Environmental Impact of Food, Fruit and Vegetable Waste during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Review

Abstract

Apart from the major health impact, Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) has impacted almost all sectors across the world. One of them is food, Fruit and Vegetable Markets (FVM). Lockdown implementation had different impacts in different countries, like Canada and the United Kingdom (UK) where they have logistics and supply chain of food, fruits and vegetable items and noted a shift in supply from food service to the retail channel, although the fresh food supply remains unaffected. A similar trend was seen in the metro cities of India, where online shopping has increased. In the food supply sector, both retailers and farmers had to face difficulty in storing, transporting, and selling of the goods and had to bear losses due to increased wastage. Although with an increased demand, organic farming has increased but still increased expenditure, less yield, and selling of the products are the major challenges in front of them. Food, fruit and vegetable wastes have considerably reduced at the food supply due to the obvious impact of lockdown on food supplies, however, a shortage of cold storages and supply chain at the farmer level in developing countries has resulted in more wastage. Developed countries reported increased illegal dumping of wastes in the rural areas and the stoppage of the recycling services due to the lockdown. Also, a shift in the habits of the consumer due to health and food-related issues has been seen throughout the world resulting in reduced waste generation at the consumer level. Despite all this, agricultural producer and the retail industry appears to be best placed to weather the storm. The major challenges related to the industry are sustainability in the food chain and maintaining smooth logistics and necessary precautionary measures in the event of health crises in the future.

Food prices in the United States during COVID-19: generalized facts on price inflation and volatility

“…Although data on the topic are limited, it is widely understood that the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in large amounts of fresh produce waste and loss, largely due to the highly perishable nature of these commodities and the shutdown of the foodservice sector (e.g. Zia et al. , 2021).…”

“…Although data on the topic are limited, it is widely understood that the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in large amounts of fresh produce waste and loss, largely due to the highly perishable nature of these commodities and the shutdown of the foodservice sector (e.g. Zia et al, 2021). Processed fruit and vegetable prices were subject to more inflation than fresh prices, which may reflect the impacts of conditions in packing houses and manufacturing facilities, which were subject to shutdowns due to COVID-19 regulations and outbreaks.…”

Sustainable purchase intentions towards organic food during Covid-19 pandemic: an exploratory study on Indian consumers

“…At the same time, the restriction imposed by the government also affected consumer movement, which impacted the availability of organic food items (Latip et al, 2020). The sudden surge in demand for organic food increased the supply problems, limiting consumers' ability to purchase such products (Prince and Saira Wahid, 2020;Zia et al, 2021;Perrin and Martin, 2021):…”

Hot topics and implications of global research on human-earth relationships in rural areas under public health emergencies

“…发展、 更新的社会现象 [2][3][4][5] 。在关注城市发展和韧性 等问题的同时， 也应当重视城乡日益紧密的联系与 网络关系之下疫情对于乡村人地关系产生的巨大 冲击与影响。从全球尺度来看， 乡村地区的防疫措 施主要是采取封锁、 隔离、 检疫等手段限制人员流动 与集聚， 关闭学校、 餐厅等公共场所， 推行远程工作 与教育等， 同时积极促进信息的传递并通过金融援 助、 就业保障等方式减轻疫情对乡村的影响， 而各地 的防疫力度与效果则与地方经济韧性及地方当局的 实力密切相关 [6][7][8] 。随着全球区域间、 城乡间的连接 性与流动性的不断增强， 作为一个具有复杂性、 动态 性、 开放性特征的空间体系， 乡村地域系统日益嵌入 全球生产网络与城乡融合体之中 [9][10] [11] ， 已 有地理学者就城乡人地系统耦合以及乡村可持续 发展等重大课题发表了系统性研究成果 [12][13][14] 究话题较为广泛， 涉及健康(如 "public health" "rural health" "health" "mental health" "care" 和 "depression" 等关键词)、 农业与粮食系统(如 "agriculture" "food security" 和 "food" 等)、 供应链( "supply chain" )、 教育 ( "rural education" )、 旅游( "rural tourism" )以及气候 变化( "climate change" )等主题， 讨论了乡村地区的 认知与行为实践(如 "knowledge" "attitudes" "behavior" "performance"等)、管 理 和 保 护 ( 如"management" 和 "conservation" 等)、 安全与机会(如 "security" 和 "access" 等)、 脆弱性和弹性(如 "vulnerability" "resilience" 和 "sustainability" 等)以及差异与不平等 ( "disparity" 和 "inequality" )等问题。乡村研究话题 的复杂性首先体现在不同的地域尺度(如 "Sub-Saharan Africa" "United States" 和 "community" 等)和不 同 角 色 主 体 ( 如"farmers" "governance" "worker" "old adults" 等)。中心性大小与频次呈现错位现象， 中心性是基于网络结构衡量词汇重要性的指标(中 介中心性超过 0.1 的节点为关键节点)。中心性较 高的词汇包括 "income" (0.32)、 "agriculture" (0. [19] 、 埃 塞俄比亚和孟加拉国的蔬菜供应链 [20][21] 、 缅甸的大 米厂 [22] 以及非洲的大豆供应 [23] 等亦都成为研究案例 被学者所关注。从洲际尺度来看， 非洲撒哈拉以南 地区农业人口占比超过 60%的国家， 如南非、 津巴 布韦、 埃塞尔比亚、 乌干达等， 成为主要的研究案例 地。这些国家的乡村社区在疫情之下的困境被强 调较多。对于欧洲部分国家如意大利、 葡萄牙和捷 克等， 乡村地区的研究则更多涉及现代化乡村的发 展， 如疫情之下的乡村旅游开展 [24][25][26][27] 。而美国、 日本 和澳大利亚等发达国家基于社会理论和关怀视角 对乡村社区福祉与乡村弱势群体日常生活实践的 相关研究与讨论较多 [28][29][30][31] 。对拉丁美洲(或南美洲) 国家的乡村研究， 相对聚焦土著社区的病毒传播过 程、 医疗和数字技术的可达性以及小农与家庭农业 等所谓非正式部门的重要作用等 [32][33][34] 价格的提升和季节性劳工移民的缺乏 [35] 。在分销 方面， 由于物流中断与进入市场的渠道受限， 导致 食品的分销体系(尤其是长期供应链)受阻。不同类 型食品系统的脆弱性不同， 易腐产品(水果、 蔬菜、 肉类以及乳制品等)由于食品链的中断和破坏导致 的食品损失与浪费更加显著 [36][37] 。例如， 在澳大利 亚和新西兰， 严格监管、 稳定量产的鸡肉和猪肉行 业由于市场的关闭而损失惨重…”