Front and Back Covers,Volume 33, Number 3. June 2017 |
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| Abstract: | Front and back cover caption, volume 33 issue 3 Front cover Donald J. Trump being sworn in as the 45th president of the United States, 20 January 2017. The wealthiest and the oldest US president, Trump has also proved to be the most divisive, picking controversial cabinet members, many of whom, like him, are millionaires or billionaires with no experience of working in the public sector. During early 2017, white nationalists became emboldened by his xenophobic rhetoric. In this issue, four authors pick up on select dimensions marking the Trump presidency, including: post‐truth, the trickster phenomenon, the role of big data in the US elections and Trump's pet project, namely the border wall between Mexico and the US. To what extent is Trump's rise to power indicative of global trends? In what ways have the shortcomings of neoliberalism accelerated these processes? How can anthropologists best position themselves within national environments where authoritarian, misogynistic and xenophobic tendencies are on the rise? Back cover: FOOD WASTE There are increasing levels of food poverty in the UK and ever‐growing numbers of food banks which have become symbolic of the state of the nation. At the same time, there is also rising public concern about food waste or surplus. Although the largest proportion is produced in the home, consumers tend to blame supermarkets, often utilizing a discourse of environmentalism. Such concern has resulted in a number of high‐profile campaigns like the one shown here ‘Love Food, Hate Waste’ by WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme) – which is only one of a number targeting both the food industry and consumers. Recently, it has also been suggested that such surplus food should be given to the growing numbers of people in food poverty through charities which supply food to their clients, including (but not only) food banks. The recent introduction of the Food Cloud app in a partnership between FareShare and Tesco has facilitated such a process. Indeed, it is often contended that this is a win‐win situation which neatly solves both problems – too much food being produced and left unsold, and too many people who cannot afford to buy food. In this issue, Pat Caplan points to some of the problems in this apparently tidy solution, drawing on two case studies from her recent research. While those in food poverty receive donated food from the public via food banks or surplus food from companies, they recognize that the acceptance of such food, no matter how good its quality, is stigmatizing – left‐over food for left‐over people. On the other hand, the food industry benefits not only from the additional food purchased by consumers to donate to food banks, but also from the PR which accrues from donating its own surplus to charity. So the win‐win situation does not in the long term solve either the problem of production of surplus or the problem of poverty. |
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