Waste: uncovering the global food scandal
Abstract
Combining frontline investigation with startling new data, Stuart's Waste shows how the way we live now has created a global food crisis - and what we can do to fix it. With shortages, volatile prices and nearly one billion people hungry, the world has a food problem - or thinks it does. Yet farmers, manufacturers, supermarkets and consumers in North America and Europe discard up to half of their food - enough to feed all the world's hungry at least three times over. Forests are destroyed and nearly one tenth of the West's greenhouse gas emissions are released growing food that will never be eaten. While affluent nations throw away food through neglect, in the developing world crops rot because farmers lack the means to process, store and transport them to market. But there could be surprisingly painless remedies for what has become one of the world's most pressing environmental and social problems. Travelling from Yorkshire to China, from Pakistan to Japan, and introducing us to foraging pigs, potato farmers, freegans and food industry directors, Stuart encounters grotesque examples of profligacy, but also inspiring innovations and ways of making the most of what we have. Tristram Stuart lifts the lid on the obscene levels of produce ending up in landfill ...read it and weep. (The Sun). Passionate, closely argued and guaranteed to make the most manic consumer peer guiltily into the recesses of their fridge. (Sunday Telegraph). An extremely thought-provoking, passionate study. (Scotland on Sunday). Stuart has been a freelance writer for Indian newspapers, a project manager in Kosovo and a prominent critic of the food industry. He has made regular contributions to television documentaries, radio and newspaper debates on the social and environmental aspects of food. His first book, The Bloodless Revolution, was published in 2006.
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When retailers mix the same product with different expiry dates, sooner expiry dates are refused by consumers because everyone prefers fresher products.
“When retailers mix the same product with different expiry dates, sooner expiry dates are refused by the consumers because everyone prefers fresher products [65].”
From Understanding Food Loss and Waste—Why Are We Losing and Wasting Food? (2019) · cites this paper as [65]
In traditional markets, sellers sprinkle unclean water on vegetables and fruits to decrease shriveling and wilting; this technique could produce unsafe foods that are avoided by buyers and end up as landfill.
“Also, in traditional markets, sellers sprinkle unclean water on vegetables and fruits to decrease the shriveling and wilting in hot weather under sunlight. This kind of technique, which aims to slow deterioration, could produce unsafe foods that are avoided by buyers and end up as landfill [65].”
From Understanding Food Loss and Waste—Why Are We Losing and Wasting Food? (2019) · cites this paper as [65]
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- Venue
- Choice Reviews Online
- Publisher
- American Library Association
- Published
- 2010-03-01
- Volume
- 47
- Issue
- 07
- Pages
- 47-3773-47-3773
- ISSN
- 0009-4978 (ISSN-L)
- 1523-8253
- OpenAlex
- W1544358532
- Cited by
- 406
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2025: 5 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 23 · 2020: 31 · 2019: 42 · 2018: 39 · 2017: 51 · 2016: 34 · 2015: 36 · 2014: 31 · 2013: 26 · 2012: 26
- Type
- book review
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Choice Reviews Online (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Food Waste Reduction and Sustainability
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Agriculture Sustainability and Environmental Impact
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › General Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Security and Socioeconomic Dynamics
- Keywords
- food waste, global food crisis, food shortages, greenhouse gas emissions from food production, food poverty, food processing and storage, landfill waste, food industry, dietary intake, sustainable food systems
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