The promulgation and implementation of the Anti-food Waste Law of the People's Republic of China (abbreviated as "Anti-food Waste Law" below) has made a historic shift from moral constraints to legal governance in China's long-standing anti-food waste. The law was promulgated under the background that food waste is common worldwide nowadays, it threatens global food security, and the solution to this problem has been attached great importance in China. The law provides a legal guarantee for the social practice of anti-food waste in China, and also sets a good example for the global anti-food waste career. The Anti-food Waste Law has the following six main characteristics: it focuses on top-level design and the legislative process is fast and concise; the legislative purpose is clear and the idea of resource conservation is consistent in the legislation; the legal measures are comprehensive and the regulatory responsibilities are extensive; the society is diversified and co-governed to highlight the efficiency of grain saving governance; the policy is implemented following the law and committed to serving the food security strategy; adhering to both morality and law to promote the transformation of food saving awareness into legal constraints. Judged from the practice of the past year, in the implementation of the Anti-food Waste Law, key issues such as further clarifying rights and responsibilities, refining the standard system and strengthening basic support still need to be resolved. Relevant departments should focus on taking the following measures to standardize and guide the implementation of the Anti-food Waste Law: establishing a long-term monitoring and assessment mechanism, building a scientific and effective monitoring and assessment method system; strengthening the linkage between relevant departments, etc. Giving full play to the role of the law in regulating various food waste behaviors in the whole society, thus effectively reducing food waste, ensuring national food security, and promoting the construction of ecological civilization and social civilization.
The enforcement of the Anti-food Waste Law of the People's Republic of China indicates that the resolution to food waste has transformed from scientific study to application. In order to quantify the amount of food thrown away and to promote waste reduction, a comprehensive and systematic national food waste monitoring and evaluation system is therefore needed to be in position. Facing some major issues raised during the implementation of the Law, this paper reviewed previous studies and literatures, identified the major definitions and scopes, and reviewed current research progress about food waste quantification, monitoring and evaluation by the global community. Based on these, the current working progress toward food waste monitoring and evaluation in China was analyzed, the concept extension of traditional to general food waste was proposed, and potential indicators for monitoring were suggested for consideration. The study could offer scientific supports for government departments concerned, lay a foundation for food waste quantification studies in a new stage, as well as provide references for the global community to achieve the 12.3 target of the sustainable development goals.
The anti-food waste law in China comes, but the practice of law enforcement needs scientific support. Food waste in catering industry has become a serious problem in the country. Dynamic monitoring and quantitative evaluation of food waste in catering industry are the necessary premise and primary basic work of law enforcement practice. Based on the field survey data of 3371 dining tables in 174 catering institutions in Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Lhasa in 2015, this study quantitatively reveals that it is scientific and effective to use catering waste as the core indicators to monitor food waste. On this basis, a key parameter
The construction of green canteen is an important component of green catering, and the establishment of a scientific green canteen evaluation index system is critical to the healthy and sound development of the catering industry. Currently, there is a lack of evaluation index system for green canteens in China. This study constructed an evaluation index system of China's green canteen adhering to principles of purposefulness, scientificity, systematicness, feasibility and dynamics. We identify corresponding evaluation standards and empowers 17 indicators from five aspects: anti-food waste and green consumption, food safety and nutrition, energy conservation and loss reduction, pollutant control, green service and operation management. Finally, this paper takes university canteens as an example, through national surveys and case studies of some universities, from the perspective of the actual needs of anti-food waste and consumer recognition. Our study confirms the need to pay greater attention to anti-food waste and green consumption indicators in evaluating green canteens. This paper provides a preliminary basis for the improvement of the green canteen evaluation index system, which is helpful for the implementation of the "Anti-food Waste Law" in canteen places.
