Wasted Food and Sustainable Urban Systems: Prioritizing Research Needs

城市系统是人类活动和相互作用高度集中的地理区域，到2050年将容纳约66%的世界人口，几乎是目前人口数量的两倍。城市系统是食物变废物过程中的一个关键环节。在整个美国，大约31-40%的食物供应，或超过1,250卡路里，人均每天近1磅的食物，由于各种原因被浪费。这些直接浪费代表了估计3000万英亩的农田，4.2万亿加仑的灌溉水，7.8亿磅的杀虫剂和18亿磅的氮肥与这些食物垃圾一起被“丢弃”。城市食品系统为其人口和企业进口大量食品，而食品垃圾是城市固体废物的最大组成部分。城市系统中的食物变废物过程为发展更可持续的城市系统提供了机会。食物是一种文化，人们与食物有着密切的关系。激励改变以减少浪费食物是具有挑战性的，需要对心理学，经济学，文化和营销等驱动因素的理解。目前城市实施食物浪费战略的势头也需要基础研究的势头。该研讨会暂定于2019年8月19日至20日在马里兰州巴尔的摩举行，将召集跨学科的城市食品系统参与者，浪费食品各个方面的专家和研究人员，共同创建一个关于浪费食品的研究议程，作为可持续城市系统的机会。研讨会将包括学者，城市工作人员和非营利代表。指导委员会成员包括来自约翰霍普金斯大学、俄亥俄州州立大学、自然资源保护理事会、加州大学伯克利分校和巴尔的摩可持续发展办公室的代表。将举办一个关于通过城市可持续性的会聚透镜处理食物废物的讲习班，目的是实现跨学科以及研究人员和从业人员之间的深度融合。研讨会的结构将融合工程，公共卫生，经济学和公共政策的设计原则和工具。这些原则和工具包括参与式设计方法，使用政府卓越中心的政策变革路线图，由英国设计理事会的双钻石模型形成的议程，以及用于评估和挑选未来方法清单的适应性创新框架。会议将包括强有力的社区参与，重点是多样性和公平。与会者将来自不同的背景，包括城市工作人员，非营利和营利从业人员，以及来自公共卫生，工程，经济学，政府，环境科学，社会学，餐饮服务和酒店业以及商业等广泛学科的学术专家。将有一个会前调查，以产生相关的想法进行讨论，并实地考察，以激发未来的研究方向的想法。感兴趣的研究生可以参加会议，会议的结果将分发给相关的利益攸关方和团体。 该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Urban systems, geographical areas with a high concentration of human activity and interactions, will house ~ 66% of the world's population by 2050, nearly double the amount of their current population amount. Urban systems represent a critical nexus in the food-to-waste process. Across the United States, approximately 31-40% of the food supply, or over 1,250 calories and nearly 1 pound of food per capita per day, is wasted for various reasons. This direct waste represents an estimated 30 million acres of cropland, 4.2 trillion gallons of irrigation water, 780 million pounds of pesticides, and 1.8 billion pounds of nitrogen fertilizer "discarded" with this food waste. City food systems import vast quantities of food for their populations and businesses, and food waste represents the largest component of municipal solid waste. The food-to-waste processes in urban systems provides opportunities to develop more sustainable urban systems. Food is culture, and people have strong relationships with food. Motivating change to reduce wasted food is challenging and requires an understanding of drivers such as psychology, economics, culture, and marketing. Current momentum by cities to implement food waste strategies requires momentum in fundamental research as well. This workshop, scheduled tentatively on August 19-20, 2019, in Baltimore, MD, will convene interdisciplinary urban food system actors, experts in diverse aspects of wasted food, and researchers with the goal of co-creating a research agenda on wasted food as a sustainable urban systems opportunity. The workshop will include academics, city staff, and non-profit representatives. Members of the steering committee include representatives from Johns Hopkins University, the Ohio State University, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the University of California-Berkeley, and the Baltimore Office of Sustainability.To create a research agenda that addresses needs of practitioners while building a strong scientific basis for future work, a workshop will be held on the food-to-waste process through the convergent lens of urban sustainability, aiming for deep integration across disciplines and between researchers and practitioners. The workshop structure will blend design principles and tools from engineering, public health, economics, and public policy. These principles and tools include a participatory design approach, use of the Center for Government Excellence's Roadmap for Policy Change, an agenda shaped by the UK Design Council's Double Diamond model, and an adapted innovation framework for evaluating and culling the list of future approaches. The conference will include strong community engagement, with an emphasis on diversity and equity. Participants will come from diverse backgrounds and include city staff, non-profit and for-profit practitioners, and academic experts from a wide range of disciplines including public health, engineering, economics, government, environmental science, sociology, food service and hospitality, and business. There will be a pre-conference survey to generate relevant ideas for discussion, and field trips in order to stimulate ideas for future research directions. Conference participation will be open to interested graduate students, and the findings from the event will be disseminated to relevant stakeholders and groups. The findings will also be incorporated into onsite and online course curricula of the organizing team.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.