Food‐Energy‐Water‐Waste Nexus

The world population has increased by about four billion in the last 50 years. This increase in the number of inhabitants has resulted in significant pressure on natural resources because the productive model of “take-make-trash” for satisfying basic needs leads to unsustainable consumption patterns. The most critical ecosystems for the existence of our society, as we know it today, have been subject to increasing pressure and unprecedented levels of change due to carbon and pollutant emissions. Although environmental problems have an impact on a planetary scale, the policies established at local, regional, and global levels to deal with the environmental crisis often lack comprehensiveness. This work addresses the interactions between food-energy-water-waste (FEWW) production, highlighting the strategic advantages of implementing cross-sectoral instead of sector-specific approaches to use resources efficiently.