Anticonsumption beyond consumers: The role of small organic producers in environmentally oriented anticonsumption

Abstract

AbstractRecent studies recognize that environmentally oriented anticonsumption gives power to individuals who are willing to express their environmental concerns. Yet, it goes beyond consumers’ decisions and should also include producers’ practices and discourses. In this study, we explore the food system context and the emergence of organic food as a more sustainable and healthy food production mode to describe the role of organic farmers in building social and material arrangements against conventional food production and consumption. Our empirical study involved an interpretative approach based on 29 interviews with Brazilian organic farmers and experts in organic production. The findings indicate that farmers explore two different discursive mechanisms to build arguments that support the hegemonic and conventional food production system. Farmers also perform two sets of supporting practices that allow the construction of an alternative approach to food production and consumption. We conclude that farmers’ discourses and practices build an alternative food system, enabling conventional food anticonsumption. This study contributes to the literature of anticonsumption by expanding the traditional consumer‐centric perspective through the inclusion of the producer perspective.