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Write research essay on household food waste Australia.
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Introduction
A system is a set of various interrelated parts which work to accomplish a common goal. The system brings all the interrelated parts at a single platform, and all the parts work together towards a common goal. On the other hand, sustainability is the ability of a system to be capable of sustaining and remaining diverse as well as productive in the long run (Crane and Matten, 2016). However, the definition of sustainability has been changed. Now the definition of sustainability does not focus on the sustaining and remaining divers of the biological system, but it aims at creating a model of sustainability which is necessary for both such as earth as well as human being (Holden et al., 2017). Sustainability or sustainable development has several interconnected components such as ecology, politics, economics, and culture.
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System thinking is an approach which is very essential in order to deal with the issues of sustainability (Haines, 2016). System thinking is essential to deal with the issues of sustainability because it looks into the matter of concern from a large than the small picture. The concept of system thinking can be defined as an inter-disciplinary outline which is used for visualizing the interrelationship to see several patterns of change than a static photograph. System thinking is one of the old concepts, but still, it is very useful in dealing with the issues of sustainability (Glasson and Gibbons, 2015). It is considered as a new way of thinking for managing as well as understanding the complex and difficult issues at the global or local level. The approach of system thinking provides a provision in order to leverage administration of complex issues compared to other approaches. It also enables to look the entire picture and understand the wider context of the issues.
System thinking plays an important role in dealing with the wicked problem. In this paper, the selected wicked problem is Household Food Waste. It is also one of the major concerns and sustainable issues in front of the world. Only in Australia more than 4 million tonnes of food is sent by Australians to landfill each year. It is worth $8 billion long-life product, packaged products, fresh food, frozen food, and drinks (Reynolds et al., 2014). It has been estimated that more than 40% of the bin of average household is food. It states that an average household of Australia throws away $1000 worth of food every year. This food is more than enough to feed over a month to an average household. Therefore, household food waste is a serious issue which should be dealt effectively in order to pave the way for sustainability (Graham et al., 2014).
The aim of the study is to highlight the household food waste in the context of Australia and analyze the effectiveness of system thinking approach in order to deal with the wicked problem that is household food waste. The purpose of the study is to analyze the role of system thinking in the context of sustainability issues that are household food waste.
This study will cover the concept of system thinking in detail as well as the significance of the system thinking approach will be discussed. After that, the study will put light on household food waste in the context of Australia. Further, the role of system thinking approach will be analyzed in order to determine whether system thinking approach is critical in developing a solution to sustainability challenges(household food waste) or not. The essay will be concluded with a relevant conclusion which will present some of the findings of the study.
System Thinking Approach
The approach of system thinking aims at providing an explanation for the difficult and complex issues that arise because of the less knowledge or understanding of the system in general (Arnold and Wade, 2015). The approach of system thinking expands its view for taking into account larger system for the deriving conclusion and analyzing interaction on the functional components of the system as well as the relationship rather than separating smaller parts of the system. It is a natural tendency of human being that to solve a problem or issue they do not see the whole picture of the problem and focus on a particular solution which ultimately makes the issues more tough and complex. System thinking approach helps in seeing the problem as a whole and provides several solutions to the problem so that the problem can be dealt effectively (Arnold and Wade, 2015). The approach of system thinking can be used in several aspects of our lives such as the development of the business, research, and organization. However, the approach of system thinking is very significant, but it also can be criticized on various grounds.
It has been assumed that the approach of system thinking is very fanatic, “characterizing a vital political view of the business problem. The legitimacy of system thinking in management education, as well as boardroom of the organization, is being threatened due to the lack of real solution and its reliance on the model.
The significance of System Thinking
System thinking approach has been developed widely, and it is being used extensively to solve the persistent and complex problem because it provides a technique to deal with the persistent and complex problem efficiently and effectively (Stone and Nyaupane, 2017). The approach of system thinking integrates several parts of the system together in order to deal with the complex problem. It includes not only the use of archetypes or loops of feedback but more than this. It is about modifying and shifting how people act, communicates, and think. It helps in seeing the thing holistically. It helps the people to develop the proactive sense to see the problem even before the problem actually arises. By doing so, appropriate and effective measures can be taken to deal with the problem effectively (Stone and Nyaupane, 2017).
Household food waste in Australia
Food waste is a very serious issue, and many countries are on the top rank which wastes food. Australia is also among the top countries which waste food worth million and billion. From a report, it has been found that the people of Australia are wasting food worth $10 million every year. A survey conducted on 2300 people reported that they care for food waste and try to reduce the food waste, although survey revealed that the average household throws food of worth $1050 every year around the country (Porpino, 2016). Two states of Australia South Wales and Victoria reported maximum waste of food. South Wales disposes of around 16 percent of the total food bought while Victoria disposes of 19 percent of total food bought for the household. The report also reveals that the people who live in the urban area waste more than six times more than the people who live in the rural area (Porpino, 2016).
It has been estimated that in Australia the total cost of food waste is $20 billion and more than 50 percent of the total food waste come from the household. Wasting of food as mentioned above is a serious concern and one of the major problems of sustainability (Porpino, 2016). To ensure sustainable development in term of food, we must control the wastage of food. The government of Australia along with the people of Australia should care for food protection and initiate some measures to control the wastage of household food.
