Abstract
The growing academic literature on ‘food sovereignty’ has elaborated a food producer-driven vision of an alternative, more ecological food system rooted in greater democratic control over food production and distribution. Given that the food sovereignty developed with and within producer associations, a rural setting and production-side concerns have overshadowed issues of distribution and urban consumption. Yet, ideal types such as direct marketing, time-intensive food preparation and the ‘family shared meal’ are hard to transcribe into the life realities in many non-rural, non-farming households, and it is unclear, in turn, how such realities can fit into models of food sovereignty. A particular practical and research gap exists in how to engage the overwhelming need for food options served under time constraints and (often) outside of the home or a full-service restaurant. The over-generalized vilification of ‘fast food’ should be replaced by a framework that allows us to distinguish between unhealthy, corporate fast foods and both traditional and emerging alternatives that can serve to extend the tenets of food sovereignty further into food processing, distribution and consumption. This article analyzes existing conceptualizations of fast food, explores fast food historically, and studies how food sovereignty can operationalize its tenets and priorities in situations where fast food is an unquestionable necessity.
Highlights
Fast Food and Food SovereigntyFood sovereignty emerged as a radical framework for agrarian development that links concerns over agriculture’s worsening ecological impacts, opposition to the commodification of natural resources and concentration of land1 3 Vol.:(0123456789)L
Roman‐Alcalá ownership and power in value chains, as well as the preservation and reinvigoration of rural cultures. It originated in the debates between representatives of the 31 peasant movements that signed La Via Campesina’s first joint declaration in Mons, Belgium, in 1993, where it served as a conceptual tool to integrate experiences across borders and national contexts and a ‘rallying cry’ in the formulation of possible futures (Rosset 2003; Wittman 2009)
Movements and concerns from various sectors have been amalgamated with this small farmer-base: rural indigenous cultures, landless workers in agri-food chains, as well as urban food justice movements in the North (Grey and Patel 2015; Holt-Giménez et al 2011)
Summary
Food sovereignty (hereafter: FS) emerged as a radical framework for agrarian development that links concerns over agriculture’s worsening ecological impacts, opposition to the commodification of natural resources and concentration of land. Enough, the interviewer measured how the prevalent definition of ‘FF = unhealthy & for poor people’ entered into participants’ minds during the course of the interviews: “ many participants were initially inclusive in their categorisation of fast foods, a different tendency emerged as soon as people answered subsequent questions requiring them to put fast food into a context In those circumstances, people’s spontaneous associations were with food that is high in fats, low in nutritional value, and purchased from large chains” (ibid: 332). Interviewees confronted with the problem of defining FF first thought of ‘FF’ as fast food, including a variety of food options, but only seconds later their prejudices and norms kicked in, ‘hijacking’ this definition towards arguments of class, decency, responsibility etc., and moving it from neutral description to highly normative interpretation Another notion frequently included in frameworks of ‘FF’ is the act of deferring food preparation labor to specialized food workers. The aggressive marketing of corporate FFs (both those prepared at corporate outlets and those bought in supermarkets and prepared at home) and displacement of established alternative food options (including non-corporate FFs) often spearhead these trends
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