From surplus-to-waste: A study of systemic overproduction, surplus and food waste in horticultural supply chains

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.123952Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Australian horticulture supply chains encourage production of food surplus while lacking mechanisms for food waste prevention.

  • Food waste creation is reinforced by powerful lock-in mechanisms that both rely on surplus and resist reducing surplus.

  • Systemic food waste prevention must target the processes of food waste creation along the entire supply chain.

  • Transparent monitoring and disclosure of surplus in food chains is an essential prerequisite of food waste prevention.

Abstract

Until recently, food waste prevention intervention has largely offered ‘end of pipe solutions’ that focus on causes of food waste at specific points in supply chains and on dealing with the physical waste material itself. Recent research has taken a different approach by emphasizing the systemic nature of the food waste problem and the need for its in-depth exploration. This paper offers a systems-based understanding of food waste, which allows for an account of the interconnected processes that underpin waste creation along the whole supply chain. Through a qualitative inquiry on practices and processes of surplus and waste creation in the Australian horticulture industry, the research findings precisely delineate ‘surplus-to-waste lock-ins’. That is, the institutional, cultural, and material factors that enable the creation of food waste through the related categories of over-production and surplus formation. The article’s identification and analysis of surplus-to-waste lock-ins is grounded in a socio-technical transitions perspective and extends transition studies to agrifood systems and horticultural food waste. This research positions systemic food waste theoretically as a symptom of ‘system-lock-in’, which may thwart efforts to prevent food waste, and thus bridges micro and macro levels of analysis. These findings translate into three key recommendations for industry, policy and research: that approaches addressing systemic processes of waste creation are essential to unlocking food waste prevention, that food waste prevention should target the identified system processes contributing to food chain lock-ins, and that transparent monitoring and disclosure of food surplus is a prerequisite for systemic food waste prevention across the whole supply chain.

Introduction

Global food wastage is a significant challenge for progressively realising sustainable development objectives like world food security. Global food production is resource intensive. It contributes an estimated 19–29% to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions worldwide (Vermeulen et al., 2012) and accounts for 70% of global fresh water use (Lemaire and Limbourg, 2019). Yet, depending on the measurement protocol deployed, 30–80% of food mass and nutrition value are discarded globally (Alexander et al., 2017; Corrado et al., 2019; Vulcano and Ciccarese, 2017). Such significant levels of waste are problematic due to the threats posed by resource degradation and climate change and considering the distributional inequities that underlie food insecurity currently (Kummu et al., 2012; Springmann et al., 2018). Accordingly, UN member states have agreed to the target of halving per capita food waste by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (FAO, 2019).

As a multi-faceted sustainability challenge, food waste has become the latest food-related issue to undergo a conceptual shift from a problem at discrete points of supply chains to a problem embedded within food system dynamics. Accordingly, research has begun framing food waste as the result of complex, non-linear interactions within food chains shaped by broader food systems rather than as an outcome of individual behavior (Göbel et al., 2015, p.1429; Redlingshöfer et al., 2020, p.8). Consistent with systems thinking, this strand of research within food waste scholarship focuses on the fundamental causes of waste rather than dealing with the waste material once it exists.

A growing body of research from natural scientists, who employ varying methods for quantifying food waste, reveal ‘food overproduction’ and ‘food surplus’ to be significant factors in food waste generation at a global level and in economically developed countries (Hall et al., 2009; Hic et al., 2016). Hence, scholars developing systemic understandings of food waste have emphasized the importance of further research on the surplus-waste nexus (Chaboud and Daviron, 2017; Messner et al., 2020; Mourad, 2016; Papargyropoulou et al., 2014; Pedersen et al., 2015; Vulcano and Ciccarese, 2017). Few studies have explored and explained how and why overproduction, surplus and waste exist and interrelate in real-world contexts, and how they are driven by underlying system settings. One exception is a study by Kuokkanen et al. (2017) that explored the relation between agricultural policy and system processes locking food chains into unsustainable production practices.

This research seeks to advance systemic understandings of food waste by providing an in-depth description and explanation of the food chain dynamics that connect and enable over-production, surplus and waste. Specifically, two research questions guide this study: ‘What are the causes of overproduction and food waste at the production stage of the Australian horticulture supply chain’? and ‘How does overproduction contribute to food waste along the Australian horticulture supply chain?’ In pursuit of these answers, data were collected from twenty-nine supply chain actors through a series of face-to-face interviews conducted in the Australian horticulture industry between 2018 and 2019.

