Food Waste Minimization and Circularity

The document highlights that approximately 30% of global food production is lost or wasted, necessitating a shift toward a circular bioeconomy. It argues that technical solutions alone are insufficient and must be paired with behavioral change, institutional capacity building, and incentives. The brief specifically emphasizes the role of urban and peri-urban farming systems in absorbing waste and suggests that a circular bioeconomy approach could yield US$ 2.7 trillion in annual benefits by 2050.

• Food loss and waste currently account for approximately 30% of global food production.
• Effective food waste minimization requires moving beyond technical solutions to prioritize behavioral change, planning, and institutional capacities through positive or negative incentives.
• Adopting a circular bioeconomy approach could result in annual benefits of US$ 2.7 trillion by 2050, including the preservation of 15 million hectares of arable land from degradation and a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2022). Food Waste Minimization and Circularity. https://www.sei.org/publications/food-waste-minimization-circularity/

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Food Waste Minimization and Circularity. 2022. https://www.sei.org/publications/food-waste-minimization-circularity/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Food Waste Minimization and Circularity |date=9 September 2022 |url=https://www.sei.org/publications/food-waste-minimization-circularity/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2022food, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Food Waste Minimization and Circularity}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2022}, month = sep, url = {https://www.sei.org/publications/food-waste-minimization-circularity/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }