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Luxus Consumption: Wasting Food Resources Through Overeating

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Abstract

In this paper, we redefine the term luxus consumption to mean food waste and overconsumption leading to storage of body fat, health problems, and excess resource utilization. We develop estimates of the prevalence of luxus consumption and its environmental consequences using US food supply, agricultural, and environmental data and using procedures modeled after energetics analysis and ecological footprint analysis. Between 1983 and 2000, US food availability (food consumption including waste) increased by 18% or 600 kcal (2.51 MJ) per person. This luxus consumption required 0.36 hectares (ha) of land and fishing area per capita, 100.6 million ha for the US population, and 3.1% of total US energy consumption. Luxus consumption increased more for particular foods, such as high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), 22% of which was used in carbonated beverages. As an example, the luxus consumption of sweetened soda, 31.8 l per capita, used 0.8% of the US corn crop (230,555 ha of land); 33.6 million kg of nitrogen fertilizer; 175,000 kg of Atrazine herbicide; 34 million kg of nitrogen fertilizer; 2.44 trillion kcal (10.2 PJ) for production inputs and post-harvest handling; and led to 4.9 million metric tons of soil erosion. Diet soft drink luxus consumption was 43.9 l/capita. Assuming half of US soft drink luxus consumption was bottled in plastic, the energy cost for plastics would have been 2.49 trillion kcal (10.4 PJ) in 2000. Total HFCS availability above baseline in 2000 required 4.6 times the resources used for soft drinks alone. This analysis suggests the utility and applicability of the concept of luxus consumption to environmental analysis and for estimating the effects of excess food utilization.

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Abbreviations

BMI:

Body Mass Index

BRFSS:

Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System

Bt:

Bacillus Thuringiensis

CSFII:

USDA Continuing Survey of Food Intakes of Individuals

EJ:

etajoule (1018)

GJ:

gigajoule (109)

ha:

hectare

HFCS:

High Fructose Corn Syrup

kcal:

kilocalorie

kg:

kilograms

l:

liter

MJ:

megajoule (106)

NHANES:

National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys

PJ:

petajoule (1015)

TJ:

terajoule (1012)

USFSD:

United States Food Supply Data

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nutritional Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, 263 Henderson Building South, University Park, PA, 16802-6505, USA

    Dorothy Blair

  2. Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA

    Jeffery Sobal

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  1. Dorothy Blair
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  2. Jeffery Sobal
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Correspondence to Dorothy Blair.

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Dorothy Blair, PhD, received her master’s and doctoral degrees in Human Nutrition from Cornell University and is currently a faculty member in the Department of Nutritional Sciences and the Science, Technology, and Society Program at Pennsylvania State University. Her research and teaching focus on food ecology, food and culture, and the food system both nationally and internationally. She has published articles on obesity, energy expenditure, agriculture and food system issues, and community food security.

Jeffery Sobal, PhD, earned a doctorate in Sociology from the University of Pennsylvania and a master’s in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University. He is currently a faculty member in the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University. His research and teaching focus on the application of social science theories and methods to food, eating, and nutrition. He has published material on social patterns and consequences of body weight, the conceptualization of the food and nutrition system, and the process of making food choices.

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Blair, D., Sobal, J. Luxus Consumption: Wasting Food Resources Through Overeating. Agric Hum Values 23, 63–74 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-004-5869-4

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