Leftovers: A History of Food Waste and Preservation (Hardback) - Eleanor Barnett

A topical and richly entertaining history of food preservation and food waste in Britain from the sixteenth-century kitchen to the present day. In Leftovers, Eleanor Barnett explores the many ingenious ways in which our ancestors sought to extend the life of food through preservation, the culinary reuse of leftovers and the recycling of food scraps. Embracing a broad historical lens, the book spans Tudor household management; the world-changing inventions in food preservation of the Industrial Revolution from the tin can to artificial refrigeration; the growth of public health initiatives and organised food waste collection in the Victorian era; state promotion of thrifty eating during the two World Wars; and the politics of food and packaging waste in the modern era of sustainability. Opening a window on the everyday experiences of ordinary people in the past, Leftovers reveals how factors such as religious belief, class identities and gender have historically shaped attitudes towards food waste. At a time when a third of the food we produce globally is wasted, Leftovers links its central historical focus to humanitarian and environmental issues of urgent contemporary interest - including climate change, globalisation, scientific advancement, poverty and inequality.

About the Author

Eleanor Barnett holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge and has recently been awarded a Leverhulme research fellowship. Her work uses food as a lens through which to access the daily lives of ordinary people as well as wider cultural, economic, political and religious historical processes. As @historyeats on Instagram, she posts daily food history stories, paintings and objects from across the world to a wide audience, and she is a regular contributor to radio and other public-facing media. Leftovers is her first non-fiction title.