Abstract for: Farm to Fork: Fritter overlooked and its impacts

Given the recognition of the major environmental implications of food wastage, relatively few studies have examined the impact of global food wastage from an environmental perspective. This is quite surprising as forecasts suggest that food production must increase significantly to meet future global demand. The objective of this study is to develop a sensible but simplified representation of the global food supply chain system to explore leverage point of intervention to reduce food wastage. The results suggest that if the current fraction of food wastage across the supply chain remains unchanged, 20 percent of food produced for the purpose of human consumption will go waste. This waste is estimated to contribute to approximately 1.81 billion tons C02 equivalent by 2040, all things equal. The economic valuation of food waste is estimated at 1.4 trillion US dollars by 2040, under valuation. Under the gradual reduction in food waste scenario, the model results suggest that intervention at the production stage has greatest impact in reducing food waste, total emission from food waste, cost associated with food waste and land under cultivation for food waste.