Sustainable Consumption Institute

Katy Wheeler, The Open University has reviewed David Evans’s latest book Food Waste: Home Consumption, Material Culture and Everyday Life.

Clearing away the detritus of my Christmas dinner, I took great pains to ensure that any leftovers were put to one side, placed in plastic pots and stored in my fridge or freezer for later consumption. Yet, the old vegetables ended up in the food waste bin after a few days and my husband refused to eat the soup made from the surplus. In a thoroughly engaging read, Food Waste: Home Consumption, Material Culture and Everyday Life offers theoretical and empirical insights into ‘the processes through which stuff that is “food” becomes stuff that is waste’ (p. 11). Based on ethnographic research conducted over an eight-month period with residents of two ‘ordinary’ streets in Manchester, Evans goes ‘behind closed doors’ to challenge those dominant discourses that persistently blame the consumer and individual choice/profligacy for …

You can read the full review here