Study On The Impact Of Staple Food Difference On Household Food Waste And Its Carbon Footprint

Food waste has always been the focus of international attention,as an important component of food waste.The massive amount of household food waste not only challenges food security,but also creates enormous pressure on resources and the environment.With the improvement of living standards,Chinese residents are increasingly generating food waste in their homes.Therefore,it is of great academic and practical value to study the problem of household food waste and its carbon emission reduction potential.Southern Chinese residents mostly use rice as the staple food,while northern residents mostly use wheat as the main food,and the north and south have different staple food consumption patterns,which to a certain extent will lead to different manifestations of food waste in northern and southern households.Based on the nationally representative China Health and Nutrition Survey(CHNS),the study chose the unique perspective of the difference between staple foods in the North and the South to explain household food waste.In addition,the impact of the difference between staple foods in China and the Chinese households on the carbon footprint of food waste in Chinese households was analyzed based on the life cycle assessment theory by using the China Food Life Cycle Assessment Database(CFLCAD)to obtain the food carbon footprint coefficient.Empirical studies analyzing food waste performance show that northern households that eat wheat as a staple food have lower rates of food waste and food waste than southern households that eat rice as a staple food.The above conclusions remain robust by adjusting the analysis of multiple types of robustness tests,such as adjusting samples and substituting the explanatory variables.In addition,there are factors that significantly affect household food waste,such as the age of the head of household,the age of the main female members,the size of the household population,the income level,and the type of urban and rural areas.The heterogeneity analysis showed that differences in staple foods had a greater impact on households with larger population sizes than households with smaller population sizes.Differences in staple foods affect low-income households more than in high-income households.The empirical analysis results of the carbon footprint of food waste showed that the per capita daily carbon footprint of Chinese households was 62.26 g CO2 eq,compared with the northern households with wheat as the staple food(53.70 g CO2eq/d),and the southern households with rice as the staple food had a higher per capita food waste carbon footprint(69.63 g CO2eq/d),and the per capita food waste carbon footprint of rural households was higher than that of urban households.The heterogeneity analysis showed that the difference between North and South staple foods in urban households had no significant impact on the carbon footprint of household food waste.The T-test on the composition of the carbon footprint of daily household food waste quantified the carbon footprint composition of food waste and analyzed the possible mechanisms by which differences in staple foods affect the carbon footprint of food waste.The results showed that different diets had different environmental impacts,and the "rice + vegetables" model of food waste in southern households with rice as the staple food had a higher carbon footprint.This study provides a new perspective for understanding household food waste,provides new ideas for explaining the carbon footprint of household food waste,reveals the possible role of regional food culture in it,and provides empirical evidence that staple food differences affect the carbon footprint of household food waste,which is helpful to find targeted policies to better deal with "waste on the tip of the tongue".While promoting the implementation of the Anti-Food Waste Law and laying the foundation for ensuring China’s food security,it also puts forward reasonable dietary suggestions,gives full play to the potential of household food waste to reduce carbon emissions,and helps China achieve its carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals.