Reducing food waste is a global priority for environmental protection and social well-being. The scientific study 'Food waste: A systemic approach and structural prevention' – published on ResarchGate and included in the technical report ISPRA (Institute for Higher Studies on Environmental Protection and Research) – analyses the phenomenon using a systemic approach. It proposes a set of recommendations on how to respond to the ecological and social crisis underway. Le food supply chain as a whole must be completely overhauled, because it is not enough to reduce food waste. All processes that generate other forms of waste must be reconsidered. These include, among others, overeating and malnutrition (surplus and shortage), the non-food use of agricultural products (eg. biofuels), net losses in the nutrition of farm animals in relation to human food products.

Food waste, a systemic problem

Lo Food waste, from a systems perspective, is one of the primary causes of the breakdown of ecological and social resilience and planetary stability. The vicious cycle of overproduction and waste is actually linked to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, loss of biodiversity and alterations à (genetic, species and habitat), overconsumption and pollution of water, soil and other natural resources (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium cycles). Overproduction Overproduction is the main cause of global waste. Indeed, every increase in demand (+ 0,1%) corresponds to a much higher increase in offer and consumption (around + 1,0%), which in turn leads to an exponential increase in the waste surplus (+ 3,2%). This exacerbates the spiral of inequality, exposure to malnutrition and related diseases for two-thirds of humanity at the planetary level. undernourished (8.3 billion people), overweight (excess calories and lack of certain nutrients: almost 2 billion people, of whom 600 million are obese) and several other types of malnutrition (adequate calories but insufficient nutrients, around 2 billion). Wasted are approximately at least 44% of calories (taking into account all forms of waste, even 85%), 50% of the mass and 66% of the proteins and produced by the global food supply chain. This corresponds to the ecological footprint of about 32% of the natural resources (biocapacity) that are produced every year. In Italy, the total waste amounts to 63%, of which about 50% of the resources are dispersed elsewhere (think of North American wheat, not elsewhere). Made from soybeans and further used in animal feed).