2 min read
Written by Steffanie Scott
York PhD student Michelle Coyne shared stories of dumpster diving as a way to drive the point home that we need to reduce food waste. She was speaking at the Kitchener Public Library on October 25th as part of the Roundtable’s Healthy Food System series.
At her talk, Coyne quoted global statistics showing that an average of 1/3 of all food gets wasted somewhere between the field and the fork, and that Canada’s food waste is even higher, at 40%. In breaking down what parts of the food system are responsible for the food waste, she argued that consumers are responsible for about half of it (by not eating what’s on our plates, or letting food rot in the fridge), and that half comes from everything between the field and the store.
Rampant food waste is a direct result of a society that has commodified food, Coyne says, especially since we in North America pay so little for it.
Coyne suggested several possible solutions, at the consumer, community, retail, and policy levels. Consumer solutions include composting, more conscious meal planning, and supporting retailers that reduce waste. Community solutions include supporting food recovery charities and farm gleaning. Retailers can discourage food waste by charging extra for food not eaten, serving smaller portions, and discounting older food. Government policy solutions include regulating “best before” dates differently, requiring producers to be responsible for their waste, and doing more to educate the public about the issue.
She also showed excerpts from Dive! a movie about Dumpster Diving, which helped the audience appreciate the extent of food waste in our society. The film trailer is below.
The final exercise of the evening was a “Food Waste Audit” in which participants analyzed the food they may have wasted in the past day or week, and thought about options for avoiding that kind of waste in the future.
Type
Specific Item
Amount (weight or number)
Disposal Type (compost, garbage, recycling)
Why was it discarded?
Poss. for reduction? (re-use, purchase choice)
Food/ Peels/ Cores/ Stems
Leftovers (at home and when eating elsewhere)
Whole food items
Packaging
About the Speaker:
Michelle Coyne is writing a PhD thesis on the “Freegan” and Food Not Bombs movements, both of whom practise dumpster diving both as a way to feed themselves and others, but also as a way to make political points about our society’s attitude toward food. She published an article in a University of Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies in 2009 on the subject called From Production to Destruction to Recovery: Freeganism’s Redefinition of Food Value and Circulation.