I had the good fortune of attending the 2022 Food Waste Solutions Summit hosted by ReFED last month. I’ve thought a lot about that experience since attending because I learned so much and because of the profound challenge of eliminating food waste. This is far from a summary of the Food Waste Solutions Summit, but I hope you’ll read ReFED’s recap.
What stood out to me, and what I’ve been thinking about ever since I left the summit, was one point made in a breakout session I attended on packaging. The specific part of the discussion was about the importance of using your buying power to drive change in markets, and one speaker mentioned that the concept of using your buying power only comes with privilege. In other words, most of the world doesn’t have a choice because they are either not consumers at all or they are just trying to get by. Having the choice to buy organic, fair trade, innovative, etc. too often comes with either limited availability or increased price tags.
What does it mean to use your buying power, really? For many global citizens, it means that when we go to the store or go online we can choose from millions of products. When we are making those choices, we can think about form and function, aesthetics, where the product was made, sustainability and, of course, cost. Having all those choices can make purchasing difficult and cause decision fatigue, but it can also speak volumes about our values and priorities. Read more…
