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Bending the Curve of Food Loss and Waste (FLW) Generation Requires Coupling Global Dietary Shifts with Targeted FLW Reduction Policies
22 Pages Posted: 22 Jan 2025
More...Abstract
Reducing global food loss and waste (FLW) is a central pillar in the transition towards a healthier and more sustainable diet. Using a global economic model that traces FLW across supply chains, we investigate how dietary shifts interact with FLW reduction targets by 2050. Dietary shifts alone are insufficient for bending the curve of FLW generation as growing population and incomes increase total FLW volumes, particularly in low-income countries. Globally, FLW increase for oilseeds and fish, while in high-income countries, higher demand for fresh plant-based foods contributes to greater losses during the production stage. The increased exports of plant-based products from lower-income to higher-income regions exacerbate farm-level FLW in lower-income regions, affecting food security. Coupling dietary transitions with targeted FLW reductions successfully controls spillovers on a global scale. A combined strategy reduces global FLW by 63.2% in 2050, eliminating commodity-specific and stage-specific spillovers with major benefits in sub-Saharan Africa, where nutritional availability increases by 365 calories per-capita-per-day by 2050. Transitioning towards a healthier and more sustainable diet at a global level requires therefore, a targeted set of policies that incentivise FLW reduction or reusing strategies for effectively preserving the nutritional and environmental benefits of global dietary shifts by 2050.
Keywords: healthy and sustainable diets, global dietary transition, food loss and waste, CGE modelling, FLW reduction
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