scholarly journals Battling Food Losses and Waste in Saudi Arabia: Mobilizing Regional Efforts and Blending Indigenous Knowledge to Address Global Food Security Challenges

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 8402
Author(s):  
Suliman Ali Al-Khateeb ◽  
Abid Hussain ◽  
Stefan Lange ◽  
Mohammad M. Almutari ◽  
Felicitas Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Food Supply ◽  
National Level ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Cold Chain ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Food Supply Chain ◽  
Gcc Countries ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Food Losses

Food Loss and Waste (FLW) that entail substantial economic, environmental, and social cost is of great concern for a country fulfilling > 80% of food demands through the import of agricultural commodities. The current study mainly aimed at bringing together a wide range of perspectives on FLW by multi-stakeholder engagement in order to enhance cooperation and network building with respect to sharing knowledge and experiences on FLW prevention activities along the entire food supply chain for a country located at the geographic frontier facing stubborn challenges of desertification, water scarcity, and harsh climatic conditions. These challenges are not only being addressed at the national level but have also been made the focus of multilateral activities in 2020 as part of the Saudi G20 Presidency. The Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture under the umbrella of the G20 Meeting of Agricultural Chief Scientists (MACS) hosted a regional workshop on FLW in collaboration with the Thünen Institute, Germany, to raise awareness among Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. The present paper provides insights into the current status of FLW by revealing that, overall, 33.1% of the total available food in the Kingdom is lost and wasted during the entire food supply chain. Overall, the GCC countries witnessed higher percentages of food waste compared with food losses. Environmental conditions prevailing in the region necessitate the development of adequate and appropriate cold chain storage facilities for balanced distribution through cold storage transportation facilities along the food supply chain to minimize food losses. However, campaigns and activities to raise awareness with a view of changing attitudes towards reducing FLW by the adoption of good practices, promoting the concept of circular economy practices, and the establishment of food banks for surplus food redistribution are important to mitigate FLW in the Kingdom.

Sustainable Food Logistics Systems

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhaohui Wu ◽  
Madeleine Elinor Pullman
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Food Supply ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Cold Chain ◽  
Community Supported Agriculture ◽  
Food Supply Chain ◽  
Sustainable Food ◽  
Chain Management

Food supply chain management is becoming a critical management and public policy agenda. Climate change, growing demand, and shifting patterns of food production, delivery, and consumption have elicited a series of new challenges, such as food security, safety, and system resiliency. This chapter first introduces the typical players in a food supply chain and examines the global food system characterized by consolidation and industrialization. It then discusses some critical topics of the sustainable food supply chain that aim to address these challenges. These topics include traceability, transparency, certification and standards, and alternatives to industrialized food systems, including cooperatives, community-supported agriculture, and roles of small and medium-sized growers in regenerative agriculture. The chapter ends with a discussion of several important emerging logistics management topics, including last-mile delivery, new technology, and cold chain management.

Artificial Intelligence and Its Applications in Agriculture With the Future of Smart Agriculture Techniques

2021 ◽  
pp. 25-39
Author(s):  
Harshit Bhardwaj ◽  
Pradeep Tomar ◽  
Aditi Sakalle ◽  
Uttam Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Supply Chain ◽  
Food Supply ◽  
Food Supply Chain ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
Entire Society ◽  
Smart Agriculture ◽  
Growing Conditions

Agriculture is the oldest and most dynamic occupation throughout the world. Since the population of world is always increasing and land is becoming rare, there evolves an urgent need for the entire society to think inventive and to find new affective solutions to farm, using less land to produce extra crops and growing the productivity and yield of those farmed acres. Agriculture is now turning to artificial intelligence (AI) technology worldwide to help yield healthier crops, track soil, manage pests, growing conditions, coordinate farmers' data, help with the workload, and advance a wide range of agricultural tasks across the entire food supply chain.

Building a Sustainable Food Supply Chain and Managing Food Losses

2019 ◽  
pp. 261-281
Author(s):  
A D Nuwan Gunarathne ◽  
D. G. Navaratne ◽  
M. L. S. Gunaratne ◽  
Amanda Erasha Pakianathan ◽  
Yasasi Tharindra Perera
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Food Supply ◽  
Stakeholder Management ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Business Organizations ◽  
Food Supply Chain ◽  
Sustainable Food ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Global Challenge ◽  
Food Losses

With the unprecedented growth in the world's population, the supply of food has already become a major global challenge. The world food crisis highlights a large quantity of food going waste or lost due to many unsustainable practices in the food supply chain. This chapter provides a conceptual model to build a sustainable food supply chain while minimizing the food waste that occurs at different stages. By incorporating stakeholder management and other behavioral aspects while at the same time following a continuous improvement cycle, the model deviates from other techno-oriented or fragmented guidelines available on the subject. For the purpose of better understanding or providing practical applications, real-life case studies are also presented. Hence, the model provides useful guidelines for business organizations and other actors in the food supply chain to incorporate sustainability while minimizing environmental, social, and economic impacts of food losses/waste.

