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MAGNET (Modular Applied GeNeral Equilibrium Tool)

The tool helps identify effective intervention areas for FLW reductions from a food system perspective. The tool guides decision making in policy and private investment processes, making use of a global economy-wide model that captures how the price of specific commodities, and the income that stakeholders obtain from transactions, can change at different points in the supply chain, depending on specific scenarios and situations.

The model simulates the impacts of FLW reducing interventions at primary and processing stages of a supply chain. The model calculates how FLW reduction affects food security (national availability, accessibility and utilisation of food) and sustainability indicators (GHG emissions, agricultural land use) at global and regional levels. Insights generated can support policymakers and private sector users to design effective intervention efforts and guide focused data collection by identifying interventions with the potential to improve nutrition security and sustainability for specific regions, supply chain stages (primary and processing) and sectors.

What type of insights does the methodology generate?

Impacts of FLW and FLW reducing interventions on societal objectives (food security, distribution of economic benefits across sectors and stages in the supply chain, environmental effects).
Trade-offs and synergies of FLW reducing interventions.
By combining different cases and scenarios, MAGNET helps users identify which FLW reducing interventions have the most impact on food system outcomes such as food security, social equity and environmental sustainability.

What type of questions does the methodology help respond?

What are the impacts of measures that aim at specific FLW reducing intervention goals on food security, social equity and environmental indicators?
What are trade-offs and synergies of specific FLW reducing interventions across the social, economic and environmental domains?
How do the impacts that FLW reducing interventions have on societal objectives (healthy, safe food, affordable to all, produced ecologically sustainable in socially equitable value chains) compare to the potential impacts of interventions aimed at yield improvements or dietary change?

How does this tool work?

The simulations and scenarios that support decision making for FL interventions are based on MAGNET (Modular Applied GeNeral Equilibrium Modelling Tool). MAGNET is a global economy-wide model that combines different variables into scenarios that inform how food security and sustainability are affected by for example: specific changes in input and output prices, the use of production practices and intermediate inputs and changes in income and demand responses (Woltjer and Kuiper 2014). Tracing all economic flows, the MAGNET tool models feedback loops within the food system from farm to fork. MAGNET can also model interactions of the food system with the rest of the economy (manufacturing and services), while including scenarios of how these interactions can affect national level income. A key strength of MAGNET is its modular structure, which allows it to combine developments across different strands of research, enabling the study of trade-offs across multiple domains.

At what stage can the tool be applied?

Pre- intervention stage

Link to publication

Article: Using food loss reduction to reach food security and environmental objectives – A search for promising leverage points

Do you have questions about using this tool?

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