A Tiny Consumer Change with Big Potential for Food

We Consume.

Those of us who live in developed, affluent countries fiercely defend our position as consumers on this planet. We have consumer’s rights, consumer organisations and carefully plan our path of consumption, be it food, products or experiences.

It’s seen as the great aspirational freedom, to be able to consume at will. The greater the personal success and resources, the greater the opportunities for consumption. We devour food, imbibe beverages and plough through products with joyful abandon, because that is what living in a free, democratic, capitalist country means. It’s even become a growing issue in developing countries, dubbed the ‘nutrition transition’, as rapid economic growth leads people to pursue an aspirational Western diet, eating lots of meat and sugar, heading directly into over-consumption.

The USA and United Kingdom consume so much food, it’s estimated the United States is ploughing through natural resources at a rate equivalent to having five planet earths at their disposal. Europe behaves as if it has merely three planets to pick up the tab for it’s environmental activities. Meanwhile, we waste fully a third of the food we purchase as consumers, which makes us almost as good at disposing as we are at consuming.