Food Justice Glossary

 
 

  • In a circular economy, nothing is waste. The circular economy retains and recovers as much value as possible from resources by reusing, repairing, refurbishing, remanufacturing, repurposing, or recycling products and materials. It’s about using valuable resources wisely, thinking about waste as a resource instead of a cost, and finding innovative ways to to protect the environment while also strengthening the economy.

  • Inadequate access to nutritional, safe and culturally appropriate food due to financial or other constraints.

  • Food that is spilled, spoiled, or otherwise lost, or experiences a reduction in quality and value at any stage of the food supply chain before reaching its final product. Food loss typically occurs during production, post-harvest, processing, and distribution.

  • Food surplus occurs when the supply, availability and nutritional requirements of food exceeds the demand for it, and can take place at every stage of the supply chain from farms to households. Food surplus leads to either edible food and other products left unsold at supermarkets or restaurants, or piling up in farms and storages, ultimately resulting in food waste and loss. Food surplus isn’t the same as food waste, but it often leads to it. It represents the stage before food is thrown away, where producers and consumers decide whether to keep, donate, or discard excess food.

  • Food waste happens when good-quality food that is safe to eat reaches stores or homes, but doesn’t get eaten. Instead, it is thrown away, sometimes after spoiling. Most food waste occurs at grocery stores, restaurants, and in people's homes, but it can also happen at other stages of the food supply chain.

  • 6 principles:

    1) Acknowledging and including diverse forms of knowing and being

    2) Taking care of people, animals, and the planet

    3) Moving beyond capitalist approaches

    4) Commoning the food system

    5) Promoting accountable innovations

    6) Long-term planning and rural–urban relations

  • The right to food is the right to have unrestricted access to sufficient quantities of food that fulfill physical, spiritual, and cultural needs, produced in ways that support the rights and labour of workers, and obtained in ways that promote dignity, reduce stress, and support social and psychological wellbeing

  • A food supply chain is the path that food takes from production to consumption and eventually waste.