The ontological politics of freshness: Qualities of food and sustainability governance

David M Evans,Peter Jackson,João A Baptista,Monica Truninger

doi:10.1177/0308518x211059834

David M Evans, Peter Jackson + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518x211059834

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Abstract

Freshness is a key feature of contemporary food systems, however its industrial production as a quality of food carries adverse consequences. Accordingly, this paper approaches freshness as a matter of concern. Drawing on extensive fieldwork across sites of food production and consumption in the UK and Portugal, we identify four enactments of freshness. The analysis zooms in on the specific case of plastic food packaging and uses these enactments to consider a series of questions about realities and the relationships between them. Since packaging is an issue that readily overflows to encompass a broader suite of propositions about food, we argue that freshness is a suitable focus around which to assemble hybrid forums to debate future possibilities. Joining a body of recent work that brings relational-materialist sensibilities to bear on sustainability governance, we demonstrate that these ideas are not exhausted by a concern with the ways in which existing ontologies are brought together in policy. To conclude, we suggest that attention to the multiple ontologies of qualities complements and extends approaches that focus on objects by offering a conduit that brings understandings of markets into discussions of ontological politics.

Highlights

This paper considers the ontological politics of freshness, which is both a quality of food and a key co-ordinating principle in contemporary systems of food production and consumption (Evans and Mylan, 2019)
It has explored how ideas of ontological multiplicity and ontological politics can be brought to bear on sustainability governance
We presented two realities of plastic food packaging, suggesting that they result from the ways in which different enactments of freshness clash, combine and collaborate

Summary

Introduction

This paper considers the ontological politics of freshness, which is both a quality of food and a key co-ordinating principle in contemporary systems of food production and consumption (Evans and Mylan, 2019). The core of our analysis is organised around two separate realities of plastic food packaging and in presenting these, we demonstrate how they result from the different ways in which enactments of freshness clash, combine and collaborate with one another. Before applying these questions to the specific case of plastic food packaging, it is necessary to discuss the empirical research – and outline the multiple enactments of freshness – on which our analysis is based.

Results

Conclusion