IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i12p5027-d373723.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Social Justice, Food Loss, and the Sustainable Development Goals in the Era of COVID-19

Author

Listed:
  • Janet Fleetwood

    (Department of Community Health & Prevention, Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA)

Abstract

The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) rest on a set of broadly accepted values within a human rights framework. The SDGs seek to improve human lives, improve the planet, and foster prosperity. This paper examines the human rights framework and the principles of social justice and shows that, while the SDGs do not specifically state that there is human right to food, the SDGs do envision a better, more just, world which rests upon the sufficiency of the global food supply, on environmental sustainability, and on food security for all. Then the paper examines the interrelationships between the SDGs, food access and waste, and human rights within a framework of social justice. Finally, it looks at the potential pandemic of hunger wrought by COVID-19, showing that COVID-19 serves as an example of a crisis that has raised unprecedented challenges to food loss and waste in the global food supply system and tests our commitment to the principles espoused by the SDGs.

Suggested Citation

  • Janet Fleetwood, 2020. "Social Justice, Food Loss, and the Sustainable Development Goals in the Era of COVID-19," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-9, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:12:p:5027-:d:373723
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/12/5027/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/12/5027/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Reynolds, Christian & Goucher, Liam & Quested, Tom & Bromley, Sarah & Gillick, Sam & Wells, Victoria K. & Evans, David & Koh, Lenny & Carlsson Kanyama, Annika & Katzeff, Cecilia & Svenfelt, Åsa & Jack, 2019. "Review: Consumption-stage food waste reduction interventions – What works and how to design better interventions," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 7-27.
    2. Martina Keitsch, 2018. "Structuring Ethical Interpretations of the Sustainable Development Goals—Concepts, Implications and Progress," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-9, March.
    3. Marc F. Bellemare & Metin Çakir & Hikaru Hanawa Peterson & Lindsey Novak & Jeta Rudi, 2017. "On the Measurement of Food Waste," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 99(5), pages 1148-1158.
    4. Chilton, M. & Rose, D., 2009. "A rights-based approach to food insecurity in the United States," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 99(7), pages 1203-1211.
    5. Efrat Elimelech & Eyal Ert & Ofira Ayalon, 2019. "Exploring the Drivers behind Self-Reported and Measured Food Wastage," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-19, October.
    6. United Nations UN, 2015. "Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," Working Papers id:7559, eSocialSciences.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Anne Nogueira & Fátima Alves & Paula Vaz-Fernandes, 2021. "The Nutritional Content of Rescued Food Conveyed by a Food Aid Organization," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(22), pages 1-14, November.
    2. Na Luo & Tava Lennon Olsen & Yanping Liu, 2021. "A Conceptual Framework to Analyze Food Loss and Waste within Food Supply Chains: An Operations Management Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-21, January.
    3. Paulien Dekkinga & Hilje Horst & Thirza Andriessen, 2022. "“Too big to fail”: the resilience and entrenchment of food aid through food banks in the Netherlands during the COVID-19 pandemic," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 14(3), pages 781-789, June.
    4. Shaher H. Zyoud, 2023. "Analyzing and visualizing global research trends on COVID-19 linked to sustainable development goals," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(6), pages 5459-5493, June.
    5. Arkadiusz J. Derkacz, 2020. "Fiscal, Investment and Export Multipliers and the COVID-19 Pandemic Slowdowns Uncertainty Factor in the First Half of 2020," Risks, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-21, November.
    6. Petrescu-Mag, Ruxandra Malina & Petrescu, Dacinia Crina & Todoran, Silviu Ciprian & Petrescu-Mag, Ioan Valentin, 2021. "Us and them. Is the COVID-19 pandemic a driver for xenophobia in land transactions in Romania?," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    7. Björn Mestdagh & Olivier Sempiga & Luc Van Liedekerke, 2023. "The Impact of External Shocks on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Linking the COVID-19 Pandemic to SDG Implementation at the Local Government Level," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-18, April.
    8. Zhike Zhao & Hao Chang & Caizhang Wu, 2023. "Study on the Measurement Method of Wheat Volume Based on Binocular Structured Light," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-27, September.
    9. Aleksander Buczacki & Bartłomiej Gładysz & Erika Palmer, 2021. "HoReCa Food Waste and Sustainable Development Goals—A Systemic View," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-16, May.
    10. Raquel Ajates & Gerid Hager & Pavlos Georgiadis & Saskia Coulson & Mel Woods & Drew Hemment, 2020. "Local Action with Global Impact: The Case of the GROW Observatory and the Sustainable Development Goals," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-17, December.
    11. Xinyue Lin & Lingli Qi & Haoran Pan & Basil Sharp, 2022. "COVID-19 Pandemic, Technological Progress and Food Security Based on a Dynamic CGE Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-18, February.