The traditional Chinese family pattern of "the man goes out to work while the woman looks after the household" makes women play a dominant role in family life, so female food waste behavior plays a decisive role in preventing family food waste. Based on the dual-system theory, this paper measures the degree of food waste in different gender groups from the perspective of cognitive neuroscience through event-related potential experiments, and explores the key factors affecting the degree of food waste. The results showed that: (1) There were obvious N270 EEG components in the participants of different genders, indicating that the degree of food waste was higher, and generally, women tend to waste more food than men. (2) Compared with the younger generations, the food waste level of the women who were born in the 1950s and 1960s was significantly lower. (3) Compared with women, men should improve their awareness of saving food, which has a more significant effect on reducing a waste of food. The purpose of this study is to provide theoretical support for the effective implementation of the Anti-food Waste Law from the perspective of gender characteristics.
Festival food consumption is an important part of Chinese residents' food consumption, but it lacks accurate characterization of its characteristic structure at present. Based on the student network, this study obtained first-hand data of food consumption of 1728 meals of 192 Chinese households in 13 provincial-level regions through on-site 3-day tracking and direct-weighing method during the Spring Festival in 2018. The study quantitatively analyzed the structure and characteristics of household food consumption and food waste of Chinese residents during the traditional festival of family union for the first time. The results showed that: (1) During the festival, the per capita food consumption was 541.05 g/(cap·meal), and the per capita food waste was 30.72 g/(cap·meal). The per capita food waste rate of residents was 5.68%, much higher than that of the non-festival period by 3%. (2) Most of the food consumption was fresh food and luxury items that are not bought on a daily basis. Vegetables (21.73%), meat (17.77%), rice (12.45%), fruits (8.39%) and aquatic products (7.88%) were the main items. The structure of food waste was similar to that of food consumption, with vegetables (26.20%), meat (21.58%), rice (16.34%), aquatic products (11.78%) and alcohol (8.43%) as the main components. (3) During the festival, there are significant differences in food consumption among families of different population sizes and there are significant differences in food waste among different regions and groups. The amount of food consumption and waste per capita in rural households is higher than that in urban households. Food consumption and waste amounts are higher in households with higher income and smaller population sizes. The results of this study quantitatively outlet the characteristics of food consumption behavior of Chinese residents during the Spring Festival, which provides references for the monitoring and evaluation of food waste in the implementation of the Anti-food Waste Law of the People's Republic of China.
Economic development has improved people's daily diets, but food waste and obesity have increased significantly. Currently, China is the country with the most obese population in the world. Meanwhile, food waste has become the major source of post-harvest loss in China, and about 7% of total food production is wasted in consumption stage. Based on 1562 survey samples from 28 provincial-level regions in China, this study assessed food waste in rural China and empirically analysed the impact of obesity on rural household food waste. The results showed that, first, on average, 1.62% of food is wasted per household each day in rural China. Food waste is greater in economically developed areas, such as Southeast China. Second, empirical analysis showed that obesity is significantly positively correlated with food waste, which suggested that the households with more obesity population are more likely to waste food. Third, there is age heterogeneity in the impact of obesity on household food waste. When the head of household is younger than 60 years old, obesity is significantly positively correlated with household food waste. When the head of household is older than or equal to 60 years old, obesity is positively but not significantly correlated with household food waste. The reason for this phenomenon may be that older farmers have experienced the years of arduous before the reform and opening up in the late 1970s, and they have a stronger awareness of food saving, which will reduce the food waste. Hence, the government should encourage and promote farmers to develop an awareness of food saving through television, radio and other media channels that are popular among farmers. Moreover, various forms of food saving actions should be encouraged through legislation and training programs. This study assessed the current situation of food waste in rural China and analyzed the impact of obesity on food waste, which not only supplements the literature on obesity and food waste, but also has significance for improving food policy.
