Investigating food loss and waste issues from a network perspective

In recent years, the negligent behaviour, wasteful management of resources, and simultaneously huge levels of undernourishment have been making the food loss and waste (FLW) issue more and more pressing: the seriousness of the problem stands out when also considering the consequent greenhouse gas emissions deriving from an useless production that remain in the atmosphere for thousands of years. The causes of food loss and waste can certainly be traced in the lack of proceduralisation along the agri-food chains and of knowledge transfer among stakeholders. A shared and proceduralised strategy that improves the effectiveness of the entire supply chain can certainly be a good starting point. Not-shared policies and strategies and missing proficient management of resources can be the possible causes. Several policy and research initiatives are in progress all over the world, but miscommunication and lack of knowledge seems to be the issue to be dealt with. Therefore, building a chain-oriented communication and innovative relational approach can represent a good strategy in order to reduce and to improve the FLW concerns. The aim of this paper is to propose a new methodological approach that analyses the FLW issue from a network perspective within the relationship between agri-food chain spatial proximity and relational networks. Social ties play a significant role in agricultural knowledge exchange, particular in countries very suited to agriculture and depending on rural structure. The assumption is that the chain works as a not oriented `path' graph, that is weakly connected, or weak: it is expected that `missing networks' or isolate nodes are characterized by a greater amount of FLW. Changing the agrifood chain in an oriented clique characterized by strong communication and relationship makes it possible to assign right position and role to different chain's actors thus finding a new equilibrium aimed at decreasing FLW.