Building a Sustainable Food Supply Chain and Managing Food Losses

2021 ◽  
pp. 281-301
Author(s):  
A D Nuwan Gunarathne ◽  
D. G. Navaratne ◽  
M. L. S. Gunaratne ◽  
Amanda Erasha Pakianathan ◽  
Yasasi Tharindra Perera
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Food Supply ◽  
Stakeholder Management ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Business Organizations ◽  
Food Supply Chain ◽  
Sustainable Food ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Global Challenge ◽  
Food Losses

With the unprecedented growth in the world's population, the supply of food has already become a major global challenge. The world food crisis highlights a large quantity of food going waste or lost due to many unsustainable practices in the food supply chain. This chapter provides a conceptual model to build a sustainable food supply chain while minimizing the food waste that occurs at different stages. By incorporating stakeholder management and other behavioral aspects while at the same time following a continuous improvement cycle, the model deviates from other techno-oriented or fragmented guidelines available on the subject. For the purpose of better understanding or providing practical applications, real-life case studies are also presented. Hence, the model provides useful guidelines for business organizations and other actors in the food supply chain to incorporate sustainability while minimizing environmental, social, and economic impacts of food losses/waste.

scholarly journals Quantification of Food Losses and Waste in Peru: A Mass Flow Analysis along the Food Supply Chain

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 2807
Author(s):  
Noelia S. Bedoya-Perales ◽  
Glenio Piran Dal’ Magro
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Mass Flow ◽  
Food Supply ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Flow Analysis ◽  
Food Supply Chain ◽  
Reduction Strategies ◽  
Food Losses ◽  
Food Commodity

The quantification of food losses and waste (FLW) has become a research hotspot in the last decade, but little work has been done to have food waste data in Latin American countries. This paper contributes to addressing this knowledge gap by examining the magnitude of FLW along the whole food supply chain (FSC) in Peru. The methodological approach was based on the top-down mass flow analysis at all steps of the FSC for the 2007–2017 period (most recently available data), including different food commodity groups (CGs), such as cereals, roots and tubers, oil seeds and pulses, fruits, vegetables, meat, fish and seafood, and milk. Results show an annual average of FLW of 12.8 million tonnes, which represents 47.76% of the national food supply. Regarding per capita quantities, the average amount of FLW was 426.56 kg per year when considering the entire FSC, and 67.34 kg per year when considering only the consumption step. This study suggests which steps of the FSC and CGs are the most promising targets for FLW reduction strategies in Peru.

scholarly journals Fostering Awareness on Environmentally Sustainable Technological Solutions for the Post-Harvest Food Supply Chain

Processes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 1611
Author(s):  
Carlos M. Fernandez ◽  
Joel Alves ◽  
Pedro Dinis Gaspar ◽  
Tânia M. Lima
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Food Supply ◽  
Life Extension ◽  
Population Increase ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Strong Increase ◽  
Medium Size ◽  
Food Supply Chain ◽  
Environmentally Sustainable ◽  
Post Harvest

This study presents a current status and future trends of innovative and environmentally sustainable technological solutions for the post-harvest food supply chain and the food industry, in terms of ecological packaging, active, and/or intelligent packaging. All these concerns are currently highlighted due to the strong increase in the purchase/sale of products on online platforms, as well as the requirements for stricter food security and safety. Thus, this study aims to increase the global awareness of agro-industrial micro, small, and medium size enterprises for the adoption of innovative food solutions though industry digitalization (Industry 4.0), associated logistics and circular economy, with a concern for cybersecurity and products information, communication and shelf-life extension. The adoption of these guidelines will certainly foster along the complete food chain (from producer to consumer, with all intermediary parties) the awareness on environmentally sustainable technological solutions for the post-harvest food supply chain, and thus, promoting the future food sustainability required by the population increase, the climate change, the exodus of rural population to urban areas, and food loss and waste.

scholarly journals Food Losses and Waste: A Needed Assessment for Future Policies

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (21) ◽  
pp. 11586
Author(s):  
Pilar Campoy-Muñoz ◽  
Manuel Alejandro Cardenete ◽  
María del Carmen Delgado ◽  
Ferran Sancho
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Economic Impact ◽  
Food Supply ◽  
Food System ◽  
Human Consumption ◽  
Food Supply Chain ◽  
Sustainable Food ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Food Losses ◽  
The Impact

About one third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted. For this reason, food losses and waste has become a key priority within worldwide policy circles. This is a major global issue that not only threatens the viability of a sustainable food system but also generates negative externalities in environmental terms. The avoidance of this forbidding wastage would have a positive economic impact on national economies in terms of resource savings. In this paper we look beyond this somewhat traditional resource savings angle and we shift the focus to explore the distributional consequences of food losses and waste reduction using a resource constrained modeling perspective. The impact due to the behavioral shift of each household is therefore explained by two factors. One is the amount of resources saved when the behavioral shift takes place, whereas the other one has to do with the position of households in the food supply chain. By considering the whole supply chain, instead of the common approach based only in reducing waste by consumers, we enrich the empirical knowledge of this issue and improve the quantification of its economic impact. We examine data for three EU countries that present different economic structures (Germany, Spain and Poland) so as to have a broader and more robust viewpoint of the potential results. We find that distributional effects are different for consumers and producers and also across countries. Our results could be useful for policymakers since they indicate that policies should not be driven merely by the size waste but rather on its position within the food supply chain.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document