Framings of Food Waste: How Food System Stakeholders Are Responsibilized in Public Policy Debate

Abstract

Food waste is a global sustainability issue that demands several stakeholders to participate in solving it. This article examines how different food system stakeholders are held responsible in the policy debate related to food waste reduction. The study adopts a framing approach, paying attention to the construction and negotiation of what is going on in the food waste related public policy debate. The data consist of documents generated as a result of food policy development processes in Finland. The authors identify four framings: eco-efficiency, solidarity, safety and appreciation. Within each framing, the issue of food waste is presented differently, and different stakeholders are responsibilized. The framings reveal the nature of food waste as a boundary object, a flexible and open-ended object that gains different context-dependent meanings. The study extends marketing literature on responsibilization by investigating several stakeholders besides consumers. Additionally, considering food waste as a boundary object unravels how stakeholders, even those with conflicting interests, can debate policy measures collaboratively. Finally, the authors outline policy implications related to each framing.

Commentary: Food and Food Waste: Spinning a Two-Sided Coin

“…For example, food literacy affects the food we buy (and do not buy) and how we prepare our food (and handle leftovers), food policy touches on these decisions via nutrition and expiration labels, and so on. Three of the frames suggested by Mesiranta, Närvänen, and Mattila (2022) readily overlap with arms of the FWB pinwheel: appreciation onto food socialization, safety onto food policy, and eco-efficiency onto food availability. The fourth frame, as described by Mesiranta, Närvänen, and Mattila (2022, p. 151), "stems from the principles of the Nordic welfare state" and suggests the potential need to expand the FWB framework to more explicitly include the political and cultural environment as an important dimension for FWB (e.g., state vs. individual responsibility for health and well-being).…”

“…A Macro Through Micro Perspective Needs Greater Consideration in our Understanding of Food And Food Waste Consumer research on food and food waste tends to adopt the micro perspective and examine individual behavior, as exemplified by Birau, Hildebrand, and Werle (2022) and Werle et al (2022). But, as Mesiranta, Närvänen, and Mattila (2022) demonstrate, shifting to a meso and macro perspective helps illuminate important aspects of the food marketing system and their impact on FWB and food waste. For example, producers and retailers set standards for sellable food that can drive food waste; these standards are intertwined with food policy (e.g., regulations) and also consumer literacy (e.g., lay beliefs about food safety).…”

Addressing food waste with a socio-cultural approach to social marketing

“…Yet food waste offers a great opportunity for marketing field to demonstrate its managerial, public policy and societal relevance, and in the recent years, the topic has gained momentum among marketing and consumer researchers (Porpino, 2016). Recent food waste studies published in the marketing field have, for instance, studied the ways in which existing campaigns have approached the topic so far (Sutinen, 2020), elaborated how different stakeholders are held responsible for the issue (Mesiranta et al , 2021) and examined how consumer movements can shift the marketplace (Gollnhofer, 2017; Gollnhofer et al , 2019).…”

“…While households are often presented as the biggest contributors to the food waste problem, the problem has its roots in the wider food system (Närvänen et al , 2020). Thus, social marketing only focussing on individual consumers, framing them as the responsible ones and the main drivers of change (Mesiranta et al , 2021), might miss the opportunity to address the issue on a wider level.…”

How do consumers perceive open‐source seed licenses? Exploring a new credence attribute

“…As such, labels an create fruitful tensions to change regulatory frameworks, shape public debates, raise awareness and influence the food-and agricultural sector more broadly (Clarke, 2008;Boström & Klintman, 2008;Klintman & Boström, 2012). However, the tendency of neoliberal policies to place responsibility on consumers to drive market shifts with their spending power is discussed critically in consumer research, as it enables policymakers to shuffle out of their responsibility (Eckhardt & Dobscha, 2019;Giesler & Veresiu, 2014;Mesiranta et al, 2021).…”