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Assessment of the Environmental Impacts of a Localized Food System and Food Waste Reduction in a Water-Scarce Region Using Diet Optimization Models
Despite growing interest in fresh local produce across the United States, scaling up local agricultural development might impose new environmental pressures on increasingly scarce water and land resources in specific localities. Drawing upon the case of the Palouse of the US Inland Northwest, this s...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10218037/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37239616 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20105890 |
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author | Liao, Felix Haifeng Heinse, Robert Saul, Darin Newman, Soren Huang, Li DePhelps, Colette Peterson, Steven |
author_facet | Liao, Felix Haifeng Heinse, Robert Saul, Darin Newman, Soren Huang, Li DePhelps, Colette Peterson, Steven |
author_sort | Liao, Felix Haifeng |
collection | PubMed |
description | Despite growing interest in fresh local produce across the United States, scaling up local agricultural development might impose new environmental pressures on increasingly scarce water and land resources in specific localities. Drawing upon the case of the Palouse of the US Inland Northwest, this study evaluates land and water footprints of local foods along with food waste reduction in a water-scarce region. We used both non-robust and robust diet-optimization techniques to estimate the minimum amounts of irrigation water necessary to grow foods locally and to satisfy the local population’s caloric or nutrition needs. Our modeling results indicate that, on an annual basis, an increase of less than 5% of the current freshwater withdrawal on the Palouse could satisfy 10% of the local population’s aspirational demand for locally grown food products, while more than 35% of local foods (by mass) may be wasted. Furthermore, reducing food waste by 50% could simultaneously reduce water use by up to 24%, cropland use by 13%, and pastureland use by 20%. Our findings not only provide intriguing information for access to local food but could also be used to stimulate new efforts to increase consumers’ and retailers’ awareness of environmental benefits associated with food waste reduction. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10218037 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-102180372023-05-27 Assessment of the Environmental Impacts of a Localized Food System and Food Waste Reduction in a Water-Scarce Region Using Diet Optimization Models Liao, Felix Haifeng Heinse, Robert Saul, Darin Newman, Soren Huang, Li DePhelps, Colette Peterson, Steven Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Despite growing interest in fresh local produce across the United States, scaling up local agricultural development might impose new environmental pressures on increasingly scarce water and land resources in specific localities. Drawing upon the case of the Palouse of the US Inland Northwest, this study evaluates land and water footprints of local foods along with food waste reduction in a water-scarce region. We used both non-robust and robust diet-optimization techniques to estimate the minimum amounts of irrigation water necessary to grow foods locally and to satisfy the local population’s caloric or nutrition needs. Our modeling results indicate that, on an annual basis, an increase of less than 5% of the current freshwater withdrawal on the Palouse could satisfy 10% of the local population’s aspirational demand for locally grown food products, while more than 35% of local foods (by mass) may be wasted. Furthermore, reducing food waste by 50% could simultaneously reduce water use by up to 24%, cropland use by 13%, and pastureland use by 20%. Our findings not only provide intriguing information for access to local food but could also be used to stimulate new efforts to increase consumers’ and retailers’ awareness of environmental benefits associated with food waste reduction. MDPI 2023-05-20 /pmc/articles/PMC10218037/ /pubmed/37239616 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20105890 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Liao, Felix Haifeng Heinse, Robert Saul, Darin Newman, Soren Huang, Li DePhelps, Colette Peterson, Steven Assessment of the Environmental Impacts of a Localized Food System and Food Waste Reduction in a Water-Scarce Region Using Diet Optimization Models |
title | Assessment of the Environmental Impacts of a Localized Food System and Food Waste Reduction in a Water-Scarce Region Using Diet Optimization Models |
title_full | Assessment of the Environmental Impacts of a Localized Food System and Food Waste Reduction in a Water-Scarce Region Using Diet Optimization Models |
title_fullStr | Assessment of the Environmental Impacts of a Localized Food System and Food Waste Reduction in a Water-Scarce Region Using Diet Optimization Models |
title_full_unstemmed | Assessment of the Environmental Impacts of a Localized Food System and Food Waste Reduction in a Water-Scarce Region Using Diet Optimization Models |
title_short | Assessment of the Environmental Impacts of a Localized Food System and Food Waste Reduction in a Water-Scarce Region Using Diet Optimization Models |
title_sort | assessment of the environmental impacts of a localized food system and food waste reduction in a water-scarce region using diet optimization models |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10218037/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37239616 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20105890 |
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