Material Hide‐and‐Seek: Looking for the Resource Savings Due to International Trade of Food Products

摘要: Adverse environmental effects of international trade are emphasized in the literature frequently. Nevertheless, following a theoretical trade logic, the production of goods in regions with higher resource efficiency may lead to reduced global resource use. In this article, major drivers of food‐related material footprint (MF) are analyzed at the global, regional, and country levels. Changes in consumption, the supply chain's efficiency, and participation in international trade are considered drivers of MF. An index decomposition analysis was conducted to assess the contribution of these factors to the variation of the MF in time. Our results partially prove that the optimization regarding natural resource use may contribute to a lower MF of food consumption. Regions and countries with increasing food imports reinforce their efficiency improvement with the lower resource intensity of imported goods, and the international trade …