Reducing food waste may not be as environmentally beneficial as previously thought, according to a new study out of the University of Colorado Boulder.
The study, published in the journal Nature Food, found ending food waste would go a long way toward ending hunger, but human nature would get in the way of a leaving a strong environmental impact.
The study's lead author, Margaret Hegwood, said less food waste would result in a newfound surplus of food, causing prices to plummet. Lower food prices would then drive people to consume more.
“We see that these 'rebound effects,' as we call them—where consumers buy more because the price goes down, will offset some of the environmental gains from reducing food loss and waste,” Hegwood said.
Hegwood studied food waste at a global scale. She found that increased consumption as a result of food surplus would effectively nullify a majority of the carbon offset resulting from waste reduction. More food at lower prices would change consumption habits, making the rest of the world eat more like Americans do—fewer veggies, and more meat and dairy. Meat requires much more land and water to produce than grains do, so its environmental impact is greater.
“There could be actually additional environmental impacts if consumers are substituting more environmentally impactful foods for less environmentally impactful ones, such as substituting meat for grains,” Hegwood said.
But ultimately, reducing food waste wouldn’t be a bad thing, according to Hegwood. People would have more food to eat, and there are many who don’t have enough on their plates at the moment. Over 828 million people struggling worldwide with hunger, according to the World Health Organization.
Hegwood said reducing food waste is still a good goal. She highlighted the work of ReFED, a nonprofit dedicated to reducing food waste, as a strong example of waste reduction gone right.
"The big takeaway from this paper is that things are not always as they seem," Hegwood said. "And it's important for us to consider the tradeoffs that can happen when we make major decisions about the food system—or any system, for that matter."
