Andrew F. Smith teaches in the Food Studies Department at the New School university in Manhattan. He is the author or editor of 32 books, including the three volume work, Food in America (ABC-CLIO, 2017). He has completed Why Waste Food? Feed People, Save the Planet, Make Money, which is scheduled for publication in early 2020.  He serves as the editor for the “Edible Series” and the “Food Controversies Series” at Reaktion Books in the United Kingdom. He has written more than five hundred articles in academic journals, popular magazines and newspapers. He has delivered more than fifteen hundred presentations on various educational, historical, culinary, and international topics. His media appearances include interviews for National Public Radio, the History Channel, and the Food Network. He has been a historical consultant to several television series, including “What We Eat” and “History Detectives” on PBS; “Heavyweights” on the Food Network; “American Eats” on the History Channel; “How Stuff is Made” on Discovery; “Love/Lust Holiday Feasts,” on the Sundance Channel; and the 6-part mini-series, “Eat: The Story of Food,” broadcast on the National Geographic Network.

Conserving food and preventing its waste have been crucial matters confronting humankind for millennia. Failure to store or preserve food in times of plenty could result in hunger, famine and death in times of want. Virtually every religion forbad wasting food, and saving food was a value built into the culture of most communities.

During the twentieth century, however, lower food prices and societal changes encouraged food waste, particularly in well-to-do countries. During the latter part of the century, concern with food waste was raised by two major groups: environmentalists and anti-hunger advocates. Environmentalists were concerned with the impact of food waste issues in rapidly expanding landfills. Food waste was also identified it as a major contributor to global warming. Those concerned with food insecurity, malnutrition and hunger wanted to recover as much edible food as possible to help feed to the needy.

Food waste, however, did not become a major public-concern until food prices skyrocketed in the early 2000s due speculation, bad weather and the financial crisis known as the “Great Recession. Only when millions of people around the world were facing hunger and malnutrition was war declared on food waste. Since then, excellent progress has been made e by consumers, businesses, non-profit organizations and governmental agencies, yet an estimated 40% of the food grown or raised for human consumption continues to be wasted in America.