The term, profligate, was difficult to understand in the passage because of how the author used it. The word profligate usually describes a person who is wildly and impulsively reckless with money and anything of value. In this case, the author makes the subject of this sentence "food" and describes it as being something that plays a prominent role in energy expenditure. When putting the sentence into perspective, the parallels between the word profligate and food is that the distribution of food is a system that relies heavily on a wasteful process and results in using energy excessively and, seemingly, in vain.

(https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/profligate)

Simply acknowledges the differences between what and who the third wave and second wave feminist movements represents.