Waste Law and the Value of Food

TY - JOUR

T1 - Waste Law and the Value of Food

AU - Bradshaw, Carrie Julia

N1 - © The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details.

PY - 2018/7/1

Y1 - 2018/7/1

N2 - This article explores the role of law in an emerging consensus as to the causes of food waste: a structural failure to value food. Food waste's legal home is waste law. The sagacity of this siting would appear to be self-evident. If there is a body of law concerned with the problem of waste generally, then why not use that body of law to address the challenges of a particular waste stream? We should test this assumption, acknowledging food's importance and difference as a resource, and keeping in mind structural causes of food waste. This article explores the limitations of waste law through an imbalance in support for anaerobic digestion over redistribution; an imbalance which actively removes edible food from the food supply chain. By underpinning and validating this imbalance, waste law reflects and reinforces structural causes of food waste, rather than providing the analytical tools needed to address the problem.

AB - This article explores the role of law in an emerging consensus as to the causes of food waste: a structural failure to value food. Food waste's legal home is waste law. The sagacity of this siting would appear to be self-evident. If there is a body of law concerned with the problem of waste generally, then why not use that body of law to address the challenges of a particular waste stream? We should test this assumption, acknowledging food's importance and difference as a resource, and keeping in mind structural causes of food waste. This article explores the limitations of waste law through an imbalance in support for anaerobic digestion over redistribution; an imbalance which actively removes edible food from the food supply chain. By underpinning and validating this imbalance, waste law reflects and reinforces structural causes of food waste, rather than providing the analytical tools needed to address the problem.

KW - food waste

KW - waste law

KW - anaerobic digestion

KW - food redistribution

KW - renewables subsidies

KW - sustainability criteria

KW - Food waste

KW - Renewables subsidies

KW - Sustainability criteria

KW - Food redistribution

KW - Waste law

KW - Anaerobic digestion

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85053107175&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1093/jel/eqy009

DO - 10.1093/jel/eqy009

M3 - Article

SN - 0952-8873

VL - 30

SP - 311

EP - 331

JO - Journal of Environmental Law

JF - Journal of Environmental Law

IS - 2

ER -