DOI
https://doi.org/10.2458/v25i1.23119

Summary
Food waste is the loss of perfectly edible food products. It is a wide-ranging phenomenon: a substantial part of agricultural production is never consumed. The prevalent, most widespread paradigm regarding this phenomenon holds that it is due to inadequate logistics and technology, or to poor management of food on the part of end users. However, an analysis from a political ecology standpoint allows a different interpretation: the root of the problem lies in the hegemonic agrofood system and the unequal power relationships between the actors in the agrofood chain.

Relevance for Complex Systems Knowledge
Political ecology is one way of applying systems thinking to complex issues, in this case to food lssues within the agrofood system. Political ecology is characterized by its focus on power relations within the studied system. In this article, the possibility to control the system by the dominant actors (agribusiness) is questioned as regards food losses. This because the dominant actors rarely have the understanding of the different parts of the system and how they are interlinked. The article also dismisses the opportunities to overcome system dysfunctions by applying technological solutions and awareness raising campaigns. Instead, the authors propose that the root cause lies in how the system is conceived and the unequal power relations within it.
In the article the agrofood system is described a containing many subsystems: The management system impleented by large retailers, the production system run by the farmers, the subsidy system implemented by politicians. the agriculture system of utilizing the appropriate resources, (the ecosystem, irrigation systems, marine systems), marketing and distribution systems, accounting systems and technological systems.
The root causes lies in the way that these sub-systems are interconnected and jplaying against each other, and the solutions must be soiutions are political as unequal power relations within each and between the sub-systems are causing the problem of food loss.

Point of Strength
The article can be used as an illustration of how systems thinking is used within political ecology. It would be particularly useful in introductory courses on systems thinking.