Harry de Gorter, Cornell University
Global food waste can feed 1.9 billion people and result in significant
GHGEs and stress on resources like water and land. Our conceptual and
empirical framework measures purchases and sales for each intermediary,
purchases and consumption for consumers, and gross production versus sales
for farmers. Each stage in the value chain incurs a rate of waste defined
over a cost function. Initiatives to reduce food waste influence behavior
directly at each stage of the value chain and cause indirect effects
cascading up and down the value chain, as all market participants are
interconnected, ultimately affecting the equilibrium food waste (and carbon
savings). Key parameters affecting the outcome include closed vs. open
economy, supply and demand elasticities, farm share of consumer dollar and
the distribution of waste rates vs. carbon emissions along the value chain.