The Anti-food Waste Law of the People's Republic of China was issued and came into force on April 29, 2021. Monitoring and evaluation of food waste is the major part and the important basis for the implementation of the Law. Based on the principles and requirements of the Anti-food Waste Law, this study proposes a new quantification method from photos for food waste, and tests the validity and the feasibility based on 656 observations from four typical cafeterias in Beijing. The main conclusions of this study are as follows: (1) Based on the image method, the food waste index in the typical cafeterias was 0.64, 0.02 lower than that obtained by weight method, and the average plate waste generated by consumers in the typical cafeterias was 58.62 g/cap/meal in 2021, which was 2.40 g/cap/meal higher than that obtained by the weight method. (2) There is a significant correlation between the food waste rate obtained by the image method and that obtained by the weight method (Pearson cor=0.76, p<0.01), and the agreement between two sets of measurements has a good consistency (CCC=0.757, p<0.01), which confirmed the validity and the feasibility of the image method. (3) When using the image method to carry out monitoring and evaluation, we find that the results that include kitchen waste weight data are more reliable. This study explores a scientific, reliable, simple and feasible quantitative monitoring and evaluation method of food waste, and provides effective scientific and technological support for the enforcement of Anti-food Waste Law.
The food waste generated by tourists is an important component of the food waste in China, which poses severe challenges to the sustainable development of tourist destinations and different regions. This paper uses literature analysis to explore the driving factors and monitoring and evaluation techniques of tourists' food waste behavior. The results show: (1) The food consumption behavior of tourists has the characteristics of consumption and culture, complexity and impulsiveness, necessity and symbolism, habitual and exploring. (2) The push of globalization industrialization, urbanization, traditional culture, policies, the promotion of stakeholders of upstream and downstream industrial chains and operation management of tourism enterprises, the contextuality of tourists' food consumption, age, and income are important driving factors for tourists' food waste behavior. (3) The methods that can be used to measure food waste by tourists include food diaries, direct measurement, mass balance, waste composition analysis, various survey statistical methods and tree structure model, the evaluation of tourists' food waste behavior is mainly based on qualitative research, the monitoring methods that can be used include the use of purchasing and inventory tables, vehicle weighing equipment, patented technology of automatic food waste tracking system, and smart menus. The research conclusions have reference value for promoting the implementation of the "Anti-food Waste Law of the People's Republic of China" and improving the accuracy of decision-making by relevant departments to reduce tourists' food waste.
Food waste is a serious problem in China, which poses great challenges to food security, resources and the environment. The development of the top-level waste-reduction strategy for guaranteeing food security has commenced with the newly issued Anti-food Waste Law of the People's Republic of China and the Action Plan on Saving Food. However, the specific operational mechanism now needs to be explored urgently. Through information obtained from official websites of Japanese ministries and commissions and relevant policy documents, this paper summarizes Japan's food waste reduction practices from the aspects of laws, regulations, policy objectives, operational mechanism, monitoring system and national actions, and makes a comparative analysis of China's current food waste reduction actions. It is pointed out that Japan has formed an effective food waste reduction guarantee system. The country expanded producer responsibility, established targets for waste-reduction at different stages, created a monitoring and accounting system, and carried out cross-sectoral cooperation and national actions to reduce food waste. However, in Japanese farms, there is less concern with food loss and waste, participation in the system is voluntary and there is a lack of binding incentive schemes. This paper puts forward the following policy suggestions: the concept of food safety should shift from increasing production to both increasing production and reducing consumption; make laws more targeted and binding; develop cross-sectoral collaboration mechanisms to reduce food waste at all levels; establish a food loss and waste monitoring and accounting system, and set industry specific targets.
In order to explore "how urbanization drives the change of food system" and "what human-land coupling relationship is implied by the change of food system", this paper took the food system of Beijing as an example to study the evolution process of the food system since 1978, and revealed the human-land coupling relationship implied by the change of food system. In addition, the index systems of food system change and urbanization driving force were established, and the driving force evaluation, Granger causality test, regression analysis and network analysis were combined to study the driving force and action mechanism of food system evolution in Beijing. The results show that the food system in Beijing has experienced a process of weakening local agricultural production, increasing food consumption demand, and increasing food circulation mileage in the past 40 years. From a geographical perspective, this change is essentially a process in which the human-land coupling relationship contained in urban food consumption expands from proximity to a greater distance -- that is, the evolution process of local and tele-coupling of food system. Among the influencing factors driving this process, income growth is the main initial driving force, non-agriculturalization of elements is the main intermediate link, and population agglomeration has the most extensive impact, which is ultimately led to the increasing proportion of external supply and the continuous increase of food miles. The research shows that the human-land relationship contained in food system is not limited to a specific place or region, but in the form of "flow space" and place space interconnected and permeated. Therefore, it is necessary to adopt a theoretical perspective and research method integrating "flow space" and place space to recognize the human-land coupling relationship in such open systems.
