Introduction and Contents
Food waste is ubiquitous, in 2013 it was reported that 1/3 or 1.3 billion tonnes of food was wasted. To put that into perspective it translated to $750 billion dollars worth of food (Timmermans, 2014, p. 11). On February 3, 2016 the French senate unanimously passed a law that will combat food waste from supermarkets (McCarthy, 2016). The initiative will prevent supermarkets from throwing out or intentionally spoiling food that is approaching its best before date (Prakash, 2016). The law means that any supermarket or grocery store over the size of 400 square metres will be obliged to sign an agreement with a food bank or charitable organization. If the establishments fail to abide by the legislation they could face fines of €75,000 or risk spending two years in jail (Samuel, 2015).
Currently there is said to be 7.1 million tonnes of food wasted in France per year. 67% is said to come from the final consumer, 15% from restaurants, and 11% from supermarkets (Dvorsky, 2016). Ergo, this can be seen as extremely progressive and is a nuanced approach to reducing food waste. Further, France is the first country in the world to pass such a legislation, in doing so setting the foundation for others to follow suit (McCarthy, 2016). Naturally, the bill comes with criticism as some argue that it fails to take into consideration the complete context of the problem. A group of food foragers called Les Gars’pilleurs stated in an open letter: “Food waste is a deep problem. Don’t stay on the surface!” (Martinko, 2016). What this implicitly alludes to is that food waste is a complex and convoluted controversy reaching far beyond the end retailer. This serves to illustrate how food waste is a contentious and ambivalent topic with regards to France's new bill of legislation.
The purpose of this scalar book will be to explore food waste. The focal point will be France’s new legislation combating it. In order to do so this book will explore some key terms, actors, networks, locations, and timelines. The focus of the methodology will place heavy emphasis on analysis. The intention is to map the food waste as a controversy and examine its landscape.
Movements
1. From Statement to Debates
2. Debates to Actors
3. Actors to Networks
4. Networks to Locations
5. Locations to Timelines
Works Cited