The role of System Thinking in the protection of household food waste
One of the critical problems is the wastage of food which requires systematic change with long-term sustainability attention. The developed nations are more likely to waste food while developing nation or underdeveloped nations are less likely to waste food (Hirsch et al., 2017). Therefore, the developed nation should learn the importance of food as well as living in scarcity. Most of the nations do not have enough food to feed the whole population two times a day. Sustainable development in respect of food should be the area of focus. There is a need for change; there is a need of making people aware of the importance of the food, there is a need to motivate and encourage the people to control the waste of food.
System thinking might play an effective role in protecting the household food waste. As per the approach of system thinking, there are two significant factors which are required to deal with the wicked problem that is household food waste such as developing significant system resilience as well as rethinking leadership (Roychoudhury et al., 2017). These two factors are needed to be developed to make it suitable for dealing with the complexity of the wicked problem of household food waste. System thinking emphasizes the cause and effect relationship. It also analyzes the dependency of the cause and effect factors on each other. The approach of system thinking helps in gaining in-depth knowledge of the problem and provides a solution to the issues of sustainability.
Sustainable development attempts to get together the three components (environmental sustainability, economic sustainability, and social sustainability) of the sustainable development in balance. But two of the three components of the sustainable development has been given priority such as the economy as well as environment. The selected wicked problem of household food waste comes under both the components (economy and environment) of the sustainable development (Charles et al., 2017). Economic sustainability refers to the capacity and ability to support a well-defined level of the production of goods and service indefinitely. Sustainability means utilizing the existing resources (renewable and non-renewable) in such a way that the coming generation can also exploit those resources. On the other hand, environmental sustainability is the capability of maintaining the rate of harvesting the renewable resources, the creation of pollution, and depletion of non-renewable resources which can be continued forever.
System thinking helps in finding the main causes of the wicked problem as well as identifying the factors which lead to the wicked problem. Therefore, with the help of system thinking the factors which lead to the wicked problem of household food waste can be identified (Eilam and Reisfeld, 2017). The approach of system thinking also enables us to develop or establish a relationship between the problem of household food waste and human being. It also states the consequences of wasting the food in such an extensive amount. By doing so, it develops critical thinking in order to develop an effective solution to deal with the wicked problem or sustainability challenges.
The major focus of the system thinking is exclusive understanding of the wicked problem and aid in a problem-solving approach to the complex problem of the real world. If we focus on the problem, we can develop short-term solution easily. With the help of system thinking approach, several measures can be developed to control the household food waste. Although it is difficult to formulate legislation on an international level but at the national level legislation can be formulated in order to control the household food waste. For example, the government of Australia can come up with the legislation that a family with n number of population can buy only a certain amount of food in a month to control the waste of food (Oswald, 2016). Apart from this, the government can also direct the local bodies to monitor the dumping of waste food and analyze the pattern of the consumption of food so that appropriate measures can be taken to control the wastage of food. Therefore, it can be said that up to a great extent I do agree with the statement that "systems thinking is critical in developing a solution to sustainability challenges."
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Sustainable development is the demand of the time. We need to focus on sustainable development so that our coming generation can also exploit the resources which are available today. There are several sustainability challenges such as household food waste, availability of renewable and non-renewable resources, environmental problem, ocean pollution, etc. There is a need to deal with such sustainability challenges in order to ensure sustainable development in term of economic sustainability, environmental sustainability, and social sustainability. System thinking is a critical approach to deal with sustainability challenges. As it is a combination of different interrelated parts of a system, it helps the people to see the problem as a whole but not in parts which develop critical thinking to develop an effective solution to the problem.
References
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Crane, A. and Matten, D., 2016. Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press.
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Holden, E., Linnerud, K. and Banister, D., 2017. The imperatives of sustainable development. Sustainable Development, 25(3), pp.213-226.
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Haines, S., 2016. The systems are thinking the approach to strategic planning and management. CRC Press.
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Glasson, J. and Gibbons, P., 2015. Understanding the context of the organization: adopting systems thinking the approach to asset management.
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Reynolds, C.J., Mavrakis, V., Davison, S., Høj, S.B., Vlaholias, E., Sharp, A., Thompson, K., Ward, P., Coveney, J., Piantadosi, J. and Boland, J., 2014. Estimating informal household food waste in developed countries: The case of Australia. Waste management & research, 32(12), pp.1254-1258.
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Arnold, R.D., and Wade, J.P., 2015. A definition of systems thinking: a systems approach. Procedia Computer Science, 44, pp.669-678.
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Stone, M.T. and Nyaupane, G.P., 2017. Ecotourism influence on community needs and the functions of protected areas: a systems thinking approach. Journal of Ecotourism, 16(3), pp.222-246.
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Porpino, G., 2016. Household food waste behavior: avenues for future research. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 1(1), pp.41-51.
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Hirsch, A.S., Shepardson, D.P. and Roychoudhury, A., 2017. System Thinking and Teaching in the Context of Climate System and Climate Change. In Teaching and Learning about Climate Change (pp. 45-58). Routledge.
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Roychoudhury, A., Shepardson, D.P. and Hirsch, A.S., 2017. SYSTEM THINKING AND TEACHING IN THE CONTEXT OF CLIMATE SYSTEM AND CLIMATE CHANGE. Teaching and Learning about Climate Change: A Framework for Educators, p.29.
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Eilam, B., and Reisfeld, D., 2017. A Curriculum Unit for Promoting Complex System Thinking: The Case of Combined System Dynamics and Agent-Based Models for Population Growth. Journal of Advances in Education Research, 2(2).
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Oswald, F., 2016, August. Expanding Boundaries: Systems Thinking in the Built Environment. In 2016 Sustainable Built Environment (SBE) Regional Conference. vdf Hochschulverlag AG a der ETH Zürich.
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