Currently, due to China's continuous rise of international dependence on food, reducing food losses and avoiding waste has become an important way to solve the problem of the resilience of the food security system. However, thanks to the obvious variations in the dietary structure of residents in different regions, the implementation of food saving policies and regulations should pay attention to these regional differences. Thus, it is necessary to analyze the food consumption habits (especially the dietary structure or ratio) of residents in different areas. In this context, taking Yantai, Lanzhou, Xinxiang, and Jiujiang as examples, our study used a questionnaire survey to explore the differences of the food consumption and its corresponding production land demand in the four cities. The results show that: (1) There are significant regional differences between dietary structures and their corresponding consumption of land resources, and this difference is closely related to the urban natural conditions and local dietary customs. (2) The origins (global, local and domestic) of food consumption of residents in the four cities tend to be different, and such differences are relatively small in local origins but significant in global origins. Finally, based on the analysis results, the paper discusses the policy possibilities for food saving and anti-food waste. First of all, the implementation of anti-food waste policies and regulations should fully take into account the regional characteristics of residents' food consumption, in order to formulate targeted food consumption standards and dynamic monitoring systems. Secondly, in the context of global fluctuations and food security, local governments should pay more attention to the possibility of cities reserving strategic origins for local food supplies in combination with spatial planning, so as to reduce the food losses during transportation.
Food security is a major issue related to national security and social livelihood, and tourism industry is an important embodiment of social development. While a close interaction exists between grain production and tourism, the correlation mechanism between grain production and tourism, including the evolution characteristics in the time and space dimensions, has not yet been clarified in existing studies. This study uses DEA-CCR model and entropy weight method to calculate the local grain production efficiency and tourism development level using panel data of 31 provincial-level regions in China (excluding data from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan) from 2010 to 2019. The coupling coordination model, Markov chain and geological detector are used to discuss their spatiotemporal coupling coordination characteristics and influence mechanisms. The results show that: (1) The grain production efficiency and tourism industry development level in China are fluctuating with the elaspe of time, and there is an obvious imbalance between regions. (2) Grain production efficiency and the tourism development level show a high degree of coupling correlation. The coupling and coordination relationship between the two has evolved from "primary coupling and coordination" to "intermediate coupling and coordination," and shows the differentiation characteristics of "high in the east and low in the west" in terms of space. (3) The coupling coordination between the national grain production efficiency and the tourism development level is relatively stable, making it difficult to realize the transition of the coupling coordination type in the short term. (4) Regional economic development level (GDP) and tertiary industry labor force (number of employees) are the core driving factors that affect the coupling and coordination between grain production efficiency and the tourism development. The findings in this study have certain reference value for the scale of grain production, resource allocation, tourism destination planning and development of provincial-level regions. Moreover, the study provides theoretical support and practical reference for the formulation of macro policies in the aspects such as cultivated land protection, food security, and promotion of high-quality tourism development.
