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A systems approach to assessing environmental and economic effects of food loss and waste interventions in the United States.

ABSTRACT: Reducing food loss and waste (FLW) is critical for achieving healthy diets from sustainable food systems. Within the United States, 30% to 50% of food produced is lost or wasted. These losses occur throughout multiple stages of the food supply chain from production to consumption. Reducing FLW prevents the waste of land, water, energy, and other resources embedded in food and is therefore essential to improving the sustainability of food systems. Despite the increasing number of studies identifying FLW reduction as a societal imperative, we lack the information needed to assess fully the effectiveness of interventions along the supply chain. In this paper, we synthesize the available literature, data, and methods for estimating the volume of FLW and assessing the full environmental and economic effects of interventions to prevent or reduce FLW in the United States. We describe potential FLW interventions in detail, including policy changes, technological solutions, and changes in practices and behaviors at all stages of the food system from farms to consumers and approaches to conducting economic analyses of the effects of interventions. In summary, this paper comprehensively reviews available information on the causes and consequences of FLW in the United States and lays the groundwork for prioritizing FLW interventions to benefit the environment and stakeholders in the food system.

SUBMITTER: Muth MK

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7343133 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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A systems approach to assessing environmental and economic effects of food loss and waste interventions in the United States.

Muth Mary K MK Birney Catherine C Cuéllar Amanda A Finn Steven M SM Freeman Mark M Galloway James N JN Gee Isabella I Gephart Jessica J Jones Kristal K Low Linda L Meyer Ellen E Read Quentin Q Smith Travis T Weitz Keith K Zoubek Sarah S

The Science of the total environment 20190617

Reducing food loss and waste (FLW) is critical for achieving healthy diets from sustainable food systems. Within the United States, 30% to 50% of food produced is lost or wasted. These losses occur throughout multiple stages of the food supply chain from production to consumption. Reducing FLW prevents the waste of land, water, energy, and other resources embedded in food and is therefore essential to improving the sustainability of food systems. Despite the increasing number of studies identify ...[more]

PMID: 31390713

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Project description:BackgroundDisparities in access to care cause negative health consequences for underserved populations. Economic disparities in structural heart disease (SHD) interventions are not well characterized.ObjectivesThe objective of this study was to evaluate economic disparities in the utilization and outcomes of SHD interventions in the United States.MethodsWe queried the National Inpatient Sample (2016-2020) to examine economic disparities in the utilization, in-hospital outcomes, length of stay, and cost of SHD interventions among patients ≥65 years of age. Outcomes were determined using logistic regression models.ResultsA total of 401,005 weighted hospitalizations for transcatheter aortic valve replacement, left atrial appendage occlusion, transcatheter mitral valve repair, and transcatheter mitral valve replacement were included. Utilization rates (number of procedures performed per 100,000 hospitalizations) were higher in patients with high income compared with medium and low income for transcatheter aortic valve replacement (559 vs 456 vs 338), left atrial appendage occlusion (148 vs 136 vs 99), transcatheter mitral valve repair (65 vs 54 vs 41), and transcatheter mitral valve replacement (7.7 vs 6.7 vs 1.2) (all P < 0.01). Low- and medium-income patients had distinctive demographic and clinical risk profiles compared with high-income patients. There were no significant differences in the adjusted in-hospital mortality, key complications, or length of stay between high-, medium-, and low-income patients following any of the 4 SHD interventions. High-income patients incurred a modestly higher cost with any of the 4 SHD interventions compared with medium- and low-income patients.ConclusionsEconomic disparities exist in the utilization of SHD interventions in the United States. Nonetheless, adjusted in-hospital outcomes were comparable among high-, medium-, and low-income patients. Multifaceted implementation strategies are needed to attenuate these utilization disparities.

Project description:Rice blast (Magnaporthe oryzae) is a key concern in combating global food insecurity given the disease is responsible for approximately 30% of rice production losses globally-the equivalent of feeding 60 million people. These losses increase the global rice price and reduce consumer welfare and food security. Rice is the staple crop for more than half the world's population so any reduction in rice blast would have substantial beneficial effects on consumer livelihoods. In 2012, researchers in the US began analyzing the feasibility of creating blast-resistant rice through cisgenic breeding. Correspondingly, our study evaluates the changes in producer, consumer, and environmental welfare, if all the rice produced in the Mid-South of the US were blast resistant through a process like cisgenics, using both international trade and environmental assessment modeling. Our results show that US rice producers would gain 69.34 million dollars annually and increase the rice supply to feed an additional one million consumers globally by eliminating blast from production in the Mid-South. These results suggest that blast alleviation could be even more significant in increasing global food security given that the US is a small rice producer by global standards and likely experiences lower losses from blast than other rice-producing countries because of its ongoing investment in production technology and management. Furthermore, results from our detailed life cycle assessment (LCA) show that producing blast-resistant rice has lower environmental (fossil fuel depletion, ecotoxicity, carcinogenics, eutrophication, acidification, global warming potential, and ozone depletion) impacts per unit of rice than non-blast resistant rice production. Our findings suggest that any reduction in blast via breeding will have significantly positive impacts on reducing global food insecurity through increased supply, as well as decreased price and environmental impacts in production.

Dataset Information

A systems approach to assessing environmental and economic effects of food loss and waste interventions in the United States.

Publications

A systems approach to assessing environmental and economic effects of food loss and waste interventions in the United States.

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