Blockchain Technology and Material Flow Analysis to Track Food Waste and Enhance Food Security and Sustainability

Christian Bux and Vera Amicarelli

Chapter 3 in Fintech and Green Investment:Transforming Challenges into Opportunities, 2024, pp 79-105 from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.

Abstract: One of the main challenges with food waste minimisation relates to measurement and traceability across the food system. Complete, comprehensive, and transparent data are required to track progress on reduction targets, explore environmental impacts, and suggest mitigation strategies. The present chapter focuses on the use of material flow analysis and its utility in end-to-end traceability powered by blockchain technology, which stores digitised records in a decentralised and immutable manner and promotes trust and transparency across the entire food chain. The authors develop a food loss and waste measurement framework based on a mixed approach. On the one hand, material flow analysis emerges as an essential tool to quantify and qualify food loss and waste streams in the food system; on the other side, blockchain technology enables the optimisation of partnership networks and implementation of circular economy paradigms, thereby reducing food loss and waste.

Keywords: Fintech; New Institutional Economics; Climate Change; Commons; Financialization; Distributed Ledger Technology; Neoliberalism; Trilemma; Securitisation; Blockchain; Sustainability; Innovation; Circular Economy; Implementation; Governance; Challenge; Security; Decentralization; Digital Currencies; Circular Economy; Environmental Accountancy; Food Loss; Food Security; Food Waste; Industrial Symbiosis; Material Flow Analysis; Waste Management; China; Green Growth; Digital Finance; Big Four; Coal; Sustainable Development; Bitcoin Mining; Proof-of-Work (PoW); Energy Consumption; Carbon; Footprint; Market Value; Investor Attention; Google Search Volume; Causality; Cardano Coin; Behavioural Finance; Green Cryptocurrencies; Proof-of-Stake (PoS); Energy Efficiency; Green Finance; DeFi; CeFi; Banking System; Financial System; Bank-based Systems; Market-based Systems; SMEs; Corporate Ownership; Cross-border Banking Flows; De Jure; De Facto Regulations; Green Banking; Environmental Risks; Green Finance Regulation; Green Finance Policies; Gender Equality; Financial Inclusion; Women; Climate Change; Environment; Inequality; Poverty; Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC); Common Prosperity; Sustainable Democracy; Economic Inequality Elimination; COVID-19; Economic Perspectives; Interdisciplinary Study; Youth Banking; Unbanked; Underbanked; Neobank; Accessibility; Practicability; Financial Inclusion; Digital Technologies; Energy Sector; Financial Issues; Supply Chain Financing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G2 Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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