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Luxus Consumption: Wasting Food Resources Through Overeating

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  • Dorothy Blair
  • Jeffery Sobal

Abstract

In this paper, we redefine the term luxus consumption to mean food waste and overconsumption leading to storage of body fat, health problems, and excess resource utilization. We develop estimates of the prevalence of luxus consumption and its environmental consequences using US food supply, agricultural, and environmental data and using procedures modeled after energetics analysis and ecological footprint analysis. Between 1983 and 2000, US food availability (food consumption including waste) increased by 18% or 600 kcal (2.51 MJ) per person. This luxus consumption required 0.36 hectares (ha) of land and fishing area per capita, 100.6 million ha for the US population, and 3.1% of total US energy consumption. Luxus consumption increased more for particular foods, such as high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), 22% of which was used in carbonated beverages. As an example, the luxus consumption of sweetened soda, 31.8 l per capita, used 0.8% of the US corn crop (230,555 ha of land); 33.6 million kg of nitrogen fertilizer; 175,000 kg of Atrazine herbicide; 34 million kg of nitrogen fertilizer; 2.44 trillion kcal (10.2 PJ) for production inputs and post-harvest handling; and led to 4.9 million metric tons of soil erosion. Diet soft drink luxus consumption was 43.9 l/capita. Assuming half of US soft drink luxus consumption was bottled in plastic, the energy cost for plastics would have been 2.49 trillion kcal (10.4 PJ) in 2000. Total HFCS availability above baseline in 2000 required 4.6 times the resources used for soft drinks alone. This analysis suggests the utility and applicability of the concept of luxus consumption to environmental analysis and for estimating the effects of excess food utilization. Copyright Springer 2006

Suggested Citation

  • Dorothy Blair & Jeffery Sobal, 2006. "Luxus Consumption: Wasting Food Resources Through Overeating," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 23(1), pages 63-74, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:23:y:2006:i:1:p:63-74
    DOI: 10.1007/s10460-004-5869-4
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Gallo, Anthony E., 1980. "Consumer Food Waste In the United States," Food Review/ National Food Review, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, vol. 0(1), December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Zhao, Yan & Deng, Wenjing, 2014. "Environmental impacts of different food waste resource technologies and the effects of energy mix," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 214-221.
    2. Hadjikakou, Michalis, 2017. "Trimming the excess: environmental impacts of discretionary food consumption in Australia," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 119-128.
    3. Francesco La Barbera & Mario Amato & Roberta Riverso & Fabio Verneau, 2022. "Social Emotions and Good Provider Norms in Tackling Household Food Waste: An Extension of the Theory of Planned Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-12, August.
    4. Alexander, Peter & Brown, Calum & Arneth, Almut & Finnigan, John & Moran, Dominic & Rounsevell, Mark D.A., 2017. "Losses, inefficiencies and waste in the global food system," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 190-200.
    5. Fonseca, Jaime R.S., 2014. "A Latent Class Model to discover Household Food Waste Patterns in Lisbon City in Support of Food Security, Public Health and Environmental Protection," International Journal on Food System Dynamics, International Center for Management, Communication, and Research, vol. 4(3), pages 1-14, February.
    6. Silvio Franco & Clara Cicatiello, 2018. "Food waste due to over-nutrition in the Italians? dietary habits," RIVISTA DI STUDI SULLA SOSTENIBILITA', FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2018(1), pages 159-180.
    7. David Pimentel & Alison Marklein & Megan A. Toth & Marissa Karpoff & Gillian S. Paul & Robert McCormack & Joanna Kyriazis & Tim Krueger, 2008. "Biofuel Impacts on World Food Supply: Use of Fossil Fuel, Land and Water Resources," Energies, MDPI, vol. 1(2), pages 1-38, September.
    8. George Tsalis & Birger Boutrup Jensen & S. Wiley Wakeman & Jessica Aschemann-Witzel, 2021. "Promoting Food for the Trash Bin? A Review of the Literature on Retail Price Promotions and Household-Level Food Waste," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-21, April.
    9. Sabrina Arcuri, 2019. "Food poverty, food waste and the consensus frame on charitable food redistribution in Italy," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 36(2), pages 263-275, June.
    10. Thyberg, Krista L. & Tonjes, David J., 2016. "Drivers of food waste and their implications for sustainable policy development," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 110-123.
    11. Mary Griffin & Jeffery Sobal & Thomas Lyson, 2009. "An analysis of a community food waste stream," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 26(1), pages 67-81, March.
    12. Gyula Kasza & Annamária Dorkó & Atilla Kunszabó & Dávid Szakos, 2020. "Quantification of Household Food Waste in Hungary: A Replication Study Using the FUSIONS Methodology," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-14, April.
    13. Gustavo Porpino, 2016. "Household Food Waste Behavior: Avenues for Future Research," Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(1), pages 41-51.
    14. Cicatiello, Clara & Franco, Silvio, 2020. "Disclosure and assessment of unrecorded food waste at retail stores," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    15. Y. Feng & C. Marek & J. Tosun, 2022. "Fighting Food Waste by Law: Making Sense of the Chinese Approach," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 45(3), pages 457-479, September.

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