Background and aim of the seminar

Food losses and food waste (FLW) has become a worldwide concern in recent years and is widely identified as a key barrier to global sustainability. Consequently, reduction of FLW emerges as a priority on the global and national political agenda. Like in other fields of environmental sustainability, Nordic countries are the frontrunner in food waste reduction and related research. For example, a recent review 1 shows that Sweden and Finland are the 3rd and 5th in terms of the number of publications in food waste quantification and Norway and Denmark are quite active as well.

The rising food waste in China, the world’s most populous and largest developing economy, deserves a closer look due to its significant impact on the global food market, resources use, and emissions. In recent years, consumer food waste increases rapidly and repeatedly pops up in public debates on food security, human health, and waste management in China. Thus there are huge potentials for China to learn from the experience of food waste research and reduction in the Nordic countries.

This seminar is funded and hosted by the Nordic Centre in Shanghai, China and Fudan University. We aim to bring together active researchers and stakeholders from the Nordic countries and China in the field of sustainable food systems and food waste to share experience and discuss potential directions of collaboration. We will include researchers, practitioners, industry, governmental agencies, NGOs, and media representative to have a holistic perspective and maximize the impacts.

Seminar organizer:

• Gang Liu, University of Southern Denmark

• Magnus Jorem, Nordic Centre, Fudan University

• Yutao Wang, Fudan University, China

Sessions and Speakers:

1. Food-waste quantification and management and a panel discussion on “Towards SDG 12.3: Nordic vs China”

Karin Östergren: Food waste quantification and management in EU and Sweden (RISE, Sweden, and Lund University)

Gang Liu: Food loss and food waste in China: A first estimate (University of Southern Denmark)

Ting Chen: Research on the safety of food waste used as animal feed (Zhejiang Gongshang University)

Marie Harder: Systematic studies of how to optimize food waste recycling in urban communities (Fudan University)

Changjun Li: Which motivation can domain residents’ food waste sorting behavior in a long-term economic incentive program - An experimental explanatory case study (Fudan University)

Yuping Wang: Residents’ role recognition in community food waste sorting programme - A case study of 15 communities in Shanghai (Fudan University)

2. Sustainable food production and consumption

Yajie Liu: Sustainable seafood production: loss, cost and solution (Norwegian University of Science and Technology and University of Tromsø – The Arctic University of Norway)

Lingen Wang: Field survey on food consumption and waste of rural family in Shandong province, China (Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

Jinru Liu: Life cycle assessment of Chinese urban household consumption (Research Center for EcoEnvironmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

Huijuan Dong: Revealing carbon footprint of China’s household consumption (Shanghai Jiaotong University)

3. Food-energy-water nexus

Ming Xu: Urban food-energy-water nexus: A material and energy flow perspective (University of Michigan)

Lixiao Zhang: Food-energy-water nexus in China (Beijing Normal University)

Chao Zhang: Water stress induced by thermoelectric power generation in China (Tongji University)

Mingxing Sun: Circular Economy transition in Bioresource industry: implications in pulp and paper industry (Tsinghua University)

4. Sustainable nutrient management

Xin Liu: Sustainable phosphorus management in China (Nanjing University)

Jiechen Wu: Managing phosphorus flows in urban areas: case studies in Stockholm, Sweden (China Agricultural University)

Weiqiang Chen: Anthropogenic Cycles of Arsenic in Mainland China: 1990-2010 (Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

Jinhua Guo: Where has China’s rice gone? (Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences)