A commercial food stylist comes to terms with the morality and ethics of having animals slaughtered for the sake of photographing them. The issue is addressed in the context of broader food waste issues surrounding the business of photographing food for commercial advertising purposes.

Grocery auctions, as an outgrowth of the inefficiencies of the industrialized food system, repurpose unwanted, damaged, and overstock food that has been removed from the primary market. Based on ethnographic research conducted at grocery auctions in Maryland and Mississippi, this article examines how the spoils and waste of the capitalist industrialized food system are transformed into valued food. During the competitive play of bidding, the divergent needs and motivations of distributers and consumers intersect and collectively determine the value of food: distribution, rather than production, emerges as a central force in the creation of value. Focusing on the generative potential of value, I argue that the social dimensions of distribution enacted through bidding render the value-making process itself visible and expose the products of the industrialized food system as contested sites of engagement rather than hegemonic markers of value.

“Trash Eaters.” an ethnography of the freegan community of New York City, explores what it means to eat trash, by choice, in an urban metropolis. Freegans aim to remove themselves as much as possible from the conventional economy; they find, repurpose, share, and barter to obtain food and other necessities, including gleaning from garbage bags left on the street. This paper investigates city waste, the quantity and quality of edible food within the trash, and the tricks and techniques “trash eaters” employ to find and harvest the edible found food. Additionally, the paper traverses the beliefs and taboos that come from crossing a social boundary, from the sidewalk to the trash heap, and the value that can come from the transgressive action: self-sufficiency, reinvention, and wasting less.