Research workshop of the Israeli Science Foundation

Introducing a culture turn in household food waste research: implications for theory, method, and policy

Venue: Room no. 7004, Department of Sociology, Rabin building, 7^th floor.

Program

Day 1 24/1/23

Session 1 9:00-10:15

Haifa team: Greetings, Introduction of participants, practicalities

Haifa team: Presentation of workshop goals and structure

Session 2 10:15-11:00 Evidence and measurement

Claudia Giordano, University of Bologna- Household food waste: evidence and methodologies at the global level

The food waste debate has flourished during the last years, leading to an impressive increase in the number of scientific publications. The most recent study published by UNEP (2021) reported that globally, around 931 million tons of food waste was generated in 2019, 61% of which came from households (HFW). However, data emerging from existing studies on HFW are only rarely comparable, as they rely on different methodologies. Furthermore, beliefs and behavior behind HFW are often detected through methodologies that are revealed to be unreliable. This presentation aims to provide an overview of global trends and studies concerning HFW, highlighting the pros and cons of the methodologies adopted, and stimulating a debate about improvements to increase future studies’ accuracy.

Efrat Elimelech, University of Haifa- How to actually measure food waste

Mapping the extent of household food waste is crucial for assessing policy measures. However, food waste valuation is a challenging task. Valuation methods can be divided roughly into objective measurements that are based on physical waste surveys, and subjective self-assessments that are based on diaries or questionnaires. While self-assessment methods are more popular their reliability is unclear. My lecture will revolve around several questions: Are people accurate in estimating their level of food waste? Does the wisdom of the crowd work in evaluating food waste? Do actual and reported food waste levels align?

Break 11:00-11:30

Session 3 11:30-13:00 Food waste in numbers

John Harvey, N/LAB, University of Nottingham- Why do surplus food sharing applications fail or succeed?

Food surplus sharing applications rely on redistribution of food throughout peer-to-peer networks of strangers. Though food sharing is likely old as humanity, this mode of redistribution is historically unique, and impossible at scale without Internet-enabled mobile phones. The practice is therefore relatively unusual and consequently people need to learn and create etiquette for food sharing in their respective locations. Sometimes this is successful, and millions of portions are shared, whereas in others, problems inhibit collective action. In this talk I present a series of studies conducted in partnership with OLIO to illustrate how, when and why food sharing applications work.

Chen Herzog, Partner, chief Economist of BDO Consulting Israel- The Impact of Food Waste: The Numbers Speak for Themselves

Tamar Makov, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev- Rebound effects and food waste interventions

Globally, roughly 2.5 billion tons of food produced for human consumption is lost along the supply chain each year (WWF-UK 2021). Research suggests that the production of food which ends up as waste as 8% of global GHG emissions (FAO, 2013, 2018; Gustavsson et al., 2011).Given this staggering inefficiency, many have studied the potential to reduce GHG emissions through various food waste reduction interventions. Yet while such interventions may indeed reduce food waste generation, research suggests that they may also trigger behavioral and/or market responses stimulating additional demand for products and services. Such additional demand could negate some’ or even all of the expected environmental benefits of food waste reduction, a phenomenon commonly referred to as Rebound Effect (Font Vivanco et al, 2022). Despite much interest in food waste reduction interventions, most research to date does not consider rebound effects. As a result, the expected GHG reductions and environmental benefits associated with interventions aimed at reducing food waste might be grossly overestimated. In this talk, I will review the existing body of work on rebound effects in the context of food waste and loss interventions, identify knowledge and research gaps, discuss the different rebound mechanisms which come into play, and propose a conceptual framework for incorporating rebound effects in assessments of GHG reductions from FWL interventions.

Lunch 13:00-14:00

Session 4 14:00-15:30 A closer look at individual behavior

Monica Truninger, Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon- Cultural factors of household food waste practices in Portugal: empirical data and reflections

Recent data from the First EU-wide monitoring of food waste published by Eurostat in October 2022 (Eurostat, 2022) indicates that in 2020 (during the first year of the Covid-19 crisis) European households generated 55% of food waste, on average about 70kg per capita. Portugal was the country where household waste was the highest, well above the European average, with an estimated 124kg per capita of fresh produce wasted. This was an abnormal year characterized by lockdowns where large sections of the population stayed at home and cooking with fresh ingredients increased substantially while eating out was severely restricted (Augusto and Truninger, 2022; PNPAS, 2020). Yet, this increase offers some evidence of a cultural factor that is valued by several Mediterranean countries, including Portugal: the importance of food freshness as an indicator of food quality. At the same time, data collected from the 3^rd Large Survey on Sustainability in 2022 indicates that food waste is the most relevant food concern of the Portuguese population, topping a list of other concerns namely chemical contamination or food allergies. In this paper, I will first frame food waste practices in Portugal by resourcing to quantitative data, and then will explore qualitative data on food freshness and waste from two projects: Family and Food in Hard Times (interview data collected in 2017 and 2018) that targeted 45 low-income families in the region of Lisbon and the Food Freshness project (interview data collected in 2017) that targeted a sample of 29 participants from different social groups. I will explore the main cultural patterns of food waste that emerge from both sets of data and offer a few concluding reflections on the effects of cultural factors on household food waste.

