Food waste reduction strategies for sustainable food security in Vhembe District, Limpopo Province, South Africa

Abstract

Food waste (FW) concern has recently received global considerable attention. Within the broad spectrum of waste types, food loss and waste are produced worldwide in large quantities. Religiosity is an important driver of moral intuitions and as such marketers would do well to consider the diverse effects of moral foundations on specialty food consumption. Due to the current environmental crisis, sustainable consumption behaviour and its drivers has gained significant attention among researchers. It is well documented that consumer behaviour is guided by consumer's beliefs and values and Minton et al. (2019) recommend that marketers consider the diverse effects of religiosity and moral foundations in their marketing strategies to promote food consumption. It is, therefore, plausible that religious leaders may be key role-players in the quest to reduce food wastage in line with SDG goal 12.3, namely, to halve food waste by 2030. The overall objective of this research is, therefore, to determine what role religious leaders (RLs) can play to facilitate food waste reduction for sustainable food security in the Vhembe District. Also, COVID-19 significantly affected people’s food purchasing and consumption habits. Fears of disruptions in the food supply chain have caused an increase in the quantity and type of food bought by households. Yet, increases in food purchases give rise to FW with negative ramifications for the environment in terms of greenhouse emissions and groundwater pollution. Thus, this study explored both the role of religion in food conservation and the part religious leaders can play in reducing FW, while taking a fresh look at food wastage from a religious and moral perspective. In doing the above, this leads to the generation of new knowledge in support of food security, and the fight against climate change. It is worth noting that the study area is faced with the triple challenges leading to many socio-economic problems worsened by the COVID-19. This study applied a theoretically-informed framework of the hope theory; using a mixed method approach with a sequential exploratory and descriptive design. Purposive sampling was used. Appreciative inquiry using key informant interviews and questionnaire survey, as well as preference snowball and random sampling procedures were applied in the study. Government publications, journals and related books were used to acquire data to answer the objectives of the study. Descriptive statistics and factor analysis were computed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) to analyse the quantitative data. Thematic content analysis, frequency distribution analysis were applied using Atlas TI version 8 to measures central tendency in order to answer the objectives of the study. The results of this research provides compelling scientific evidence and guidance for the necessary strategies to adopt for FWR interventions. Further, it revealed that even poor and developing countries need to tackle FW to fight hunger and FS. Also, the findings add value to the academic literature in rural development and policy interventions.