key challenges of reducing food waste and losses by conducting comprehensive studies on impact of food losses and waste on food security in the region and in establishing a plan to reduce food losses and waste in the region by 50% within 10 years'. The strategic framework was endorsed by the FAO NERC-32 in February 2014. This strategic framework has direct links to FAO's 'Global Initiative on Food Loss and Waste Reduction' with respect to vision, objectives and aims, but recognizes the unique characteristics of the NENA region in the actions being recommended. The components of the strategic framework are based on the region's socio-economic context, gaps in combating FL&W, and availability of resources. They are also based on the various efforts and contributions that have been accomplished, especially since NERC- 31, including important national and regional consultations, intensive awareness and advocacy mechanisms, networking platforms, a regional study, and national and regional technical support especially with regard to improvement of value chains, value addition, cold chain, and quality and safety management for the different food sectors in the region. Such efforts have already led to actions by member countries, namely the adoption of national initiatives to reduce FL&W in Egypt and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and some very important measures in other countries such as Iraq, Iran, United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Tunisia. Implementation of the strategic framework would require the participation and cooperation of all actors in the food supply chain in addition to government agencies, NGOs, civil society institutions and local communities. Formative and summative evaluation processes would need to be carried out during the implementation process, including key indicators of losses and waste reduction as indicated in the objectives of this strategic framework. This document is intended to provide a strategic framework to FAO/RNE member countries to guide FL&W reduction through national strategic action plans and regional collaborative efforts."--Page v
The 'Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook' provides an up-to-date understanding of gender issues and a rich compilation of compelling evidence of good practices and lessons learned to guide practitioners in integrating gender dimensions into agricultural projects and programs. It is serves as a tool for: guidance; showcasing key principles in integrating gender into projects; stimulating the imagination of practitioners to apply lessons learned, experiences, and innovations to the design of future support and investment in the agriculture sector. The Sourcebook draws on a wide range of experience from World Bank, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and other donor agencies, governments, institutions, and groups active in agricultural development. The Sourcebook looks at: access to and control of assets; access to markets, information and organization; and capacity to manage risk and vulnerability through a gender lens. There are 16 modules covering themes of cross-cutting importance for agriculture with strong gender dimensions (Policy, Public Administration and Governance; Agricultural Innovation and Education; Food Security; Markets; Rural Finance; Rural Infrastructure; Water; Land; Labor; Natural Resource Management; and Disaster and Post-Conflict Management) and specific subsectors in agriculture (Crops, Livestock, Forestry, and Fisheries). A separate module on Monitoring and Evaluation is included, responding to the need to track implementation and development impact. Each module contains three different sub-units: (1) A Module Overview gives a broad introduction to the topic and provides a summary of major development issues in the sector and rationale of looking at gender dimension; (2) Thematic Notes provide a brief and technically sound guide in gender integration in selected themes with lessons learned, guidelines, checklists, organizing principles, key questions, and key performance indicators; and (3) Innovative Activity Profiles describe the design and innovative features of recent and exciting projects and activities that have been implemented or are ongoing.
