Marta Antonelli

Understanding individual food choices is critical for transforming the current food system to ensure healthiness of people and sustainability of the planet. Throughout the years, researchers from different fields have proposed conceptual models addressing factors influencing the food choice, recognized as a key leverage to improve planetary and human health. However, a multidisciplinary approach is needed to better understand how different factors are involved and interact with each other in the decision-making process. The present paper reviews and analyzes existing models, providing an intact point-of-view by integrating key elements into a bigger framework. Key determinants of general food choice are identified and categorized, including food-internal factor (sensory and perceptual features), food-external factors (information, social environment, physical environment), personal-state factors (biological features and physiological needs, psychological components, habits and exper...

Educating young people to active citizenship is becoming a priority to make better informed choices and promote sustainable behaviours. Food system information provides a good example, because the way we eat is linked to our health and the one of Planet. In Italian schools, the number of available food education modules is growing. However, most of them stress purely nutritional aspects and focus on the food system is relatively sparse. This paper presents an innovative way of teaching and develop global citizenship competences through food with a project called “We, Food, Our Planet”.

Abstract Design/methodology/approach Food waste among consumers remains a great scourge affecting our world today. Scientific data and numerous reports show that food waste is a growing trend that has an impact on all stages of the agri-food chain. Recent studies provide valuable insights into how the Covid-19 pandemic has influenced consumer food habits, routines and wasteful behaviour at household level, appearing to show that increases in food waste ceased during lockdown. The authors propose Design Thinking (DT) not simply as a problem-solving approach but as a creative methodology by which the virtuous practices acquired by individuals to avoid food waste during lockdown might be maintained. This article supports the thesis that by applying DT it is possible to devise awareness-raising solutions aimed at encouraging the final consumer to maintain the good food management practices acquired during lockdown, in the long term. To support this hypothesis, two promising pre-pandemic awareness-raising campaigns put forward by design thinkers and practitioners to reduce food waste at consumer level will be discussed. Both initiatives confirm that the degree of awareness, understanding and assimilation of the ethical attitudes related to food waste can lead to long-term behavioural changes, bringing about a transition to desirable, feasible, viable, sustainable and responsible behaviour. Purpose Food waste has been acknowledged as one of the main issues undermining the sustainability of our world, which is why its reduction has been included among the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the UN's 2030 Agenda. Furthermore, some studies have begun to link the concepts of food waste and food security with sustainable food consumption, suggesting that if individuals reduce their food waste, they can improve their food habits, health and that of the community while contributing to the achievement of several SDGs. However, to date few studies have foregrounded the existence of a concrete connection between food waste initiatives and consumer awareness, and few scholarly articles have focused on design thinking and waste, including food waste during the pandemic, a gap which the present article seeks to fill. Findings The results should inform an improved understanding of how empathy and creativity, two of the main determinants of the design thinking approach, can be used to promote and maintain sustainable food behaviours and ultimately reduce food waste among consumers by designing new food experiences. Originality/value This study has a very original and multi-disciplinary approach. Indeed, in order to reduce food waste, if uses a design thinking approach, for the first time in literature, to enhance the engagement of individuals in fighting food waste.

Food waste policy analysis has traditionally concentrated on supranational or national policies and paid little attention to the role of cities in tackling this phenomenon. Nevertheless, cities have proved to be crucial actors in tackling food waste, launching effective policies and initiatives to address it. By looking at 40 cities across 16 European countries, this study aims to present a new framework for assessing urban food waste policies and initiatives. The framework proposed identifies and sheds light on the links between the different types of policies launched, the main areas of interventions addressed, as well as the different actors intervening in urban food waste management. Finally, it identifies direct and indirect links with the Sustainable Development Goals, showing the role that cities can play in achieving the targets of the UN 2030 Agenda.

