Systemic perspective of waste generation and food losses in Colombia

Abstract

This work presents an advance in the systemic representation of the generation of waste and food losses in a food production system of agricultural origin in the context of Colombian food chains. For this, the phases of the production system were identified, and after that, some causes associated with food loss were identified. Once the system was understood in a linear manner, it was possible to interconnect the entire system from the systemic perspective, using a causal diagram with feedback structures. This made it evident that the problem must be addressed with tools that allow studying complex systems, since the food production system has feedbacks, interconnections and delays that cannot be demonstrated separately from each other. This is a first advance in order to understand food production chains in a systemic and complex way, in order to mitigate the generation of waste and food losses in Colombia.