TY  - JOUR
A1  - Hic, Ceren
A1  - Pradhan, Prajal
A1  - Rybski, Diego
A1  - Kropp, Jürgen
T1  - Food Surplus and Its Climate Burdens
T2  - Geological Society of America bulletin
N2  - Avoiding food loss and waste may counteract the increasing food demand and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the agricultural sector. This is crucial because of limited options available to increase food production. In the year 2010, food availability was 20% higher than was required on a global scale. Thus, a more sustainable food production and adjusted consumption would have positive environmental effects. This study provides a systematic approach to estimate consumer level food waste on a country scale and globally, based on food availability and requirements. The food requirement estimation considers demographic development, body weights, and physical activity levels. Surplus between food availability and requirements of a given country is considered as food waste. The global food requirement changed from 2,300 kcal/cap/day to 2,400 kcal/cap/day during the last 50 years, while food surplus grew from 310 kcal/cap/day to 510 kcal/cap/day. Similarly, GHG emissions related to the food surplus increased from 130 Mt CO2eq/yr to 530 Mt CO2eq/yr, an increase of more than 300%. Moreover, the global food surplus may increase up to 850 kcal/cap/day, while the total food requirement will increase only by 2%-20% by 2050. Consequently, GHG emissions associated with the food waste may also increase tremendously to 1.9-2.5 Gt CO2eq/yr.
Y1  - 2016
UR  - https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/45424
SN  - 0013-936X
SN  - 1520-5851
VL  - 50
SP  - 4269
EP  - 4277
PB  - American Chemical Society
CY  - Washington
ER  -