Abstract This paper examines the rationale for pursuing environmental objectives by reducing food loss and waste (FLW). The main thrust of the literature on this issue is that FLW reduction can make a major contribution to making food systems more sustainable. Using a stylized analytical framework, we find that reducing FLW always improves resource use efficiency for land and water, and reduces the amount of greenhouse gases (GHG) emitted per unit of food consumed. However, whether the actual environmental outcome is improved will depend on where environmental damage and FLW reduction occur, and the way price transmission connects these along the food supply chain. We find that, while a food waste reduction at the consumer level always improves the environmental outcome, this is not guaranteed when reducing losses from farm to retail. We thus derive a condition linking the price transmission mechanism and the environmental impact of a loss reduction. Simulating environmental outcomes based on a range of parameter values found in the literature, we find that reducing losses at or close to the farm level can increase the aggregate amount of GHG emissions, and therefore focusing on reducing consumer waste is more effective in reducing emissions. As for reducing natural resource use, both loss and waste reductions reduce the amount of land and water use, but effectiveness is reduced by heterogeneity in environmental impact. Relative to loss reductions, effectiveness of a waste reduction is amplified if there are environmentally damaging losses upstream in the value chain, but also dampened by vertical heterogeneity of sourcing along a value chain. The paper makes the case that more targeted instruments may be better suited to address typically local water scarcity and land use and degradation issues.

中文翻译：

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减少粮食损失和浪费的环境影响：一项重要评估

摘要 本文探讨了通过减少粮食损失和浪费 (FLW) 来实现环境目标的基本原理。关于这个问题的文献的主旨是减少粮食损失与浪费可以为提高粮食系统的可持续性做出重大贡献。使用程式化的分析框架，我们发现减少 FLW 总是会提高土地和水的资源利用效率，并减少每单位食物消耗的温室气体 (GHG) 排放量。然而，实际环境结果是否得到改善将取决于环境破坏和粮食损失与浪费减少发生的位置，以及价格传导将这些因素沿食品供应链连接起来的方式。我们发现，虽然在消费者层面减少食物浪费总是会改善环境结果，但在减少从农场到零售的损失时并不能保证这一点。因此，我们得出了一个将价格传导机制与减少损失的环境影响联系起来的条件。根据文献中发现的一系列参数值模拟环境结果，我们发现减少农场层面或接近农场层面的损失可以增加温室气体排放总量，因此专注于减少消费者浪费在减少排放方面更有效。至于减少自然资源的使用，减少损失和减少浪费都会减少土地和水资源的使用量，但效率会因环境影响的异质性而降低。相对于减少损失，如果价值链上游存在破坏环境的损失，减少浪费的有效性会被放大，但也会因价值链上采购的垂直异质性而受到抑制。