The supply strategies of health food eaters

Abstract

What are the supply strategies implemented by people who are interested in health food? How do the supply methods of the respondents reveal the moral values linked to health food? Is it possible to find compromises between individual contexts, financial and social constraints, and market evolutions, and which shape do they take? My initial hypothesis was that the places where health food eaters stock up on supplies would be homogeneous. However, my observation of consumers’ daily practices has revealed a much more diverse range of supply practices, showing a complex cartography of places of supply and purchase. Based on the ethnographic trajectories of families who consume health food, this article shows that people arrive at different trade-offs depending on the points of purchase where they buy food and on the kind of food they are looking for. Brands and labels, for instance, which have no impact when it comes to shopping at the market or through a food basket system, are regarded as a safe solution when it comes to shopping in a conventional shop. I will insist on the importance of setting research on food supplies back in the same framework as studies on food consumption, in order to avoid creating a divide between a financial choice and a moral choice of incorporation. This conclusion will lead to a reflection in the conclusion on the possibility for people who consume health food to turn to hybrid and reflexive compositions in their food supply methods.