Why does Food Wastage Occur?

We know that food wastage is bad, and we know where it comes from. Why then, does it still occur? Garret Hardin found the answer to this phenomenon by proposing the Tragedy of the Commons; a theory that can explain why many environmental problems exist today, including the trend of food wasting.

According to this theory, each individual is motivated by self-interest and pursues benefits that are derived from consuming natural resources from the common pool resource (CPR). The CPR is usually large, thus, individuals do not see much harm from their own use. In the case of food wastage, individuals view food as a basic right, and thus, purchase and consume as much as they can afford. The CPR can be identified as the natural sources of food – farms, seas, and even forests. As it is difficult to imagine the collective size of all these sources, individuals simply perceive it as large. What individuals fail to recognise is that this pool of resources is finite, and that resources (i.e. food) will run out one day. Hence, without thinking, individuals continue to consume freely.

When population and economic advances reach high levels, there are more individuals with a higher purchasing power to exploit the natural resources in the CPR. As a result, the amount of resources start to fall and deplete rapidly. Eventually, the resource pool will collapse, and everyone will suffer, as it is very difficult for natural resources to recover. In the food wastage example, as global population increase, and more countries reaching the “developed country” status, there are more people who can afford to purchase more. Higher purchasing power does not mean a larger appetite. Therefore, even though more food is being bought, more food is also being wasted as individuals simply cannot consume that much food. With this habit of buying more than you can consume, the common pool of food resources, such as crops and cattle, soon become depleted, which will eventually cause everyone to suffer.

The tragedies (or problems) that come with having a common resource pool have been around for many years. Although there are individuals who understand this problem, they feel that they are shortchanging themselves as them not consuming leaves more for others to consume. The same goes for food – buying lesser products leaves more products for others to purchase, and we do not like the feeling of “losing out” to others. The tragedy of the commons is a problem that all human societies face, and food wastage is only one issue that this theory very nicely addresses.

Hardin proposes 4 main solutions to solve the tragedy and promote behaviour that will bring benefits for all. These solutions include the use of governmental laws, education, small prosocial groups or community management, and moral, religious and ethical appeals. As you will see late on in the section on taking action, these 4 main ideas will be woven into the solutions that the different sources of food wastage can undertake to reduce this phenomenon.