Conserving natural resources through food loss reduction: Production and consumption stages of the food supply chain

Abstract

Globally, attention has been drawn to the increasingly alarming rates of food loss and waste (FLW) along the food supply chain (FSC) and its contributions to the depletion of the natural resources and rise in greenhouse gas emissions. Within the past decade, discovery of the rippling impacts of this interrelationship has generated an increased sense of urgency in efforts amongst scholars, global leaders, government and non-government agencies to research, and formulate comprehensive plans and goals to address and reduce the rates of global FLW. Not only does FLW lessen the quantity of available food, but also, the availability of the many natural resources required to produce food. This will become an important factor when the world population increases by more than 30% by the year 2050. Although advances have been made, still 1.3 billion tons of food are wasted every year due to various underlying causes and challenges. This enormous quantity of wasted food also represents an increase in usage of natural resources. In the United States (U.S.), food and agriculture consume up to 16% of energy, almost half of the land, and account for 67% of the nation's freshwater use (NRDC, 2017). The rate of natural resource depletion is not sustainable, and it endangers the ecosystem. Multiple reports have cited the first and last stages of the FSC as the most significant contributors of FLW and environmental resource depletion. This literature review attempts to provide a comprehensive assessment of the intricacies of the FSC, the multi-variable causes of global FLW at the production and consumption stages, its environmental implications and the necessary sustainability compliant actions.