A process of elimination that involves reducing the amount of waste produced in society daily and helps eliminate the generation of harmful and persistent wastes, supporting the efforts to promote a more sustainable supply chain as well as society.
Published in Chapter:
Agri-Food Logistics as a Dynamic Actor in Managing Food Loss and Waste: A Bump-Start by COVID-19
Erika Quendler (Federal Institute of Agricultural Economics, Rural and Mountain Research, Vienna, Austria), Matthew James Lamb (LKT-TGM Polymer and Environmental Centre, Vienna, Austria), and Noureddin Driouech (International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies – CIHEAM, Bari, Italy)
Copyright: © 2022
|Pages: 24
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-9800-9.ch011
Abstract
Perhaps no phenomenon has so quickly and radically challenged agri-food logistics as the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. This chapter postulates on the short- to longer-term implications of this public health crisis on food loss and waste (FLW) throughout the whole supply chain and the role of agri-food logistics. This chapter outlines examples of several logistic solutions deployed for dealing with FLW as the pandemic has unfolded. Furthermore, since COVID‐19 has opened a window of opportunity, this chapter indicates the potential of agri-food logistics to help manage FLW from farm to bin and beyond. In fact, the pandemic and its aftermath may improve agri-food logistics skills, practices, and innovation in a manner that mitigates day-to-day FLW. Moreover, this chapter advocates a rethinking of the opportunities arising from COVID-19 for the transformation of agri-food logistics in alignment with the UN's SDGs. This forms a practical framework for future research and application.