Interactions and tradeoffs for sustainability, equity, and resilience in wasted food models
Reducing wasted food has been identified as a key strategy to meet food security goals and attain human nutritional needs and food preferences in an equitable, sustainable, and resilient manner. Yet, mathematically modeling how reducing wasted food contributes to sustainability, equity, and resilien...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Communications |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7620/adc22f |
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| author | Tiruwork B Tibebu Siyu Li Mariana Torres Arroyo Katherine Lessard Joe F Bozeman III Yongyang Cai Jessica A Gephart Megan Konar Young-Jae Lee Xiaobo Romeiko Jessye Talley Sauleh Siddiqui |
| author_facet | Tiruwork B Tibebu Siyu Li Mariana Torres Arroyo Katherine Lessard Joe F Bozeman III Yongyang Cai Jessica A Gephart Megan Konar Young-Jae Lee Xiaobo Romeiko Jessye Talley Sauleh Siddiqui |
| author_sort | Tiruwork B Tibebu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Reducing wasted food has been identified as a key strategy to meet food security goals and attain human nutritional needs and food preferences in an equitable, sustainable, and resilient manner. Yet, mathematically modeling how reducing wasted food contributes to sustainability, equity, and resilience objectives, and the possible interactions and tradeoffs among these metrics, is limited by challenges to quantifying these characteristics. Using the process of convergent science, we develop a prototype wasted food model to evaluate how a set of common equity, sustainability, and resilience measures interact. We consider prevention (consumer education) and treatment (anaerobic digestion and composting) options for wasted food diversion from landfills. The model applies a convex nonlinear optimization to determine the allocation of wasted food to different management alternatives, optimizing for economic (net cost), sustainability (emissions reductions or energy savings), or equity (distribution of per-capita cost or emissions reduction impacts). The model developed in this research is available online as open-source code for others to replicate and build upon for future studies and analysis. Our findings illustrate that optimal wasted food management alternatives may vary when targeting different metrics and that strategies promoting cost-effectiveness may be in tension with sustainability or equity goals and vice versa. The implications of this study could be used by policy makers to evaluate how wasted food reduction measures will impact sustainability, equity, and resilience goals. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-c66adfbf79404180b3d5ce79214ac2bc |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2515-7620 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research Communications |
| spelling | doaj-art-c66adfbf79404180b3d5ce79214ac2bc2025-08-20T03:17:46ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Communications2515-76202025-01-017404501310.1088/2515-7620/adc22fInteractions and tradeoffs for sustainability, equity, and resilience in wasted food modelsTiruwork B Tibebu0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9451-4528Siyu Li1Mariana Torres Arroyo2https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5188-0149Katherine Lessard3Joe F Bozeman III4https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9791-1043Yongyang Cai5Jessica A Gephart6https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6836-9291Megan Konar7https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0540-8438Young-Jae Lee8https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1422-7965Xiaobo Romeiko9Jessye Talley10Sauleh Siddiqui11https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2466-8924Department of Environmental Science, American University , Washington, DC, United States of AmericaUniversity at Albany State University of New York , NY, United States of AmericaUniversity at Albany State University of New York , NY, United States of AmericaDepartment of Environmental Science, American University , Washington, DC, United States of AmericaGeorgia Institute of Technology , GA, United States of AmericaThe Ohio State University , OH, United States of AmericaSchool of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington , WA, United States of AmericaUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign , IL, United States of AmericaMorgan State University , MD, United States of AmericaUniversity at Albany State University of New York , NY, United States of AmericaMorgan State University , MD, United States of AmericaDepartment of Environmental Science, American University , Washington, DC, United States of AmericaReducing wasted food has been identified as a key strategy to meet food security goals and attain human nutritional needs and food preferences in an equitable, sustainable, and resilient manner. Yet, mathematically modeling how reducing wasted food contributes to sustainability, equity, and resilience objectives, and the possible interactions and tradeoffs among these metrics, is limited by challenges to quantifying these characteristics. Using the process of convergent science, we develop a prototype wasted food model to evaluate how a set of common equity, sustainability, and resilience measures interact. We consider prevention (consumer education) and treatment (anaerobic digestion and composting) options for wasted food diversion from landfills. The model applies a convex nonlinear optimization to determine the allocation of wasted food to different management alternatives, optimizing for economic (net cost), sustainability (emissions reductions or energy savings), or equity (distribution of per-capita cost or emissions reduction impacts). The model developed in this research is available online as open-source code for others to replicate and build upon for future studies and analysis. Our findings illustrate that optimal wasted food management alternatives may vary when targeting different metrics and that strategies promoting cost-effectiveness may be in tension with sustainability or equity goals and vice versa. The implications of this study could be used by policy makers to evaluate how wasted food reduction measures will impact sustainability, equity, and resilience goals.https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7620/adc22fwasted foodsustainabilityequityresiliencewasted food model |
| spellingShingle | Tiruwork B Tibebu Siyu Li Mariana Torres Arroyo Katherine Lessard Joe F Bozeman III Yongyang Cai Jessica A Gephart Megan Konar Young-Jae Lee Xiaobo Romeiko Jessye Talley Sauleh Siddiqui Interactions and tradeoffs for sustainability, equity, and resilience in wasted food models Environmental Research Communications wasted food sustainability equity resilience wasted food model |
| title | Interactions and tradeoffs for sustainability, equity, and resilience in wasted food models |
| title_full | Interactions and tradeoffs for sustainability, equity, and resilience in wasted food models |
| title_fullStr | Interactions and tradeoffs for sustainability, equity, and resilience in wasted food models |
| title_full_unstemmed | Interactions and tradeoffs for sustainability, equity, and resilience in wasted food models |
| title_short | Interactions and tradeoffs for sustainability, equity, and resilience in wasted food models |
| title_sort | interactions and tradeoffs for sustainability equity and resilience in wasted food models |
| topic | wasted food sustainability equity resilience wasted food model |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7620/adc22f |
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