Abstract

This article analyzes the role of the refrigerator in how food becomes waste in socio-material and ethico-cultural practices. The modern food refrigeration technologies and practices have extended food’s useability time. They have transformed ordinary life by allowing households to store ample amounts of fresh food. However, this study suggests that fridges merit more attention not only in terms of reducing food waste, but in efforts to understand how food waste comes into being. This article draws from an analysis of qualitative interviews with ordinary people in Canada and Finland to show that refrigerators are important agents in the moral narrative of food waste: They provide a concrete space where food becomes waste, a justification for food becoming waste, and a material reference point through which people can talk about wider cultural patterns, moral norms, and ordinary ethical dilemmas tied to food waste. Technical devices such as refrigerators do not alone create or solve the problem of food waste, but they are relevant to the ethics of wasting food. Focusing on the fridge helps to show how human and non-human material worlds are entangled and how an overflowing fridge can structure, illustrate, facilitate, and contribute to human ethical conduct related to food waste in a significant way.

摘要

本文分析了冰箱在社会物质和伦理文化实践中食物如何变成浪费的作用。现代食品冷藏技术和实践延长了食品的可用时间。他们允许家庭储存大量新鲜食物，从而改变了日常生活。然而，这项研究表明，冰箱不仅在减少食物浪费方面值得更多关注，而且在努力了解食物浪费是如何产生的方面也值得关注。本文从对加拿大和芬兰普通人的定性访谈的分析中得出结论，冰箱是食物浪费道德叙事中的重要媒介：它们提供了食物变成浪费的具体空间，食物变成浪费的理由，以及一个物质参考点，人们可以通过它谈论更广泛的文化模式、道德规范和与食物浪费有关的普通道德困境。冰箱等技术设备并不能单独制造或解决食物浪费问题，但它们与浪费食物的道德规范相关。关注冰箱有助于展示人类和非人类物质世界是如何纠缠在一起的，以及溢出的冰箱如何以显着的方式构建、说明、促进和促进与食物浪费相关的人类道德行为。