Untitled ItemFrom the Point of Policy: A Critical Examination of Problem Frames to Define Food Loss and Waste Policy for Sustainable Food Systems

The world’s food system is tremendously wasteful. This has become a topic of interest in sustainability pursuits internationally. This dissertation examines existing narrative frames of the food loss and waste problem, finding causative and reformatory perspectives that attribute responsibility for food loss and waste prevention and reduction in different places across the food system. These different frames compete for attention in the political arena. As a result, some are lost in policy consideration, especially where legacy or dominant frames overshadow more emerging or marginalised frames of the food loss and waste problem. In particular, current policy seems ill-equipped to cope with framings that consider the complex interrelations of the problem, such as a plurality of the four dimensions of sustainability: environmental, social, environmental, ethical/justice, as well as context-specific cultural dimensions. This dissertation argues that the food loss and waste problem is generated from the point of policy. In my critique, I consider the abovementioned more marginalised (but essential) frames of the food loss and waste problem, including but not limited to market power dynamics, overproduction, greenhouse gas emissions, environmental damage, and Indigenous perspectives. I consider how these frames have received enhanced or restricted policy attention within global food loss and waste policy in the contexts in which they are found. I take lessons from these frame effects to benefit Aotearoa NZ’s food loss and waste policy. While food production is one of the biggest economies in Aotearoa NZ, there is yet no clear strategy for how food loss and waste policy contributes to a sustainable food system. My research project proposes a place-based framing tool for Aotearoa, NZ, supporting a robust definition of the problem that recognises its complexity and the importance of context specificity in policy adoption.