Potential Methods for Reducing Food Waste

There is an increasing global concern of food waste which already has impact on social, economic and environmental aspects. Socially, food waste leads to the growth of malnutrition population, especially the population who suffer from food insecurity. The money and labor which is put into the production of food has also been wasted because almost one third of food been thrown away through the process of production, transportation, retailing and consumption (Turner, 2018), which cause the massive economic loss and raise the global prices of food. Food waste contribute to environmental problem as well, the disposal of food waste release greenhouse gas which speed up climate warming, at the same time pollute the water and air, a mass of food waste cause more monoculture and decrease the biodiversity. There must be some potential changes to make for reducing food waste; some people believe the change should be made individually but others think institutions and government should take responsibility for decrease food waste. In my personal opinion, food waste not only is global concern but also personal issue, the change could be made through changing personal behaviors and intervention of government, organizations and institutions, because consumers’ behaviors always intertwine with marketing condition and government policy. In this paper, I begin by explaining food waste briefly, introducing the debate of whether the change should be made on individual level or structural level, and then I will use evidences from researches to prove my claim, finally offer some feasible solutions of reducing food waste.

Food waste is the edible or unedible food is thrown away through food supply chain or human consumption. Even though is a global concern, the cause of food waste is not universal. Most food discards happen in developing country through the process of harvest, transportation and storage, but in developed country food waste always occurs during the consumption. According to Garrone, Melacini and Perego (2014), there is food waste of 1.3 billion tonnes per year in the global, which is a considerable issue that threatens food security and environment. Actions must be taken to reduce food waste, but there is a hot debate on whether the change should be start at personal level such as changing shopping and cooking behaviors or it is government or other institutions’ responsibility to promote food waste reduction. Some researchers illustrated that in the developed country consumers are the main factor of causing food waste, around 40-45% food waste come from the household level (Aschemann-Witzel, Hooge, Almil &Oostindjer, 2018). It is a large proportion of food waste, so changing consumers’ behaviors and lifestyles are important in prevention of food discard. The behaviors that prevent food reduction are also targeted such as do not have shopping list before go shopping, prepare too much food for meals, do not always check the cupboard or refrigerator, and store food in a improper way. In Graham-Rowe, C.Jessop and Parks’ study (2013), other barriers of reducing household food waste were analyzed. First, usually in the home mother is the role who cooks for the family, they tend to care more about family’s health and provide a plenty of food to make meals nourishing and abundant. During the interviews, most participants indicated that they would just throw away the surplus food. Second, many people hoard a large supply of food for convenience, because they do not have too much time go shopping or cooking. Whilst be fear of getting ill is another way of avoiding inconvenience, when the food expire the ‘best before’ date, people usually choose to throw them away, because they do not want take risk with their health. Third, many household lacks the awareness of how serious the food waste could result and they consider discarding surplus food as social norm, because surplus food is inevitable. Last, some consumers stated that it is retails and supermarkets’ duty to change the conditions, since some food waste cannot be avoided such as large food package size and un-freshness of food which they buy from supermarkets (Graham-Rowe et al., 2013). The last two barriers cannot be simply eliminate by changing consumers’ behaviors, so some people think the actions must be taken by the government and organizations to change the policy and improve consumers’ awareness. Indeed, there are many plans be implemented through different countries. For example, the program of defining and measuring of food waste in UN, the National Food Waste Strategy in Australia, and Love Food Hate Waste campaign in UK (Turner, 2018). These are all aim to promote the global food waste reduction and increase consumers’ consciousness of food waste problem.

