IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/jculte/v13y2020i2p207-220.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is it food or is it waste? The materiality and relational agency of food waste across the value chain

Author

Listed:
  • Alexis Van Bemmel
  • Kate Parizeau

Abstract

Food waste has serious economic and environmental repercussions, and there is growing policy attention to this issue in Canada. This study investigates how the material characteristics of wasted food influence its circulation and management in the City of Guelph, Ontario. Based on interviews with informants across the food value chain, we learned that there is a high reliance on systems and techniques to determine when food becomes waste (including cold chains, best before dates, and aesthetic standards). We document how these systems pervade the food chain and food recovery efforts, and also note attempts to disrupt their momentum. Our analysis emphasizes the relational agency of food waste: how social and cultural contexts interact with food’s vital materiality in the determination of when it becomes waste, the circumstances under which waste can become food again, and how organic matter can find a second life as a source of energy and nutrients.

Suggested Citation

  • Alexis Van Bemmel & Kate Parizeau, 2020. "Is it food or is it waste? The materiality and relational agency of food waste across the value chain," Journal of Cultural Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(2), pages 207-220, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jculte:v:13:y:2020:i:2:p:207-220
    DOI: 10.1080/17530350.2019.1684339
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/17530350.2019.1684339
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/17530350.2019.1684339?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ulrich Jürgens, 2023. "Does Food Shopping Behaviour Determine Food Waste Vulnerability in Private Households? Quantitative Analysis on Case Studies from Germany," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-26, March.
    2. Hafiz Wasim Akram & Samreen Akhtar & Alam Ahmad & Imran Anwar & Mohammad Ali Bait Ali Sulaiman, 2023. "Developing a Conceptual Framework Model for Effective Perishable Food Cold-Supply-Chain Management Based on Structured Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-28, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:jculte:v:13:y:2020:i:2:p:207-220. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RJCE20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.