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Social Justice, Food Loss, and the Sustainable Development Goals in the Era of COVID-19

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  • Janet Fleetwood

    (Department of Community Health & Prevention, Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA)

Abstract

The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) rest on a set of broadly accepted values within a human rights framework. The SDGs seek to improve human lives, improve the planet, and foster prosperity. This paper examines the human rights framework and the principles of social justice and shows that, while the SDGs do not specifically state that there is human right to food, the SDGs do envision a better, more just, world which rests upon the sufficiency of the global food supply, on environmental sustainability, and on food security for all. Then the paper examines the interrelationships between the SDGs, food access and waste, and human rights within a framework of social justice. Finally, it looks at the potential pandemic of hunger wrought by COVID-19, showing that COVID-19 serves as an example of a crisis that has raised unprecedented challenges to food loss and waste in the global food supply system and tests our commitment to the principles espoused by the SDGs.

Suggested Citation

  • Janet Fleetwood, 2020. "Social Justice, Food Loss, and the Sustainable Development Goals in the Era of COVID-19," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-9, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:12:p:5027-:d:373723
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    3. Paulien Dekkinga & Hilje Horst & Thirza Andriessen, 2022. "“Too big to fail”: the resilience and entrenchment of food aid through food banks in the Netherlands during the COVID-19 pandemic," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 14(3), pages 781-789, June.
    4. Shaher H. Zyoud, 2023. "Analyzing and visualizing global research trends on COVID-19 linked to sustainable development goals," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(6), pages 5459-5493, June.
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