Food Waste, Food Insecurity, and the Globalization of Food Banks

Solid Primer On The Concept Marred By Typical Academic Left Leaning Myopia. Quite simply, at roughly 38% documentation across just a 225 page or so text, this is one of the better documented nonfiction books I've come across in quite some time. Indeed, at times it seemed like there were citations on every sentence or maybe just every other sentence, they were that prevalent. So a lot of kudos on that end, and it really helps make the case of what Prof. Warshawsky is showing here in describing how food banks began in different regions around the world and what their current realities are. Through these sections, the book is truly a great resource for seeing just how widespread the idea is now and the various challenges each particular country and region faces in providing these services.

Indeed, the only real flaw here - and yes, it was big enough that it warranted the star deduction - is the typical left leaning (vs outright leftist) myopia common in Academic circles. Over and over and over again, Warshawsky blames corporations as only sponsoring these efforts in order to burnish their own public images and condemns these efforts as stymying truly productive reforms, all without truly looking to a more holistic approach to those very reforms or even to this specific issue. Instead, while so much else of the text is so well documented, that government providing these services is better than private efforts is seen more as a fait accompli never to be questioned or even examined.

So read this text, it really is quite remarkable so far as it goes. But don't let its limitations limit your own imagination. There likely are better solutions to these issues out there - but assuming any one approach will work globally probably isn't going to work, for the very reasons Warshawsky illuminates here. Very much recommended.

n academic text, whose title reads like a checklist of the content, Food Waste, Food Insecurity, and the Globalization of Food Banks explores the global system of food banks in the twenty-first century.

After an introductory chapter, Daniel Warshawsky details the United States food bank system, each chapter that follows looks at the food systems in two nations or regions. For each one, Warshawsky notes the foundation of the organization, sources of food and distribution locations and the challenges of both the 2007-08 Global Financial Crisis and the COVID-19 Pandemic. The latter was of particular importance in emphasizing Warshawsky’s point about the food banks not being enough to address food insecurity.

This book is definitely for those working in or research food issues. It is a succinct, and at times dry, survey history detailing the development of food banks individually and as part of global organizations. The book details the ways corporation use food banks to handle food waste and appear charitable, but that the resources allocated to food banks are not enough. In the regions of most affluence food banks have the most resources, but a key weakness in their usage is a lack of distribution to reach areas of most need.

Any interesting point that comes up in most chapters is the effect of one, or a small group, of individuals in establishing a food bank based on their own experiences or commitment to reducing waste. Warshawsky includes lots of statistics to make this point, emphasis the amount of food wasted in each nation/region. In discussing the food bank sites, he also demonstrates them as more than just warehouses, as some are integral to their community also service as centers or places of displaying art.

Recommended for those shaping public policy, working in any aspect of the food industry and researchers of the food industry or global systems. Not recommended for the general reader.