System Thinking Application: Sustainability & Household Food Waste

This essay discusses the application of system thinking as an interdisciplinary approach to enhance sustainability, particularly in addressing the issue of household food waste. It highlights the interconnectedness of various elements within a systematic organization and how this approach can improve management systems related to environmental resources. The essay emphasizes the significant environmental impact of household food waste, including greenhouse gas emissions and resource depletion. It explores how system thinking can aid in understanding the complex dynamics of food management, from production and distribution to consumption and waste, and how it can inform the development of effective and sustainable food waste management plans. The essay also addresses the challenges and drawbacks of implementing system thinking and sustainability principles, such as the potential for economic losses in the agricultural and food processing industries, and the need for comprehensive data collection and adaptive strategies to address the diverse lifestyles and food habits within different populations. The study concludes that integrating system thinking with sustainability principles is crucial for raising public awareness, informing government policies, and promoting sustainable practices in food consumption and preservation.

Running head: SUSTAINABLITY
Sustainability
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Notes

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The idea of system thinking has been incorporated as one of the major interdisciplinary
approach that helps to create establishment and inter relationship between different elements
within a systematic organization. The main purpose of incorporating system thinking approaches
is to establish effective relationship among different components of organizational structure that
is not present within the traditional analytical thinking approach. Due to the multidisciplinary
nature of the system thinking, it is possible to generate the unique feature within an organization
that is aimed to improve the levels of management system. In the given context, it can be said
that the system thinking approach can be used in the given purpose to deal with the issues related
to mismanagement and overexploitation of the environmental resources. The system thinking
will be used for development of the rapid approaches and solution development of the
environmental issues.
The principles of sustainability can be enhanced with the use and application of the
system thinking. The current study will aim to discuss the viability of the system thinking
approaches for applying the principles of sustainability. The issue of household food wastes will
be discussed in the given essay that is one of the major causes of environmental degradation.
According to Eilam and Reisfeld (2017), one of the main purposes of system thinking is
to establish interrelationship between different social activities that seems to have result in the
environmental degradation activities. The wastes that are generated from the household food,
account for nearly 40% of all environmental wastes in the Australian society. On average nearly
20% of all foods purchased by the Australian are wasted (Foodwise 2018). The food waste has
significant impact over the act of society. The smell of rotten food generates greenhouse gas,
mostly methane, which seems to have 25 times higher impact over the carbon dioxide. In the
given context it is important to mention the effective food management plan needs to be

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incorporated in order to deal with the issue of food wastage. Sustainable development plan is
essential in order to understand a complex system of social development. In order to incorporate
the idea of system thinking in food management plan is important to understand the impact of
food wastage to the environment and Society. The approach to food waste management is often
associated with addressing individual issues within the society that are directly associated with
challenges in household food management. Holistic approach of systematic analysis is used in
order to understand the root cause of food wastage. The interaction system elements within can
be a major challenges for the proper implementation of the food waste management (Schmidt
2016).
The loss of food that are caused due to complex system of human food chain is believed
to have major impact on the natural resources of the planet and thereby can be a challenge for the
sustainable developmental path. Schott and Cánovas (2015), have highlighted about the fact that
food can be lost at all stages of the system of value chain. The systemic approach thinking
process is therefore essential to understand and highlight on the exact source of food loss. For
example, during the time of production, the food loss occurs due to lack of nutrition that has the
risk of causing crops related disorders. Other forms of loss can also occur during the transport
and storage of the food.
It has been found that food wastage is highly common in industrial areas, where
preservatives are used in order to increase the duration of food storage. Nevertheless, the
excessive use of food preservative can degrade the quality and increase the risk of wastage in
shorter period. Hence, food waste is an integrated part of every household system industrial
areas. In spite of effective distribution system it is not possible to minimize the household
wastages. It is therefore essential to incorporate sustainable practice in the food system

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management, which can help to minimize the wastage with effective advanced planning and use
of essential materials that can be helpful in food preservation.
The components of system thinking is essential in the given context which will help to
incorporate the factor associated with Industrial and economic growth. As artificial ways are
getting popular for preserving and manufacturing food, there is an increase in pressure of the
natural resources, which are mostly used in packaging and storage system (Schott et al. 2016).
The component of global warming is also essential to consider, which is highly associated with
food wastage. As mentioned earlier the rotten gas that is generated from the food waste is one of
the main sources of greenhouse effects. The system thinking elements will therefore help to
establish the direct link between the household activities that are responsible for increasing the
level of carbon footprint of the environment. The rotten food wastes can also have a direct
impact on the outside surroundings and local ecosystem of flora and fauna.
The complex system of food management plan can easily be understood by common
people, as they will be able to minimize the effect of food wastage by advanced planning system.
It is important to note that every subsystem within the food management plan is highly
interlinked with each other, which can have a direct or indirect impact of on the biological
activity of human life.
As mentioned by Hebrok and Boks (2017), one of the major highlighting notions about
the system thinking is the ability to integrate scientific components with the sustainability
factors. In most of the cases, the sustainability principles of environmental conservation are
directly linked with the idea of scientific progression. The complex dynamic system within
system thinking can help in the process of data collection that is crucial and primary part of the
food waste management plan. The components of the management plan can differ according to

