Everywhere I turned, I’d spot what appeared to be a buffet. They were pseudo-buffets. In Brazil’s small towns and big cities, at hostel breakfast bars and on Amazonian ferries, all had a slight twist which transformed the buffet’s brand. These pseudo-buffets no longer evoked a fluorescent lit Vegas buffet swarming with zombies astoundingly capable of piling their plates with towers of casserole and Jell-O.

The distinction is a shift towards more conscious eating. This shift comes in two forms: the popular pay-per-kilo model (the carrot) and the fee-for-waste model (the stick.) The former pivots an all-you-can-eat bonanza into an “oh yeah food has value and really I don’t need another muffin” restraint. With a food scale at the end of the buffet, there’s a custom price tag which acts as a motivator for conscious eating and rewards light eaters with a deal (those light in appetite or clever in selecting literally light food.)…