Bente Halkier, University of Copenhagen- Using categories of mundane normativity around cooking to unfold dynamics in household food wasting

Household food wasting and saving occurs as a result of the organization and accomplishment of food practices, their relations with other practices and the conditions of institutional material arrangements around food provisioning, cooking and eating. What is socially expected and acceptable in relation to the handling of food wasting and saving is probably linked with especially cooking skills in the compound food practices. Thus, focusing on mundane normativity around cooking could be central in order to unfold processes towards normalization of food waste minimizing as well as the difficulties in everyday life for such processes.

Branka Ilakovac, Food Waste Prevention Centre- The complexity of consumers behavior with food waste

The generation of food waste in households is not the consequence of simple behavior but the result of a combination of several complex factors that affect consumers every day. Therefore, such behavior should be observed as a reflection of specific attitudes, values, motivations and personal preferences of consumers, which are influenced by various external forces and drivers. But, apart from attitudes, habits, knowledge, skills and socio-demographic factors as individual characteristics, the consumers behavior with the food waste is also influenced by traditions, religions and cultural characteristics of particular societies. The mentioned factors should also be viewed in the context of mutual correlation, because the causes of food waste are to a large extent a combination of the above.

Break 15:30-15:45

Session 5 15:45-17:00 Open discussion

Reflections about the main issues discussed today and short presentations of food waste initiatives in participants’ countries

End of Day 1

Day 2 25/1/23

Session 6 9:00-10:30 A focus on religion and food waste

Tanhum Yoreh, School of the Environment, University of Toronto- Approaches to Food Waste in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

Food is acknowledged, celebrated, and regulated in religious traditions. I will open this talk with a discussion of the legal and moral conceptual frameworks through which wastefulness and food provisioning is understood in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. I will then present findings from two largescale empirical studies, in Canada and the United States, examining food waste mitigation in places of worship. I will complement the quantitative data with qualitative indicators of approaches to food wastefulness in places of worship centering on the major Abrahamic faiths.

Viachaslau Filimonau, University of Surrey- Religious values as activators of norms towards food waste reduction

This presentation will report the results of two studies examining the influence of religious values of food on personal norms towards food waste reduction. Two waves of surveys administered in Poland, a country with a large population of religion followers, indicate that religious values activate personal norms indirectly i.e., via such mediating factors as the feeling of compassion (towards other, less advantaged people) and family upbringing. This suggests that measures for food waste reduction should be designed to appeal to personal feeling of compassion. The measures should also remind people that their (grand)parents would disprove food waste.

Jens Kohrsen, University of Oslo/University of Basel- Religion, Environmental Sustainability, and Food Waste

The presentation will address the relationship between religion, environmental sustainability, and food waste. It will start by summarizing academic debates on religion and environmental sustainability. Religion is increasingly perceived as a potential game changer for the ongoing socio-ecological transitions. Religious communities may promote (or block) transitions towards environmentally more sustainable societies by disseminating environmental values to their adherents and influencing public opinion about environmental challenges (e.g. climate change). Based on this, the presentation will discuss potential roles of religion in addressing food waste. The presentation ends with identifying future research potentials regarding religion and food waste.

Break 10:30-11:00

Session 7 11:00-12:00 Socio-cultural determinants of sustainable consumption behavior

Tally Katz-Gerro, University of Haifa- ISF food waste project

This project contributes to research on food waste by emphasizing the role of group level factors. We develop and empirically test a framework that specifies the factors that lead to food waste, including culture and religion, attitudes to food waste, and food related behavior. The research takes place in Israel and includes participants from three groups that differ along axes of culture and religion: secular Jews, religious Jews, and Muslim Arabs. The data include interviews and a national survey.