Abstract The grey water footprint refers to the volume of water that is required to assimilate polluted water. It reflects the intensity of water pollution caused by water use for human activities. This study aims to address some major shortcomings associated with grey water footprint accounting in the literature and discuss several ways towards its improvement. Global maize production is used for illustration. The study specifically tackles three issues: the appropriate water quality standards for grey water footprint assessment; grey water footprint for multiple pollutants; and the influence of spatial resolution of the assessment on the level of grey water stress. A biophysical crop model is applied to quantify nitrogen and phosphorus losses to water in maize production on a global scale with a 0.5-degree spatial resolution. The study shows that the grey water footprint calculation is highly sensitive to the water standards applied. The results also suggest that the grey water footprint relating to nitrogen and phosphorus pollution caused by maize production alone has already exceeded their local water availability in many parts of the world. Grey water stress shows a more critical situation at the grid level than at the watershed level for maize cultivation because the former represents the local concentration whereas the latter gives the average situation of the whole watershed. This study highlights the need for standardizing the setting of water quality standards for a consistent grey water footprint assessment taking into consideration the diverse aquatic ecosystems and ambient water quality requirements across regions, as well as the presence of multiple pollutants in water bodies.

Food security, and in particular food availability, depends on environmental resources, climatic conditions and agricultural practices, having water resources as a common denominator. There is major concern about food security in countries having limited water resources, due to the large volumes of water that are required to produce food commodities. Water-deficit countries tend to rely on international trade to close the gap between water (and thus food) demand and supply. Against this backdrop, the purpose of this study is twofold. First, to analyse water resources in the Middle East and North African region also considering the political economy trends and dynamics, which drive the region’s demand for water. Secondly, the study aims to increase understanding on the role that trade of agricultural commodities has played in meeting the requirements of the MENA populations, in terms of food and associated water ‘embedded’ as a factor of production. The study argues that virtual water trade, that is, the virtual transfer of the water used for agricultural production from producing to consuming countries, has provided the region’s economies with water and food security over the past 25 years. The study shows that virtual water imports have more than doubled and the increase has been more than proportional to population growth in the area. Food products account by far for the largest share of virtual water flows, while crops and high value foods are the main categories of agricultural products associated with virtual water imports. The largest share of the MENA imports originate from outside the region, thus determining a marked dependency on water resources available elsewhere, but not always from water-secure countries.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the political economy of food-water security in the water-scarce Middle East and North Africa region. The study deploys the lens of virtual water trade to determine how the region's economies have met their rising food-water requirements over the past three decades. It is shown that the region's water and food security currently depend to a considerable extent on water from outside the region, ‘embedded’ in food imports and accessed through trade. The analysis includes blue (surface and groundwater) and green water resources.

Informing and engaging citizens to adopt sustainable diets is a key strategy for reducing global environmental impacts of the agricultural and food sectors. In this respect, the first requisite to support citizens and actors of the food sector is to provide them a publicly available, reliable and ready to use synthesis of environmental pressures associated to food commodities. Here we introduce the SU-EATABLE LIFE database, a multilevel database of carbon (CF) and water (WF) footprint values of food commodities, based on a standardized methodology to extract information and assign optimal footprint values and uncertainties to food items, starting from peer-reviewed articles and grey literature. The database and its innovative methodological framework for uncertainty treatment and data quality assurance provides a solid basis for evaluating the impact of dietary shifts on global environmental policies, including climate mitigation through greenhouse gas emission reductions. The datab...

The development of approaches to tackle the European Union (EU) water-related challenges and shift towards sustainable water management and use is one of the main objectives of Horizon 2020, the EU strategy to lead a smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. The EU is an increasingly water challenged area and is a major agricultural trader. As agricultural trade entails an exchange of water embodied in goods as a factor of production, this study investigates the region's water–food–trade nexus by analysing intra-regional virtual water trade (VWT) in agricultural products. The analysed period (1993–2011) comprises the enactment of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) in the year 2000. Aspects of the VWT that are relevant for the WFD are explored. The EU is a net importer of virtual water (VW) from the rest of the world, but intra-regional VWT represents 46% of total imports and 75% of total exports. Five countries account for 60% of total VW imports (Germany, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Belgium) and 65% of total VW exports (The Netherlands, France, Germany, Belgium and Spain). Intra-EU VWT more than doubled over the period considered, while trade with extra-EU countries did not show such a marked trend. In the same period, blue VWT increased significantly within the region and net import from the rest of the world slightly decreased. Water scarce countries, such as Spain and Italy, are major exporters of blue water in the region. The traded volumes of VW have been increasing almost monotonically over the years, and with a substantial increase after 2000. The overall trend in changes in VWT does not seem to be in accordance with the WFD goals. This study demonstrated that VWT analyses can help evaluate intertwining effects of water, agriculture and trade policies which are often made separately in respective sectors.