ABSTRACT
This chapter critiques hegemonic conceptions of food waste as stemming primarily from wasteful decisions of individual consumers in rich countries and poor technology and infrastructure in poorer countries. It reveals how this eclipses vital power relations, past and present, which drive waste – including across food supply chains, and through colonial and post-colonial exploitation between countries. It then analyses how structural features of capitalism create drivers for waste, food poverty, overproduction, colonialism and ecological degradation – and that underlying this are exploitative power relations driving inequalities of wealth and power. Turning to some of our most urgent current crises of capitalism, it critiques the idea of endless GDP growth being compatible with keeping safely within planetary boundaries such as those relating to climate change. Within the context of endless growth, the rebound effect offsets many of the positive environmental effects of food waste reduction. Therefore, tackling problems of climate change, food waste and food poverty within ecological limits, through addressing the deeper inevitable crisis of capitalism, requires us to look beyond ‘reformism’ to more radical ‘transformist’ solutions that distribute wealth and resources more equitably. I suggest how a food waste movement can form part of broader transformist movements through forging alliances, developing counter-hegemonic narratives, and strategically winning power.