Sherilyn MacGregor, Sustainable Consumption Institute, The University of Manchester- Researching with Global South immigrants to expand understanding of everyday sustainabilities: Insights from the ‘TIES Project’ in Manchester, UK

I will present emerging themes and insights from the Towards Inclusive Environmental Sustainability (TIES) project. The project asks people who have moved to Manchester from Somalia and Pakistan about how their pre-migration experiences shape their perceptions of sustainability and the climate emergency, as well as about the barriers to and motivations for engaging in environmentally significant practices in daily life in their new place of residence. The overarching purpose is to challenge Eurocentric assumptions about ‘environmental behaviour’ as well as to broaden the dominant conceptions of sustainability that inform research and policy. We have a number of insights that are relevant to the workshop themes. In addition to sharing the findings of our survey and interview data that help to challenge/expand dominant understandings of household food practices, I will discuss theoretical and methodological issues we are addressing in the project, including: i) how to mobilise theoretical concepts of intersectionality and justice in our analyses and iii) how to avoid ‘othering’ our participants while aiming to counteract their marginalisation from sustainability research.

Session 8 12:00-13:00 Hecht Museum

Lunch 13:00-14:00

Session 9 14:00-15:00 A focus on determinants and interventions

Areen Shibli, Nutritional Sciences Department, Tel-Hai College- Thoughts on Food: Why is food waste a challenge in Arab society?

Sahar Razeq and Renana Neidman, M.A students, Department of Instructional and Learning Sciences, University of Haifa- Food for thought: Integrating a food waste reduction program in school

Daniella Seltzer, co-founder & CEO of Food Rescuers JLM- The Edible City: Towards a Holistic Urban Food Rescue Model Through the Lens of Wholesale Markets

Session 10 15:00-16:30 From theory to practice

Liat Arbel, Head of Urban sustainability, The Natural Step Israel- From STL to FWD: Main perspectives on food waste reduction

Lev Rosenstein, Director of Environmental Services, Sanitation & Sustainability at Misgav Regional Council-Achieving a behavioral change: The challenge of household food waste reduction from a regional council point of view

Shai Rilov, co-founder & CEO of Robin Food - Opening the public's heart through the belly - Engaging with food waste in a positive and delicious way (aka the story of Robin Food)

Talia Fried, Ben-Gurion University - The epistemic and cultural dimensions of surveying household waste

Practices of classifying and quantifying waste are essential to producing formal waste knowledge, yet social research has paid little attention to the waste surveyors who carry out these tasks. Based on a year of participant-observation at an Israeli waste consulting firm, I will discuss the epistemic practices and cultural repertoires through which Israeli waste surveyors translate everyday, mundane ‘garbage’ into a professional object, ‘waste.’ I will argue that narrating waste — imbuing it with social and moral meaning — is essential to consultants’ accounting tasks. However, the content of these narratives, particularly regarding different social groups and their perceived relations to waste, are rarely explicitly recognized and reflected on.

End of Day 2

Day 3 26/1/23

Session 11 9:30-11:00 A focus on health

Anke Brons, Wageningen University- Feeding the melting pot: health and sustainability in food practices of Syrian migrants in the Netherlands

While a core element of sustainable diets, cultural appropriateness is often overlooked. Recognizing that cultural food practices may harbor specific knowledge and skills, including around sustainability, is crucial for advancing inclusive sustainable diets. Studying health and sustainability in the food practices of short- and long-term Syrian migrants in the Netherlands from a social practice theoretical perspective revealed how sustainability often remains invisible or ‘inconspicuous’ as migrants do not perform it consciously, but elements like fresh, local and seasonal food consumption are present. What is (not) considered culturally appropriate is also subject to change over time, as food practices de- and re-routinize after migration.

Orit Afumado Yona, National Manager for nutrition in General Hospitals and the community, Division of Nutrition, Public health services, Ministry of Health, Israel- Food waste in the healthcare system - a necessary or preventable?

Naomi Fliss Isakov, Head of research, Division of Nutrition, Public health services, Ministry of Health, Israel- Food rescue as a means of reducing the public health burden of food insecurity

Break 11:00-11:30

Session 12 11:30-12:15 Translating cultural concerns

Amira Arraf, Director of the Environmental Justice Center, The Galilee Society- Insights on food waste among the Arab community in Israel

Nitsan Mayost, Department of Visual communication, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design Jerusalem- Letters to Ofer

Session 13 12:15-13:15 Open discussion

Ideas for continued collaboration, exploration of possible funding sources and grant proposal writing, avenues for publications.

Session 14 13:30-16:30 Field lecture

Nimrod Luz, Kinneret College on the Sea of Galilee- Talpiot market conservation site: a step on the way to reducing urban food waste

End of workshop