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Food systems are driven by incentives that often lead to food being discarded before entering the market and to the degradation of natural resources. Vegetable production in the water-scarce

province of Almería, Spain, illustrates this and highlights the need for policies ensuring ethical and environmental sustainability standards. Access through your institution Buy or

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European Research Council grant agreement no. 647038 (BIODESERT). F.T.M. acknowledges support from Generalitat Valenciana (CIDEGENT/2018/041). AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS *

Instituto Multidisciplinar para el Estudio del Medio “Ramón Margalef”, Universidad de Alicante, San Vicente del Raspeig, Alicante, Spain Jaime Martínez-Valderrama, Emilio Guirado & 

Fernando T. Maestre * Departamento de Ecología, Universidad de Alicante, San Vicente del Raspeig, Alicante, Spain Fernando T. Maestre Authors * Jaime Martínez-Valderrama View author

publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Emilio Guirado View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Fernando T.

Maestre View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Correspondence to Jaime Martínez-Valderrama. ETHICS DECLARATIONS COMPETING

INTERESTS The authors declare no competing interests. RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Martínez-Valderrama, J., Guirado, E. & Maestre,

F.T. Discarded food and resource depletion. _Nat Food_ 1, 660–662 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-020-00186-5 Download citation * Published: 11 November 2020 * Issue Date: November

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