In this paper, the food chain dynamics that connect and enable overproduction, surplus and waste are referred to as ‘surplus-to-waste lock-ins’ to identify and organize the various interactions that connect surplus to waste along the supply chain. An understanding of ‘surplus-to-waste lock ins’ is developed through the theoretical lens of socio-technical transitions theory, which is used here to advance systemic understandings of food waste. Specifically, socio-technical lock-in - which represents the aspects and interrelationships that reinforce and ‘stabilize (unsustainable) systems’- provides an analytical frame that helps render visible ‘blockages’ in the food system that thwart efforts to prevent food waste (Geels, 2011, p.25). At the same time, the paper contributes to transition studies by exploring the “specific mechanisms through which lock-in becomes manifested” as well as specific aspects of “regime persistence and preconditions for the development of transition pathways” (Klitkou et al., 2015, p.23). As such, this paper conceptualizes food waste as a symptom of lock-in and food system resistance, thereby advancing and strengthening the empirical and conceptual basis of the systemic perspective of food waste.

Having broadly situated the research problem of food waste within a systems context, the following section unpacks and problematizes the three key concepts: overproduction, surplus and waste. The literature on food systems and food waste is then examined, identifying a key gap regarding the complex ‘mechanisms’ that frustrate efforts to reduce food waste. Next, the concept of ‘lock-ins’ from socio-technical transition studies is introduced as a theoretical frame through which to apprehend and understand systemic surplus and food waste and its broader significance beyond horticulture and beyond the Australian case study. This is followed by the methodology section, which outlines the qualitative research methodology with its empirical basis of data generated from semi-structured interviews across multiple sectors of Australian horticulture. The findings section brings forth the voices of horticultural actors that experience the day-to-day practices of the sector in context of broader supply chain operations. This section is organized into the four key emergent themes: a) industry characteristics that contribute to food waste; b) industry practices that encourage formation of surplus; c) the failings of surplus recovery from waste; and d) surplus as an amplifier of waste creation. To finish, the discussion and conclusion sections cement the structural nature of overproduction beyond on-farm decision-makers, which leads to recommendations to navigate these structural constraints via measures addressing the specific lock-in points in research, policy and practice.

Section snippets

Systemic overproduction, surplus and waste

As stated in the Introduction, system approaches to food waste prevention are under-developed in food waste scholarship. Until recently, the literature across the natural sciences had a tendency to focus on ‘end of pipe’ solutions, including the recovery of value from food surplus and waste, re-distribution, recycling or valorization (Garrone et al., 2016; Kirchherr et al., 2017; Raak et al., 2017; Zaman, 2015). Similarly, the social sciences, with a few exceptions, largely addressed food waste

Methodology

This study follows the interpretivist epistemological tradition, where the researcher seeks a deep understanding of a phenomenon through the lived experiences of actors closest to the subject matter. In Australia’s horticultural supply chain, these are growers, processors, peak body representatives and technical experts. Potential research respondents were identified through a non-probability, purposeful sampling approach targeting a diverse cross section of the Australian horticulture industry

Research findings: food surplus production and food waste

This section reports the key findings from the research interviews in relation to four systems phenomena. The findings are reported in narrative style recounting the underlying layers and networks of empirical data and concept indicators to highlight the specific points where systemic overproduction lock-ins and waste creation occur. This section presents the findings, with the first two themes addressing Research Question One on causes of overproduction and food waste, and the second two

Discussion

Research participants revealed a strong connection between overproduction on-farm leading to surplus that turns into waste within Australian horticultural supply chains. In respect of Research Question One, fundamental characteristics of the broader supply chain, such as the relationship between growers and the supermarkets, reveal the structural nature of overproduction and farm waste creation beyond on-farm decision-makers. Meanwhile, responding to Research Question Two, a large amount of

Conclusions

The research findings illustrate how key actors, such as powerful supermarkets, prevailing supply chain characteristics such as the dominant concentrated distribution model reliant on surplus, and broader systems dynamics, such as competitive focus on growth and output volume within industrial farming, drive overproduction. It shows in context how these mechanisms, and related processes, lead to food surplus that transitions to waste on-farm or in post-production stages. The lock-ins identified

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Rudolf Messner: Conceptualization, Investigation, Formal analysis, Writing - original draft. Hope Johnson: Writing - review & editing. Carol Richards: Writing - review & editing.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgement

This research was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship and funding made available via the Australian Government Food Agility Cooperative Research Centre (Grant FA016). The authors wish to express their gratitude to the anonymous reviewers for their very insightful comments and suggestions that have helped to improve the paper.

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