Among the rarefied suburban cultures of the West, the food security problems are fairly h***genous - over-production of mass agricultural artifacts creates vast distortions in the markets for food. Over-zealous capitalism-promoting bodies forced much of the agricultural centres to move to export-focuses industries - and destroyed much of the real food production systems in the process. India was pressed (by foreign debt) to farm massive amounts of cash crops and the land available for millet, seed and chickpea were reduced by 60%. This isn't ancient history. This happened in the late 1990s.
"Waste" is a codeword for all sorts of phenomena - but a more broad and more useful term might be a food production system that is 'fit to purpose'. It stands to reason that the more local the production of food can be, the better.
In my area, a co-operative of outer-suburb farmers have decided to opt out of the distorted supermarket food system and have begun selling direct to homes. A few delivery cars are far less carbon intensive than the collective shopping trips of dozens of shoppers, and the shipping around the country saved reduces the impact of this medium-scale agriculture. By opting in to this system, I recieve 'fit to purpose' seasonal fruit and vegetables and simple staple groceries.
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