DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.10616781
title: High resolution global dataset of human-provided food wastes in 2021

description: Description:

There is growing recognition that human-provided food resources are becoming increasingly available to animals across the globe (Oro et al., 2013). The food resources that are wasted by humans have influenced predators’ ecology and behavior and can indirectly affect their co-occurring species, leading to mostly negative ecological effects (Newsome et al., 2014). However, large increases have been found in the abundances of terrestrial mammalian predators such as coyotes (Canis latrans), cats (Felis catus) and red foxes (Vulpes vulpes), which are associated with their access to waste foods provided by humans (Denny et al., 2002; Fedriani et al., 2001; Shapira et al., 2008). Therefore, under anthropogenic global changes where human activities are continually expanding, a spatially explicit data for waste foods is essential to assessing the ecological effects of anthropogenic food subsidies to species occurrences and abundances. 

The repository contains a global dataset consisting of four different variables to depict anthropogenic food waste index: household food waste (tons/year), food service food waste (tons/year), retail food waste (tons/year), and total human-provided food waste (tons/year). To produce the dataset, I first allocated the food waste estimates (kg/capita/year) to 30 arc-second grid cells for each county. The food waste estimates for 2021 were generated by normalizing different food waste measurements to a single metric (i.e., kg/capita/year), accounting for known biases or different scopes of measurement, and aggregating a series of studies or observations if multiple observations existed in a geographic entity of interest (United Nations Environment Programme 2021). The food waste estimates were then multiplied by the estimated population count for 2021 produced by Sims et al. 2022. The data files were produced as global rasters at 30 arc-second (~1km at the equator) resolution in geotiff format under WGS 84 geographical coordinate system.

Keywords: Anthropogenic food subsidies, human-provided food wastes, household food waste, food service food waste, retail food waste, food availability, anthropogenic global changes, human activities

Reference:

United Nations Environment Programme (2021). Food Waste Index Report 2021. Nairobi.

Denny, E., Yaklovlevich, P., Eldridge, M.D.B. & Dickman, C.R. (2002) Social and genetic analysis of a population of free-living cats (Felis catus L.) exploiting a resource-rich habitat. Wildlife Research, 29, 405–413.

Fedriani, J.M., Fuller, T.K. & Sauvajot, R.M. (2001) Does availability of anthropogenic food enhance densities of omnivorous mammals? An example with coyotes in southern California. Ecography, 24, 325–331.

Newsome, T. M., Dellinger, J. A., Pavey, C. R., Ripple, W. J., Shores, C. R., Wirsing, A. J., & Dickman, C. R. (2015). The ecological effects of providing resource subsidies to predators. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 24, 1-11.

Oro, D., Genovart, M., Tavecchia, G., Fowler, M. S., & Martínez‐Abraín, A. (2013). Ecological and evolutionary implications of food subsidies from humans. Ecology letters, 16(12), 1501-1514.

Shapira, I., Sultan, H. & Shanas, U. (2008) Agricultural farming alters predator–prey interactions in nearby natural habitats. Animal Conservation, 11, 1–8.

Sims, K., Reith, A., Bright, E., McKee, J., & Rose, A. (2022). LandScan Global 2021 [Data set]. Oak Ridge National Laboratory. https://doi.org/10.48690/1527702.