Food waste in Australia is causing a massive financial burden on the country, with an estimated annual cost of $36.6 billion. Several factors, such as food loss and waste (FLW), inflation, unemployment, and low income, concurrently contribute to Australia's food insecurity problem. This study mainly focuses on FLW, which plays a significant role in Australia's food insecurity. This study finds that despite taking numerous initiatives, including the National Food Waste Strategy 2017, National Food Waste Baseline 2021, Australian Food Pact, and Sector Action Plan, the FLW approximately 7.9 million tonnes of food is wasted every year in Australia. This study explores that in 2022, food insecurity severely affects 21% or 2.1 million households, and 94% of households are concerned about not having enough food in Australia. The author finds that the FLW contributes to producing 17.5 m tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2), 2628.3 gigaliters of water use, and 25 m + hectares of agricultural land use by generating food production. Therefore, this study aims to critically evaluate the FLW scenario and management strategies of the Australian government in order to achieve the sustainable development goal‐12 (responsible consumption and production) and target 12.3 of reducing food waste by 50% by the year 2030.

中文翻译：

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为什么澳大利亚需要减少粮食损失和浪费以确保粮食安全？

澳大利亚的食物浪费给该国带来了巨大的财政负担，估计每年造成 366 亿澳元的损失。粮食损失和浪费（FLW）、通货膨胀、失业和低收入等多种因素同时导致了澳大利亚的粮食不安全问题。本研究主要关注 FLW，它在澳大利亚粮食不安全中发挥着重要作用。本研究发现，尽管采取了多项举措，包括《2017 年国家食物浪费战略》、《2021 年国家食物浪费基线》、《澳大利亚食品公约》和《部门行动计划》，但澳大利亚每年仍有约 790 万吨食物被浪费。这项研究探讨，到2022年，粮食不安全会严重影响21%或210万个家庭，其中94%的家庭担心澳大利亚没有足够的食物。作者发现 FLW 产生了 1750 万吨二氧化碳 (CO2）、2628.3 吉升的用水量以及用于生产粮食的农业用地 25 m + 公顷。因此，本研究旨在批判性评估澳大利亚政府的FLW情景和管理策略，以实现可持续发展目标12（负责任的消费和生产）和目标12.3，即到2030年将食物浪费减少50%。