For the debate, both sides are true about their suggestions, but in my point of view, it is better to combine the individual level and structural level together to develop the food waste reduction campaign. Because this global concern cannot be solved unilaterally, consumers’ behaviors and lifestyles relate with the marketing conditions, and marketing policy also shapes the behaviors of consumers. Moreover, food waste of different region has different situation to consider, such as in the developing country food waste most occur in the process before consumption, then the actions should be more focus on policy and technique rather than individual. Therefore, food waste problem should be treated through the cooperation between individual and governments or other institutions such as supermarkets, retails and NGOs. On the basis of Graham-Rowe, C.Jessop and Parks’ research of motivations of reducing food waste (2013), the most motivations be mentioned are financial concern and emotion of guilt, but the environmental concern is not taken seriously, which means not too much household realize the negative influence of food waste. It is undoubted that some behaviors such as making lists before go to the supermarket, checking the cupboard and freezer frequently, making proper amount of meals and suppress impulse purchase are helpful for preventing food waste, but it is not easy for people who have limit choice on food or lack priority on environmental concern. Thus, it is supermarkets’ duty to provide small size package of food for those small size household and try not using the promotions to attract consumers to purchase foods. Meanwhile, the community organizations could offer cooking skills and appropriate storage knowledge of food to households (Graham-Rowe et al., 2013; Quested, Marsh, Stunell, &Parry, 2013). And there are some unusual but interesting ways to educate people avoiding food waste. For example, in Canada Chef Michael Smith organized a challenge for children not throw away food in a week and use the leftovers to cook new meals, and the winners will get some small prize from chef. Chef Michael Smith believed children could learn from this challenge that there are $31 billion of food be thrown away in Canada and by accepting this challenge, children will realize how food important it is and how to avoid wasting food (Yarr, 2018). It is through an attractive way to encourage young people take part in the global food waste issue and improve their awareness at the same time. As one study concluded that “It is useful to move beyond consumer food-waste behaviors and to study consumers’ lifestyles and consumption habits concerning foods and food waste as the antecedent of wastage” (Aschemann-Witzel et al., 2018, p.169). It is better to understand consumers’ behaviors through their motivation, social value and environmental context, and then the targeted actions could be much more efficient. According to Aschemann-Witzel, Hooge, Almil and Oostindjer’s study, they analyzed five lifestyles in food consumption; they range from enjoying cooking to least engage on cooking, and from pursuing high quality food and price to low. People who enjoy cooking engagement tend to waste food because of lacking food management. They could use phone apps to plan food and search recipes, also because of their enjoyment of food they can share their knowledge with others or work as volunteers in NGOs as well to shape new social identity. For people who are concern about food price, the marketing actions could be taken by reducing price on suboptimal food or reward for household with no food waste. Finally those people who care about food quality, they can decrease food waste by reuse the leftovers and compost discard food correctly, they also can play a role in sharing their experience and knowledge in the community (Aschemann-Witzel et al., 2018). These marketing actions could assist in helping consumer changing their behaviors to prevent food waste, so the individual change and structural change complement each other.

In order to solve the food waste problem, there are some campaigns and programs designed aim to help people to reducing food waste and dispose food waste suitably. Such as the Waste &Resources Action Programme(WRAP) in UK, which influence the food supply chain to change the size of food package, the ‘best before date’ label, extend the shelf life of food and offer information on storage knowledge. Meanwhile, WRAP work with other companies and organizations to ensure the technical change and marketing change could be carried out. The Love Food Hate Waste campaign which is organized by WRAP, the purposes of this campaign is improving the awareness of benefits of reducing food waste and spreading the knowledge of how to prevent food waste (Quested et al., 2013). It is a cost-effective program which has positive impact on reducing food waste in the UK household. It is not only organizations could make change for prevention of food waste, but also manufacturers and retailers are responsible for changing the food waste conditions. Through manufacturing process, there always some food is discarded because they do not meet the standard shape or size, the damage of package or almost reached ‘best before date’. These foods could be gave to food banks and charities and distribute to people who need, also feed animals is another choice (Garrone, Melacini, & Perego, 2014). In addition, reuse the foods which are ‘ugly’ but consumable is a useful method to prevent food discard and solve food insecurity as well. For instance, in Toronto the chef Jagger Gordon opened a pay-what-you-can grocery to sell the foods which are “unsellable” to the people who face food insecurity problem by reducing the prices. Jagger Gordon expressed that this grocery could be established by the earnings from his catering company and the help of volunteers (A pay-what-you-can grocery, 2018).

In conclusion, food waste problem has become a growing crisis in global scale, consumers’ behaviors and lifestyles are the concern of preventing food waste. But it is better encompass the individual changes with structural changes, such as policy innovation, organizations and NGOs’ involved. To improve people’s consciousness of avoid food waste is also crucial, because some people still do not realize the negative impact of food waste. This improvement could be done by the Love Food Hate Waste campaign, which has already had active effect through the world. I hope this essay could be useful for consumers and governments or organizations to make their best to decrease the food waste.