Since the early 2000s, food waste has emerged from an invisible to global problem. In Chapter 5 of my recent book, Food Resistance Movements, I describe the twists and turns of this change and the continuing shortfalls that curb the crisis of food waste.
This chapter contextualises radical food waste movements such as ‘freegans’ – members of Food Not Bombs and dumpster divers in Australia and elsewhere [link to Blog 1], and complementary activist movements in Catalonia, such as the food recyclers of La Xarxa D’Aliments and Espigoladors (publication forthcoming), to consider the implications for the food movement overall. Set within the broader context of food resistance movements, I decipher the emerging themes, patterns, strategies and concerns that have developed within and between food resistance movements over two decades. I ask, what have food resistance movements achieved and what can be learnt from their experiences?
Food resistance movements often reach beyond awareness and behaviour change to consider pathways of formalisation, integration within planning and policy, maintenance through care and governance, failure, technological innovations and commercialisation. Opportunities for scaling ‘out’ and ‘up’ are examined through processes of diversification, hybridisation and replication. The chapter closes on possibilities for translocal movements and linkages between the Global North and South.
My work on the food waste movement is also published elsewhere:
Edwards, F. (2020) Overcoming social stigma by consuming food waste at the Open Table, Agriculture and Human Values. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-020-10176-9.
Edwards, F. & Mercer, D. (2013) Food waste in Australia: The freegan response, Waste Matters: New Perspective on Food and Society, The Sociological Review Monograph Series, 60(S2), December: 174–191. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-954X.12044
Edwards, F. & Mercer, D. (2013) ‘Food waste in Australia: The freegan response’, in Evans, D., Campbell, H. & Murcott, A. (eds.), Putting Waste on the Food Studies Agenda: Production, Politics and Everyday Life. London: Wiley-Blackwell. Pp.174–191.
Edwards, F. & Mercer, D. (2011) ‘Gleaning from Gluttony: An Australian Youth Subculture Confront the Ethics of Waste’ (reprint), in Williams-Forson, P. & Counihan, C. (eds.) Taking Food Public: Redefining foodways in a changing world. London: Routledge. Pp. 195–210.
Edwards, F. & D. Mercer (2007) Gleaning from Gluttony: an Australian youth subculture confronts the ethics of waste, Australian Geographer, 38(3), November: 279–296. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00049180701639174
Edwards, F. (2006) Dumpster dining: Freegans consume waste food to protest consumer waste, Alternatives Journal, July, 32(3): 28–29.
Visit my page on Academia.com to download available articles.
Ferne Edwards 