The impacts of (reducing) food losses and/or waste: what we do not know
Martine Rutten, LEI Wageningen UR
Recent data (for example, from FAO, 2011) shows that food losses and waste are relatively high, equivalent to 1/3rd of food produced for human consumption. Consequently, as indicated in the HLPE e-consultation, their global reduction is deemed essential to improve food security.
Whereas the scale of the problem is clear - measured in terms of production, consumption (mouths to feed, nutrients embodied in the waste), money that could have been used for something else, emissions that could have been avoided, water and land implicitly embodied in the waste – the impacts of food losses and waste or, more importantly, the impacts of reducing food losses and waste have not been investigated in detail as yet. This includes the impacts on food security.
Westhoek et al. (2011) is the only applied study so far on the impacts of reducing food waste, discussed in the context of healthy and sustainable diets. It assumes that 15 per cent less food production is required to meet the same level of nutrition, implemented globally as a 15 per cent supply chain efficiency increase and reports on global impacts, rather than using available evidence.
If one wants to understand food losses and waste and the means to reduce them, as requested by the CFS, it is important to also understand their impacts (environmental, social and economic). Relevant questions are, for example:
- What food commodities/products to focus on when reducing food losses and/or waste
- What parts of the food supply chain to focus on?
- How does reducing food losses and/or waste compare to other strategies/policies? (E.g. healthier diets, market access/trade policies, improving the investment climate,...)
Answers to these questions depend on the perspective taken (a focus on resource efficiency in Europe – for example land use, may give different outcomes compared to a focus on food security in developing countries – as measured by the consumption of food and prices paid for it by households).
It is important to note that food losses (operating on the supply side) and food waste (operating on the demand side) have distinctly different impacts. A framework to analyse and structure impacts, showing what factors are important for the outcomes, has been developed recently by Rutten (2013). Using economic theory this paper shows that:
- reductions in food losses and/or waste may improve food security of the wider population due to lower food prices and increased food consumption, if not in the market where losses and/or waste are reduced then elsewhere due to increased spending from savings on previously wasted food.
- Consumers, and producers in other commodity markets, will favour actions to combat food losses and/or waste of a particular food commodity, whereas its producers may object, especially when reducing food waste is concerned as this diminishes their revenues.
- Trade-offs also arise over time, as in the short-run producers may have to incur costs and welfare losses when food losses and/or waste are tackled, whereas the gains, if any, in terms of increased sales may only be realised later. Consumers may delay spending savings on previously wasted foods.
- How these trade-offs compare to the broader trade-offs between economic, health and environmental goals, also across countries, is an issue for policy makers.
- The outcomes of this and further formal and applied analysis are crucially depending on, amongst others, the extent to which losses and/or waste are avoidable, the costs involved, the causes of food losses and waste, including scale and price factors, and consumer preferences.
An important finding is that costs associated with measures to reduce food losses and food waste undo beneficial impacts, but are relatively little researched. Food losses and waste happen for a reason and it may well be that relatively low food prices in comparison with the costs associated with measures to reduce them, may explain their existence. Behavioural change on the part of consumers and producers may not cost that much, but investments in improved storage and transport may cost much more.
Background
These ideas have also been briefly touched upon in a recent LEI Wageningen UR blog, available from: http://www.wageningenur.nl/en/show/LEI-OPINION-Food-waste-and-food-security-what-do-we-actually-know.htm.
LEI Wageningen UR is currently carrying out a large-scale applied study for DG Environment looking at the impacts of reducing food waste within the EU as part of a broader project relating to the modelling of the impacts of greater resource efficiency. The project is called 'Modelling Milestones for Achieving Resource Efficiency' and is being led by BIO Intelligence Service.
LEI Wageningen UR is also carrying out an applied study on the impacts of reducing food losses in the Middle East and Northern Africa. This work will be presented during the 16th annual Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) Conference on Global Economic Analysis "New Challenges for Global Trade in a Rapidly Changing World" in Shangai, 12-14 june, 2013.
https://www.gtap.agecon.purdue.edu/events/conferences/2013/
Previous work at LEI Wageningen UR focused on obstacles experienced in both legislation and regulations by chain actors that cause food waste, resp., make it difficult to reduce food waste (Waarts et al., 2011).
References
FAO (2011), Global Food Losses and Food Waste: Extent, Causes and Prevention. Study conducted for the International Congress SAVE FOOD! at Interpack 2011, Düsseldorf, Germany.
Rutten, M. (2013), “The Economic Impacts of Reducing Food Waste and Losses: A Graphical Exposition”, Wageningen School of Social Sciences Working Paper No. 7, February 26 2013. http://www.wageningenur.nl/upload_mm/4/f/8/9b609991-d2cd-45f7-ae8d-a2ea3803288d_WWP07.pdf
Waarts, Y.R., Eppink, M., Oosterkamp, E.B., Hiller, S.R.C.H., Sluis, A.A. van der & Timmermans, T. (2011), “Reducing food waste; Obstacles experienced in legislation and regulations”, LEI Report 2011-059. http://www.lei.dlo.nl/publicaties/PDF/2011/2011-059.pdf
Westhoek, H., Rood, T., van den Berg, M., Janse, J., Nijdam, D., Reudink, M., Stehfest, E. (2011). The Protein Puzzle: The consumption and production of meat, dairy and fish in the European Union. The Hague: PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency.
Martine Rutten