New paper in the journal ‘Ecosystem Services’ entitled ‘The role of reducing food waste for resilient food systems’ by BojanaBajželj, Thomas E.Quested, ElinRöös and Richard P.J.Swannell

Much food is wasted because the actors in supply chains seek to improve their own resilience – so they overplant, over-order or overbuy food. This leads to “unnecessary” emissions & resource use, undermining the resilience of the system as a whole. But many synergistic actions are possible that both reduce waste and improve resilience. The more resilient actors are, the less they need to over-buy and over-produce. The paper outlines such synergistic interventions, notably improved storage, improved food preparation to increase shelf-life, increased use of long-life products, equal sharing of risk along the supply chain and improved connectivity and gives policy recommendations.

Available via ScienceDirect – https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212041620300826