<p>Sustainably meeting the food demands of a growing population based on
finite resources while protecting the environment is one of the great
challenges of humanity in the coming decades. This dissertation combines three
essays that examine how future patterns of global food consumption will affect
human health, and how the food system changes driven by the ongoing global
nutrition transition will affect the environment. The production of food needed
to meet a growing population combined with changes in food consumption patterns
are placing unprecedented levels of stress on the planet’s scarce natural
resources. In this context, while the existing literature has mainly focused on
increasing production, the magnitude of loss and waste is too large to be
ignored. The first essay contributes to the literature by examining the
linkages between consumers’ food waste at the national level on the one hand,
and global food security and environmental health on the other hand. Absent significant
behavioral changes or successful policy interventions, food waste will nearly
double by 2050. Emerging economies are likely to play a key role in driving
this growth in global food waste. Further findings indicate that the global benefits
of food waste mitigation are greatly enhanced in the context of a more open
international trade regime. Yet even as food loss and waste has been undernutrition
and overweight/obesity levels have also been increasing. Together, these trends
form a triple challenge for food security, global sustainability and human
health. In the second essay I examine the role of the excessive calorie
availability as an historical driver of adult BMI. I find that, in part driven
by excess in calorie availability, individuals in more recent cohorts are
overweight or obese earlier and for larger proportions of their lifespan than
those in earlier cohorts. This highlights the potential for unintended health
consequences of agricultural and trade policies directed at increasing calorie
supplies. In the third essay I introduce a novel framework that extends the
UN-FAO’s methodology for assessing undernutrition to also assess the extent of
overconsumption and obesity. This framework allows for examination of the
dynamics of the double burden of malnutrition between 2015 and 2050. Specifically,
this framework shows how shifting towards healthier and more sustainable food
consumption levels and reducing food waste could synergistically address
multiple health and environmental burdens. </p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:purdue.edu/oai:figshare.com:article/15063027 |
| Date | 28 July 2021 |
| Creators | Wilson Emiliano Lopez Barrera (11192691) |
| Source Sets | Purdue University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis |
| Rights | CC BY 4.0 |
| Relation | https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/FOOD_WASTE_THE_DOUBLE-BURDEN_OF_MALNUTRITION_AND_THE_SUSTAINABILITY_OF_THE_GLOBAL_FOOD_SYSTEM/15063027 |
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