ABSTRACT
To address the needs of nations experiencing overwhelming food waste, it is argued that it is necessary to understand what societies have defined as “food” in the past. This chapter attempts, thus, to address first how ‘food’ has been and continues to be defined, by looking at historical definitions, as shaped specifically in the Asian geographic sphere by agriculture, trade, and socio-economic choices. Next, present-day case studies in Asia (Middle East and Southeast Asia) are seen to reveal the sustained aspect of earlier definitions. Once defined as ‘food’, that which escapes the definition however comestible becomes relegated to ‘waste’, hence defining ‘food’, it is argued, is an essential step toward understanding the causes of food waste well enough to reduce, if not eliminate it.