    12. Mihai Dinu & Simona Roxana Pătărlăgeanu & Radu Petrariu & Marius Constantin & Ana-Mădălina Potcovaru, 2020. "Empowering Sustainable Consumer Behavior in the EU by Consolidating the Roles of Waste Recycling and Energy Productivity," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-24, November.
    13. Trina Saha & Rubel Miah & Mahfujur Rahman & Sumon Kumar Das & Emranul Hoque, 2023. "Disclosures for slavery accounting concerning SDG 8 and corporate attributes: a study on the banking industry of Bangladesh," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 1-11, December.
    14. Alam Md Moshiul & Roslina Mohammad & Fariha Anjum Hira, 2023. "Alternative Fuel Selection Framework toward Decarbonizing Maritime Deep-Sea Shipping," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-37, March.
    15. Ribašauskienė, Erika & Volkov, Artiom & Morkūnas, Mangirdas & Žičkienė, Agnė & Dabkiene, Vida & Štreimikienė, Dalia & Baležentis, Tomas, 2024. "Strategies for increasing agricultural viability, resilience and sustainability amid disruptive events: An expert-based analysis of relevance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chen Liu & Trung Thang Nguyen, 2020. "Evaluation of Household Food Waste Generation in Hanoi and Policy Implications towards SDGs Target 12.3," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-20, August.
    2. Judith Janker, 2020. "Moral conflicts, premises and the social dimension of agricultural sustainability," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 37(1), pages 97-111, March.
    3. Cattaneo, Andrea & Sánchez, Marco V. & Torero, Máximo & Vos, Rob, 2021. "Reducing food loss and waste: Five challenges for policy and research," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    4. Helen Onyeaka & Phemelo Tamasiga & Uju Mary Nwauzoma & Taghi Miri & Uche Chioma Juliet & Ogueri Nwaiwu & Adenike A. Akinsemolu, 2023. "Using Artificial Intelligence to Tackle Food Waste and Enhance the Circular Economy: Maximising Resource Efficiency and Minimising Environmental Impact: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-20, July.
    5. Claudia Giordano & Silvio Franco, 2021. "Household Food Waste from an International Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-9, May.
    6. Mirela Stanciu & Agatha Popescu & Iuliana Antonie & Camelia Sava & Bogdan Gabriel Nistoreanu, 2022. "Good Practices on Reducing Food Waste Throughout the Food Supply Chain," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 24(60), pages 566-566, April.
    7. Na Luo & Tava Lennon Olsen & Yanping Liu, 2021. "A Conceptual Framework to Analyze Food Loss and Waste within Food Supply Chains: An Operations Management Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-21, January.
    8. Craig W. Hutton & Robert J. Nicholls & Attila N. Lázár & Alex Chapman & Marije Schaafsma & Mashfiqus Salehin, 2018. "Potential Trade-Offs between the Sustainable Development Goals in Coastal Bangladesh," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-14, April.
    9. Kilic, Gizem, 2021. "State-level Food Waste Policies In the U.S.: A Predictive Modelling," 2021 Annual Meeting, August 1-3, Austin, Texas 314091, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    10. Valentina Gomes Haensel Schmitt & Mirza Marvel Cequea & Jessika Milagros Vásquez Neyra & Marcos Ferasso, 2021. "Consumption Behavior and Residential Food Waste during the COVID-19 Pandemic Outbreak in Brazil," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-21, March.
    11. Beatrice Garske & Katharine Heyl & Felix Ekardt & Lea Moana Weber & Wiktoria Gradzka, 2020. "Challenges of Food Waste Governance: An Assessment of European Legislation on Food Waste and Recommendations for Improvement by Economic Instruments," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(7), pages 1-23, July.
    12. Amelie A. Hecht & Roni A. Neff, 2019. "Food Rescue Intervention Evaluations: A Systematic Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-22, November.
    13. Paulina Schiappacasse & Bernhard Müller & Le Thuy Linh, 2019. "Towards Responsible Aggregate Mining in Vietnam," Resources, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-15, August.
    14. Pina Puntillo, 2023. "Circular economy business models: Towards achieving sustainable development goals in the waste management sector—Empirical evidence and theoretical implications," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(2), pages 941-954, March.
    15. Mechthild Donner & Anne Verniquet & Jan Broeze & Katrin Kayser & Hugo de Vries, 2021. "Critical success and risk factors for circular business models valorising agricultural waste and by-products," Post-Print hal-03004851, HAL.
    16. Schlör, Holger & Venghaus, Sandra & Hake, Jürgen-Friedrich, 2018. "The FEW-Nexus city index – Measuring urban resilience," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 382-392.
    17. Jean-Louis Combes & Alexandru Minea & Pegdéwendé Nestor Sawadogo, 2019. "Assessing the effects of combating illicit financial flows on domestic tax revenue mobilization in developing countries," CERDI Working papers halshs-02019073, HAL.
    18. Nelson, Ewan & Warren, Peter, 2020. "UK transport decoupling: On track for clean growth in transport?," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 39-51.
    19. Ibrahim Ari & Muammer Koc, 2018. "Sustainable Financing for Sustainable Development: Understanding the Interrelations between Public Investment and Sovereign Debt," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-25, October.
    20. R. Ebrahimi & S. Choobchian & H. Farhadian & I. Goli & E. Farmandeh & H. Azadi, 2022. "Investigating the effect of vocational education and training on rural women’s empowerment," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-11, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:12:p:5027-:d:373723. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.