Core Idea
We’re told that food waste is a tragic inefficiency. It’s a system failure where perfectly good food goes to landfills while people starve.
Environmental groups wave statistics about methane emissions and wasted water.
Economists shake their heads at the “$940 billion lost annually.”
Everyone agrees that throwing away one-third of global food production is irrational, inefficient, and fundamentally broken.
But what if the opposite is true?
What if food waste isn’t a bug in the system but a feature?
What if deliberate waste generation has become the most reliable profit strategy in modern food systems, and all the hand-wringing about efficiency is simply theatre to distract us from this uncomfortable truth?
Counterpoint
The efficiency narrative is a fairy tale told by an industry that profits from waste at every level.
Consider the supermarket that throws away “expired” food rather than marking it down—they’ve already extracted maximum profit from each item and disposed of it before it could compete with fresh stock at full price.
The farmer who grows oversized crops, knowing half will be rejected for cosmetic standards? He’s charging premium prices for the “perfect” produce while the waste subsidises his margins.
This isn’t accidental inefficiency. It’s systematic wealth extraction disguised as quality control.
Look at the numbers differently.
That $940 billion in “lost” food? It’s not lost. Think of it as transferred. Every discarded tomato, every “expired” yogurt, every rejected carrot represents profit margins protected, consumer purchasing behaviour shaped, and scarcity artificially maintained.
The restaurant that serves massive portions, knowing half will be thrown away, isn’t inefficient. Instead, they’re charging premium prices for experiences while training customers to accept waste as abundance.
The waste-as-profit model works because it solves capitalism’s fundamental problem of how to maintain artificial scarcity in a world of potential abundance.
If food systems were actually efficient, if that “wasted” third reached consumers, prices would plummet. Margins would compress. The entire edifice of food profiteering would collapse under the weight of genuine efficiency.
So we get elaborate theatre instead.
Sustainability consultants, waste reduction programs, and apps to “rescue” food are all carefully designed to nibble around the edges while preserving the core waste-generation mechanism.
The system doesn’t want to solve food waste because food waste IS the system.
Thought Challenge
Next time you’re in a supermarket, time how long it takes to find the marked-down section. Note what’s there and what isn’t. Ask yourself if minimising waste were truly the priority, why is discounted food hidden away while premium-priced items get prime real estate?
Track your own household waste for a week, but categorise it differently. Instead of “food gone bad,” consider how much of this waste is actually engineered by portion sizes, packaging formats, or use-by dates that have nothing to do with actual spoilage. How much profit did someone extract from your waste?
Closing Reflection
The next time someone tells you about the tragedy of food waste, ask them who profits from keeping it exactly as it is.
The tragedy isn’t that we waste food. It’s far worse than that. It’s that we’ve built an economy that requires waste to function, and then we dress it up as accidental inefficiency.
Understanding this is the first step toward seeing through one of modern capitalism’s most successful illusions.
Evidence Support
Mena, C., Adenso-Diaz, B., & Yurt, O. (2011). The causes of food waste in the supplier–retailer interface: Evidences from the UK and Spain. International Journal of Food System Dynamics, 2(1), 43–60.
TL;DR… retailer purchasing practices—such as strict cosmetic standards, last-minute order changes, and supply chain inefficiencies—directly lead to food waste at the supplier level. The research shows retailers benefit financially from contractual power over suppliers, shifting costs and losses downstream rather than absorbing them in their own operations.
Relevance to insight… structural features and strategies of large retailers convert what could be market inefficiency into profit-making practices by externalising waste, thus supporting the “Waste as Profit Strategy” argument.
Cicatiello, C., Franco, S., Pancino, B., & Blasi, E. (2016). The value of food waste: an exploratory study on retailing. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 30, 96–104.
TL;DR… throwing away unsold food is often less costly than markdowns or redistributing products, with economic incentives aligned toward disposal rather than re-allocation. The paper argues that profit maximisation strategies deliberately favour practices that generate waste.
Relevance to insight… reinforces the link between profit strategies and food waste, making clear that under existing business models, waste generation can be a rational and profitable choice for retailers—direct evidence for the insight.
Göbel, C., Langen, N., Blumenthal, A., Teitscheid, P., & Ritter, G. (2015). Cutting food waste through cooperation along the food supply chain. Sustainability, 7(2), 1429–1445.
TL;DR… competitive interests and contractual arrangements throughout the food supply chain (from producers to retailers) actively discourage cooperation for waste reduction, as current structures favour individual actors’ profitability over system efficiency.
Relevance to insight… barriers to waste reduction are maintained because they provide economic benefit to powerful actors in the chain, highlighting how food waste can become a strategic tool for profit protection.
Eriksson, M., Strid, I., & Hansson, P.-A. (2012). Food losses in six Swedish retail stores: Wastage of fruit and vegetables in relation to quantities delivered. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 68, 14–20.
TL;DR… examining Swedish supermarkets, this research found significant waste generated by deliberate overstocking and rigid product standards. Retailers recognise the cost-benefit balance of throwing away produce to ensure perceived abundance and maximise consumer spending.
Relevance to insight… supports the “Waste as Profit Strategy” by showing how retail practices that visibly encourage waste actually enhance profit through sales, customer perception, and supplier rebates, rather than simply representing supply chain failure.