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The role of reducing food waste for resilient food systems

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  • Bajželj, Bojana
  • Quested, Thomas E.
  • Röös, Elin
  • Swannell, Richard P.J.

Abstract

Food waste undermines long-term resilience of the global food system by aggravating ecosystem damage. The global community must therefore work to reduce the amount of food that gets wasted. However, we should be mindful of some potential conflicts between food waste reduction and food system resilience. Over-production and over-supply are a contributing cause of waste, yet they also provide resilience in the form of redundancy. In this paper, we examine individual interventions designed to minimise food waste by scoring their impact on different aspects of resilience. We find that there are strong synergistic elements and interventions that support short- and long-term resilience, such as improved storage, which reduces the need to provide a constant flow of ‘surplus food’ and replaces it with a stock of ‘spare’ food. Some interventions carry a risk of trade-offs due to possible losses of redundancy, and investment lock-in that may reduce the ability of farmers to adapt by changing what and where they farm. Trade-offs do not mean that those interventions should not be pursuit, but they should be recognised so that can be adequately addressed with complimentary actions. This review underlines the necessity of food-systems thinking and joined-up policy.

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  • Bajželj, Bojana & Quested, Thomas E. & Röös, Elin & Swannell, Richard P.J., 2020. "The role of reducing food waste for resilient food systems," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 45(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecoser:v:45:y:2020:i:c:s2212041620300826
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoser.2020.101140
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    1. Papargyropoulou, Effie & Fearnyough, Kate & Spring, Charlotte & Antal, Lucy, 2022. "The future of surplus food redistribution in the UK: Reimagining a ‘win-win’ scenario," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    2. Jakob Bogenreuther & Thomas Kastner & Felicitas Schneider & Thomas Koellner, 2024. "Biodiversity impact of food waste: Quantification for supply chain stages and products in Germany," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 28(2), pages 355-367, April.
    3. George Mutugu Mwangi & Stella Despoudi & Oscar Rodriguez Espindola & Konstantina Spanaki & Thanos Papadopoulos, 2022. "A planetary boundaries perspective on the sustainability: resilience relationship in the Kenyan tea supply chain," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 319(1), pages 661-695, December.
    4. Michael Carolan, 2022. "Presences and absences in food systems depictions: a systematic visual content analysis," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 14(5), pages 1347-1358, October.

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