What’s good to eat? Moral economy of children’s food in Poland’s capital

Abstract

The heightened tensions around what children eat, that occur in many places of the world, signify a changing moral economy of children’s food. Together with food, many emotions and sentiments, as well as judgements and expectations, circulate among people and institutions. Particular food products become valued as good or bad because they are consumed by children. Children, and their mothers, are considered to be proper people because they eat specific food. This article identifies two processes that shaped the moral economy of children’s food in Poland: a shift from an economy of shortage to an economy of abundance during post-socialism, and an emphasis on healthism and healthy food during post-EU-accession. These changes shaped institutional approaches to and discourses on food, as well as people’s food practices, amplifying emotions around and tensions between different hierarchies of food values. And through processes of individualization and responsibilization they placed particular pressure on mothers. Based on ethnographic research conducted in Warsaw in 2012-13, and revisits conducted in 2018-19, the article connects public debates and large-scale politics to family foodways, showing how moral economy of food is enacted through adults and children’ daily practices.