Environmental Impact of Agro-Food Industry and Food Consumption covers trends associated with the impact of food production on the environment using lifecycle analysis and the standard methods used to estimate the food industry's environmental impact. The book discusses city-scale actions to estimate the environmental impact of food systems, including the meat chain, feeding crops to farmed fish, the confectionary industry, agriculture, tea processing, cheese production, the dairy industry, cold chain, and ice cream production. Food waste and consumption in hospitality and global diets round out these interesting discussions. Written for food scientists, technologists, engineers, chemists, governmental regulatory bodies, environmentalists, environmental technologists, environmental engineers, researchers, academics and professionals working in the food industry, this book is an essential resource on sustainability in the food industry. - Addresses all levels of the food chain - Provides solutions for the food industry to estimate and reduce environmental impact - Assists members of the food industry in optimizing their current performance and reducing their environmental footprint

How we produce and consume food has a bigger impact on Americans' well-being than any other human activity. The food industry is the largest sector of our economy; food touches everything from our health to the environment, climate change, economic inequality, and the federal budget. From the earliest developments of agriculture, a major goal has been to attain sufficient foods that provide the energy and the nutrients needed for a healthy, active life. Over time, food production, processing, marketing, and consumption have evolved and become highly complex. The challenges of improving the food system in the 21st century will require systemic approaches that take full account of social, economic, ecological, and evolutionary factors. Policy or business interventions involving a segment of the food system often have consequences beyond the original issue the intervention was meant to address. A Framework for Assessing Effects of the Food System develops an analytical framework for assessing effects associated with the ways in which food is grown, processed, distributed, marketed, retailed, and consumed in the United States. The framework will allow users to recognize effects across the full food system, consider all domains and dimensions of effects, account for systems dynamics and complexities, and choose appropriate methods for analysis. This report provides example applications of the framework based on complex questions that are currently under debate: consumption of a healthy and safe diet, food security, animal welfare, and preserving the environment and its resources. A Framework for Assessing Effects of the Food System describes the U.S. food system and provides a brief history of its evolution into the current system. This report identifies some of the real and potential implications of the current system in terms of its health, environmental, and socioeconomic effects along with a sense for the complexities of the system, potential metrics, and some of the data needs that are required to assess the effects. The overview of the food system and the framework described in this report will be an essential resource for decision makers, researchers, and others to examine the possible impacts of alternative policies or agricultural or food processing practices.

The world population is expected to increase exponentially within the next decade, which means that the food demand will increase and so will waste production. The increasing demand for food as well as changes in consumption habits have led to the greater availability and variety of food with a longer shelf life. However, there is a need for effective food waste management and food preservation as wasted food leads to overutilization of water and fossil fuels and increasing greenhouse gas emissions from the degradation of food. The Research Anthology on Food Waste Reduction and Alternative Diets for Food and Nutrition Security explores methods for reducing waste and cutting food loss in order to help the environment and support local communities as well as solve issues including that of land space. It also provides vital research on the development of plant-based foods, meat-alternative diets, and nutritional outcomes. Highlighting a range of topics such as agricultural production, food supply chains, and sustainable diets, this publication is an ideal reference source for policymakers, sustainable developers, politicians, ecologists, environmentalists, corporate executives, farmers, and academicians seeking current research on food and nutrition security.

This volume examines the factors currently affecting agriculture on a global scale. Land use, soil quality, and the inherent production of greenhouse gasses by agriculture each receive their own chapters.

"This study provides a worldwide account of the environmental footprint of food wastage along the food supply chain, focusing on impacts on climate, water, land and biodiversity, as well as economic quantification based on producer prices ..."--Introduction.

Food is increasingly traded internationally, thereby transforming the organization of food production and consumption globally and influencing most food-related practices. This transition is generating unfamiliar challenges related to sustainability of food provision, the social impacts of international trade and global food governance. Distance in time and space between food producers and consumers is increasing and new concerns are arising. These include the environmental impact of food production and trade, animal welfare, the health and safety of food and the social and economic impact of international food trade. This book provides an overview of the principal conceptual frameworks that have been developed for understanding these changes. It shows how conventional regulation of food provision through sovereign national governments is becoming elusive, as the distinctions between domestic and international, and between public and private spheres, disappear. At the same time multi-national companies and supranational institutions put serious limits to governmental interventions. In this context, other social actors including food retailers and NGOs are shown to take up innovative roles in governing food provision, but their contribution to agro-food sustainability is under continuous scrutiny. The authors apply these themes in several detailed case studies, including organic, fair trade, local food and fish. On the basis of these cases, future developments are explored, with a focus on the respective roles of agricultural producers, retailers and consumers.

Global food systems have radically changed over the last 50 years. Food production has more than doubled, diets have become more varied (and often more energy-intense) satisfying people’s preferences in terms of form, taste and quality, and numerous local, national and multi-national food-related enterprises have emerged providing livelihoods for millions. Nonetheless, over 800 million people are still hungry (70% of whom live in rural areas in developing countries), about two billion suffer from poor nutrition, and over two billion are overweight or obese. The resource use implications and environmental impacts of these food systems are significant. In general, of all economic activities, the food sector has by far the largest impact on natural resource use as well as on the environment. An estimated 60% of global terrestrial biodiversity loss is related to food production; food systems account for around 24% of the global greenhouse gas emissions and an estimated 33% of soils are moderately to highly degraded due to erosion, nutrient depletion, acidification, salinization, compaction and chemical pollution. The Food Systems working group of the International Resource Panel has prepared a comprehensive scientific assessment of the current status and dynamics of natural resource use in food systems and their environmental impacts. The IRP identifies opportunities for Resource Smart Food Systems responding to policy-relevant questions like what do sustainable food systems look like from a natural resource perspective? How can resource efficiency improvements be made to enhance food security? How to steer transition towards sustainable food systems? The report looks at food as a crucial connection point (a ‘node’) where various societal issues coincide, such as human dependence on natural resources, the environment, health and wellbeing. Rather than looking separately at resources such as land, water and minerals, the IRP has chosen a systems approach. The report looks at all the resources needed for the primary production of food, as well as for other food system activities (e.g. processing, distribution) considering not only the set of activities, but also the range of actors engaged in them and the outcomes in terms of food security, livelihoods and human health.