Taking 4A and 5A scenic spots of high-level tourist attractions in 337 cities in China as the research object, the spatial and temporal evolution characteristics of high-level tourist attraction resources in China from 2001 to 2019 were comprehensively analyzed by constructing the overall differentiation index (GDI) and using exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA). The results show that: (1) In China, 4A scenic spots dominate the developing trend of high-level tourist attractions in number and growth, and the growth rate enters a period of being relatively stable after 2015. (2) According to the time sequence analysis, the number of high-level tourist attractions in the central and northeast regions is small, but the growth rate is higher than that of other regions. In the western region, there is a large number of high-level tourist attractions and they are increasing fast, while the eastern region has the most high-level tourist attractions, they are experiencing the lowest growth rate, exceeded by the western region in number in 2017. The size of the city is proportional to the number of high-level tourist attractions, inversely proportional to the growth rate. (3) From the spatial perspective, the distribution density of high-level tourist attractions in China is increasing year by year. The density of high-level tourist attractions is related to the agglomeration of urban agglomerations in coastal areas and the central region. The spatial hot spots and sub-hot spots occupy the dominant position, forming a pattern of "two points agglomeration, multi-pole and multi-region agglomeration, clusters agglomeration". (4) The GDI index increases with the reduction of the research scale, and the smaller the spatial scale is, the greater the differences between high-level tourist attraction resources are. (5) The spatial distribution characteristics of high-level tourist attractions in China are influenced by the interaction of social factors, economic factors, resource factors and other factors, among which, the population scale, tourism economy as well as human and culture resources are critical. The research results can provide some reference for optimizing the spatial layout of scenic spots resources and coordinating high-quality regional development of tourism in China.
Rural multi-functionality is an important way to solve problems related to the urban-rural dualistic structure effectively and promote the integrated development of urban and rural areas. This paper takes Eastern Fuzhou, the national urban-rural integrated development pilot zone as the research area to analyze the spatial differentiation characteristics of rural territorial multi-functions and the influencing factors with geodetector on the township scale. The results show that: Firstly, the spatial pattern of rural single-function in the research area reveals various features, for example, the agricultural production functions are clustered in small areas along the coast; the industrial development function and the living function are mainly concentrated in the city fringe area and southern townships; the ecological conversation function is mainly expanded in the western towns; the tourism and leisure function is mainly distributed in central and northern parts as well as Pingtan Island. Secondly, according to the LSE model, the research area is identified into several parts: five-function complex area, four-function complex area, three-function complex area, dual-function complex area and single-function dominated area, of which 58 towns are involved in four- and five-function complex areas, accounting for 45.68% of the total number. This reflects a high level of the multi-functionality of rural areas with a good foundation of urban-rural integration in the research area on the whole. Thirdly, the spatial differentiation of multi-functions in rural areas is affected by internal and external factors such as natural environment and social economy. Natural environment factors shape the original and characteristic functions of rural areas, location factors promote the formation and differentiation of rural functions, social economy is the basic factor optimizing rural functions while policy and capital are the leading factors accelerating the multi-functional transition of rural areas. The conclusion provides a scientific basis for further promoting regional urban-rural integration and rural revitalization.
The study of poverty alleviation networks can help deconstruct the cross-regional allocation of poverty alleviation resources and explore the spatial adaptation patterns of poverty alleviation factors, which can be useful for consolidating and expanding the effective linkage between poverty alleviation and rural revitalization. This paper constructs inter-regional poverty alleviation networks based on the data of listed companies on targeted poverty alleviation, and analyses the multi-scale poverty alleviation network pattern, network structure and its poverty alleviation effect by using social network analysis and GWR geographical weighting model. The following conclusions were obtained: (1) The network pattern from a multi-scale perspective is spatially heterogeneous. Enterprises are more willing to help spatially adjacent areas, and the spatial directionality is stronger. The inter-city network of targeted poverty alleviation is evolving from a sparse network with few interconnected nuclei to a dense network with multiple intertwined nuclei, and geographical constraints still exist but the distance to help outward gradually increases. (2) The spatial network for targeted poverty alleviation has been strengthening in terms of concentration and aggregation, with the eastern coastal and more developed inland regions at the core of the network and the remote and less developed central and western regions at the periphery of the network. At the provincial level, the "net spillover" and "two-way spillover" segments are mainly located in the central and western regions, the northeast region, the "net spillover" segments are mainly located in the coastal region and the Yangtze River. The "net spillover" segment is mainly located in the coastal region and the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River, while the "broker" segment is mainly located in the Bohai Sea Rim and Xinjiang. At the municipal level, the "net spillover" segment is mainly located in the core cities and regional centers of the provinces, while the "broker" segment is mainly located in the eastern coastal provinces and the sub-core cities of other provinces, and the "net beneficiary" segment is mainly located in the "net benefit" segment. The cities in the "net benefit" segment are mainly located in the central and western regions and some regions in need of poverty alleviation, and the cities in the "two-way spillover" segment are mainly the sub-core cities in the central and western regions. (3) The increase in pro-poor diversification, the increase in the number of regional connections, the strength of regional ties and the increase in the intermediation of regional nodes in the poverty alleviation linkage network have a catalytic effect on the poverty alleviation effect.