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the needs of the society. For example, the people in the urban areas are more dependent upon
packaged food that can have more negative consequences compared to that of the food that are
consumed by the people in the rural regions. It is also important to note that with the fast rate of
industrial growth people are depending more on the packaged food products.
Maintaining higher levels of transparency is one of the major challenges with the
complex food management system. The system thinking will help to get the idea about the
quantity of food that is consumed by the ever-rising population. For effective planning, it is
important to predict the increased rate of future food production. This can help to maintain
higher levels of transparency with the household food waste management plan.
The government policies need to be effective in order to understand the importance of
household food management plan. The food systems are essential to understand the Complex
nature of social ecological system that need to be incorporated within the policy making system.
The main aim of the policy is to raise the level of awareness among general public which will
help to minimize the food wastage. The sustainable principle along with that of system thinking
process will provide essential guidelines to the government bodies in implementing important
policies related to household food wastage systems (Hebrok and Boks 2017).
The concept of Public Health needs to be popularized has more number of people are suffering
from obesity and diabetes, which are directly related to the food habit of daily life. The main aim
of Sustainable food development is not only to minimize food wastage; it also focuses upon
providing healthy and nutrient food to the public.
According toPapargyropoulou et al. (2014), sustainability is considered to be one of the
major property of system thinking, which can be incorporated in agricultural and food
manufacturing practices. With the popularity of organic farming and lesser use of chemical

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pesticide, it is possible to improve the up on the quality of the food products that are used in the
process of increasing the lifespan activities of food. Is the modern society is dependent upon
complex food system, it is essential to predict the Rapid changes that can occur and disrupt the
overall ecological balance of human food cycle.
Biggs et al. (2015), have mentioned about social ecological framework that can help to
define the complex interactive nature between the human and nature. The dynamic link between
the food cycle can provide essential reciprocal feedback mechanism.
The major drawback that is associated with system thinking is due to the fact that the
complex interactive mechanism cannot be applicable in every aspect of sustainable development.
For example in case of household food waste management, the component of system thinking
cannot be applicable for every group of population as there is huge differs in their lifestyle and
food habits. Hence, it can be said that the approach of system thinking is highly link to the
fundamental approach of problem solving. This means that the components implemented with
systemic thinking with food processing cannot be equally beneficial to every section of the
society. For example with popularization of organic farming technique, the farmers will face loss
as they will not be able to increase the production for better income level. Nevertheless from the
flow of information that is associated with system thinking, it is possible to gain wider
knowledge about each section of the society and the impact of the same after implementing
proper household food waste management plan.
Another major drawback of Sustainable principles is due to less practical applicability of
the same. As the food production process are being hindered, there is risk of economic loss for
both agricultural and food processing industry. However, the component of system thinking

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encourages incorporating the element of economic progress and sustainable development plan,
which can attempt to protect the interest of maximum section within the society.
The quality of system thinking approach is highly dependent upon the level of
information that is collected as a part of household food waste management planning. In order to
ensure proper quality of Data Collection, the component of index system is used. The index
system can vary depending upon the level of information that is required for better understanding
of each subject. The reliability of data collected that is collected in the context of food waste
management needs to be evaluated before implementing the final plan (A Jalil et al. 2016).
Different forms of values and reflective practice are incorporated within system thinking in order
to make optimized use of all information.
Effective follow-up measurement need to be incorporated in order to understand the flow
of information that is associated with quantitative and qualitative assessment of human food
cycle. The effective approach of system thinking can help to incorporate rapid changes that occur
in the flow of information.
The concluding note it can be said that system thinking approach is highly efficient in the
context of the modern society for incorporating essential information from different level within
an organization in sustainable development plan. Household food waste is one of the major
environmental issues, which is causing high level of disruption in the level of carbon footprint
emitted by human activity. With effective system thinking approach it is possible to collect
sufficient and quality information related to the human food cycle that can help to establish
interrelationship between the different components. It will also be possible to provide proper

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recommendations to the general public for raising day awareness level about use of proper food
preservation techniques.
With the Rapid rise of population in the global society it is crucial to understand the
importance of Sustainable measure in food consumption and preservation. This can help to
minimize the level of food wastage that are being caused due to misuse of harmful chemical
preservatives. Efficient planning in system thinking can help to predict the future changes that
can occur within the society. It will therefore be possible to take proper intervention measures to
reduce the harmful effect of household food wastes. This includes incorporation of organic
farming and less use of chemical preservatives.

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Reference
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