Waste not, warm not: Poverty, hunger and climate change in a circular food system

Reduction of food loss and waste has received increased attention in recent years. Several spikes in food prices since 2008 have highlighted the hardship that poor people, and especially poor children, face when food is priced out of their reach. With as many as 800 million people still undernourish...

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Main Author: Brooks, Karen
Format: Conference Proceedings
Language:Inglés
Published: Crawford Fund 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/148605
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author Brooks, Karen
author_browse Brooks, Karen
author_facet Brooks, Karen
author_sort Brooks, Karen
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Reduction of food loss and waste has received increased attention in recent years. Several spikes in food prices since 2008 have highlighted the hardship that poor people, and especially poor children, face when food is priced out of their reach. With as many as 800 million people still undernourished, of whom about 160 million are stunted young children, the fact that as much as 30% of food is lost or wasted appears unconscionable. Surely the loss could be recovered and channelled towards the hungry! Much of the discussion of food loss and waste has been predicated on this assumption, with the related conclusion that better management and distribution of existing supplies could substitute for investment in increased productive capacity. The assumption is in part borne out by empirical evidence but, as is often the case, the full picture is more complex. Moreover, discussion of food loss and waste in terms of feeding the hungry misses the environmental benefits associated with better management of existing production. Food systems that lose and waste less will generate fewer greenhouse gases and contribute less to global warming. The economics of reduced loss and waste creates both winners and losers, but the environmental calculus has only winners. The policy and institutional arrangements of food systems that generate less loss and waste would look quite different from our present systems.
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spelling CGSpace1486052025-12-08T10:29:22Z Waste not, warm not: Poverty, hunger and climate change in a circular food system Brooks, Karen food wastes food losses hunger emission waste gases food aid climate change Reduction of food loss and waste has received increased attention in recent years. Several spikes in food prices since 2008 have highlighted the hardship that poor people, and especially poor children, face when food is priced out of their reach. With as many as 800 million people still undernourished, of whom about 160 million are stunted young children, the fact that as much as 30% of food is lost or wasted appears unconscionable. Surely the loss could be recovered and channelled towards the hungry! Much of the discussion of food loss and waste has been predicated on this assumption, with the related conclusion that better management and distribution of existing supplies could substitute for investment in increased productive capacity. The assumption is in part borne out by empirical evidence but, as is often the case, the full picture is more complex. Moreover, discussion of food loss and waste in terms of feeding the hungry misses the environmental benefits associated with better management of existing production. Food systems that lose and waste less will generate fewer greenhouse gases and contribute less to global warming. The economics of reduced loss and waste creates both winners and losers, but the environmental calculus has only winners. The policy and institutional arrangements of food systems that generate less loss and waste would look quite different from our present systems. 2017 2024-06-21T09:25:11Z 2024-06-21T09:25:11Z Conference Proceedings https://hdl.handle.net/10568/148605 en Open Access Crawford Fund Brooks, Karen. 2017. Waste not, warm not: Poverty, hunger and climate change in a circular food system. In Waste not, want not: The circular economy to food security. (Ed. A. Milligan.) Proceedings of the Crawford Fund 2016 Annual Conference, 29-30 August 2016, Canberra ACT, Australia. Pp. 3-12. Australia: The Crawford Fund. https://www.crawfordfund.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/CF-2016-Conference-Proceedings-WasteNotWantNot.pdf#page=12
spellingShingle food wastes
food losses
hunger
emission
waste gases
food aid
climate change
Brooks, Karen
Waste not, warm not: Poverty, hunger and climate change in a circular food system
title Waste not, warm not: Poverty, hunger and climate change in a circular food system
title_full Waste not, warm not: Poverty, hunger and climate change in a circular food system
title_fullStr Waste not, warm not: Poverty, hunger and climate change in a circular food system
title_full_unstemmed Waste not, warm not: Poverty, hunger and climate change in a circular food system
title_short Waste not, warm not: Poverty, hunger and climate change in a circular food system
title_sort waste not warm not poverty hunger and climate change in a circular food system
topic food wastes
food losses
hunger
emission
waste gases
food aid
climate change
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/148605
work_keys_str_mv AT brookskaren wastenotwarmnotpovertyhungerandclimatechangeinacircularfoodsystem