The development of ecological industry is an important way for key ecological function zones to achieve high-quality leapfrog development. And the transfer payment of key ecological function zones is the only direct, sustainable and centralized ecological protection compensation policy for key ecological function zones. Based on previous research, this paper uses a spatial econometric model to explore the impact of transfer payment of key ecological function zones on the development of ecological industries. Taking Jiangxi province as the research object, based on the research data from 2008 to 2018, the county is used as the research unit to measure the development level of ecological industry, and the spatial effect of transfer payment of key ecological function zones on the development of ecological industry is explored by using the spatial Durbin model. The results show that, the development of ecological industry has a significant positive autocorrelation in space, and there is a phenomenon of high-high agglomeration in the northwest part and low-low agglomeration in the southeast part in Jiangxi province; The improvement of transfer payment of key ecological function zones will not only significantly promote the development of local ecological industry, but also improve the development level of ecological industry in adjacent areas.
Guided by the principles of conservation priority, protection priority and natural restoration, the ecological security status is evaluated based on the grid scale, and the ecological restoration zoning of land space is carried out, which is conducive to the implementation of precise restoration, reducing the cost of ecological restoration and increasing the benefits of ecological restoration. Taking Suzhou district of Jiuquan city as an example, this paper selects evaluation factors from the perspective of environmental base and human interference, and uses spatial principal component analysis (SPCA) to evaluate ecological security based on grid scale. The realistic constraints such as macro-scale ecological protection red line and permanent basic farmland protection are combined with grid-scale ecological security assessment results to realize accurate ecological restoration zoning. The results show that the overall ecological security level of the study area is relatively low, and the area of moderate security level and below is 1391.65 km2, accounting for 71.35% of the total area of the study area, the overall ecological security pattern is characterized by high in the middle and low in the surrounding area. The territorial space ecological restoration zone of Suzhou is divided into 5 types of zones, of which the ecological restoration zone is the largest area, accounting for 46.17% of the total area of the study area. The four types of ecological control, ecological conservation, ecological improvement and ecological management are most distributed in rural areas, indicating that the complexity, difficulty and importance of rural ecological restoration in Suzhou are higher. This paper uses the new research ideas of ecological restoration zoning, in order to enrich the theory and method of ecological protection and restoration planning in territorial space.
The continuous expansion of the planting area of cash forest in the Loess Plateau, which is dominated by apples, has caused increasing water consumption and potential water security risk. Quantifying the water footprint of apple production and discussing the water security risk affected by the apple production expansion are of great significance to scientifically guide the healthy development of the future apple planting in the plateau. Based on ArcGIS and CROPWAT software, 44 cities (prefectures) in the Loess Plateau from 2000 to 2019 were selected to explore the spatial and temporal distribution patterns of apple water footprint and water security risk. The results showed that from 2000 to 2019, the area of apple planting in the Loess Plateau increased by 1.3 times and the yield increased by 3.1 times, presenting a development trend of "moving toward the north and expanding to the west". The spatial distribution of apple green water footprint was basically consistent with that of rainfall, both of which decreased from southeast to northwest, but was opposite to the spatial distribution of blue water footprint. The total apple water footprint increased from 7.442 billion m3 to 10.804 billion m3, the proportion of apple water footprint to agricultural water consumption increased from 42.78% to 65.63%, and the proportion of gray water footprint reached 13.88%, which reflected the serious water security risk posed by apple production in the Loess Plateau. Therefore, further expansion of apple planting in the plateau should be controlled moderately. This study can provide a basis for evaluating the water security risk behind the expansion of apple planting in the Loess Plateau.
