Food Movement Research Articles

Media representations of food

Abstract This presentation will discuss preliminary findings of a media content analysis focused on how the news media have represented food policy and different food movements, such as slow food, veganism and vegetarianism, and climate-friendly diets. Ireland will be presented as a case study, and the presentation will explore the use of framing theory as a lens through which media representations can be understood.

Do salamanders chew? An X-ray reconstruction of moving morphology analysis of ambystomatid intraoral feeding behaviours.

Chewing is widespread across vertebrates, including mammals, lepidosaurs, and ray-finned and cartilaginous fishes, yet common wisdom about one group-amphibians-is that they swallow food whole, without processing. Earlier salamander studies lacked analyses of internal kinematics of the tongue, analyses of muscle function, and sampled few individuals, which may have caused erroneous conclusions. Specifically, without tongue and food kinematics, intraoral behaviours are difficult to disambiguate. We hypothesized that ambystomatid salamanders use diverse intraoral behaviours, including chewing, and tested this hypothesis with biplanar videofluoroscopy, X-ray reconstruction of moving morphology, and fluoromicrometry. We generated musculoskeletal kinematic profiles for intraoral behaviours in Axolotls (Ambystoma mexicanum), including three-dimensional skeletal kinematics associated with feeding, for gape, cranial and pectoral girdle rotations, and tongue translations. We also measured muscle fibre and muscle-tendon unit strains for six muscles involved in generating skull, jaw and tongue kinematics (adductor mandibulae, depressor mandibulae, geniohyoid, sternohyoid, epaxialis and hypaxialis). A principal component analysis recovered statistically significant differences between behaviour cycles, classified based on food movements as either chewing or transport. Thus, our data suggest that ambystomatid salamanders use a previously unrecognized diversity of intraoral behaviours, including chewing. Combined with existing knowledge, our data suggest that chewing is a basal trait for tetrapods and jaw-bearing vertebrates. This article is part of the theme issue 'Food processing and nutritional assimilation in animals'.

The travelogue cooking show in a sub-state nation: Representing Scotland in British food television

Food television offers a new and unique lens on national identity, the Anglo-Scottish relationship, and their cultural representation in contemporary Britain. This article is based on the analysis of three British travelogue cooking shows, first broadcast between 1995 and 2011, about Scotland and its food. The programmes analysed exemplify and reinforce long-standing cultural constructions of the relationship between England and Scotland as sub-state nations of the United Kingdom, as well as illustrating and creating new national scripts, notably in relation to class and gender. These ‘homeland’ travelogue cooking shows consistently associate Scotland with a defined set of local and traditional foods, closely associated with a Romantic construction of Scotland, its history and landscape. However, the programmes also indicate wider changes in British and Scottish food culture during this period, including the rise of the local food movement and the increasing economic success and cultural confidence of the Scottish food and drink industry. The article highlights the role of celebrity chefs in the cultural construction of contemporary British sub-state national relationships.

Biotechnology activism is dead; long live biotechnology activism! The lure and legacy of market-based food movement strategies

Scholarly debate over the transformative potential of neoliberal, market-based, food movement strategies historically contrasts those who value their potential to reform the food-system from the inside against those who argue that their use concedes the primacy of the market, creates citizen-consumers, and undermines overall movement goals. While narrow case studies have provided important amendments, the legacy of such strategies requires impacts to be evaluated both contextually and more broadly than the specific activism. This study thus conceptualizes the ‘case’ of U.S. biotechnology market activism expansively, drawing on interviews with 25 activists from diverse organizations to investigate the legacy of two food-labeling movement strategies (one public and mandatory, one private and voluntary). The results support that the legacy of market strategies extends more broadly than the immediate initiative. They also confirm that the consequences of such neoliberalized strategies are most productively assessed contextually and applied, rather than categorically—as most clearly illustrated by the counterintuitive results of the failed mandatory labeling effort. Of the two market strategies, voluntary labeling demonstrated the most problematic relationship to broader movement goals of food system transformation, in part because of the greater potential for overlapping credence claims and in part due to the risks of niche market logic.

The Impact of Slow Food Consumption in Cities and Smart Cities

Processed, nutrient-poor foods around the world are causing serious health problems such as obesity and diabetes as well as environmental problems such as urban carbon emissions. Making cities more ecological and livable is an urgent global priority for sustainable development. The Slow Food Movement is a significant initiative that promotes sustainable development by providing high quality, environmentally friendly and socially just food for everyone. The aim of this article is to propose a framework that demonstrates how a slow food approach, focused on providing good, clean, and fair food, can be integrated into a sustainable development model for smart cities. This model is rooted in the principles of local economic development, which considers the roles of consumers, producers, distribution channels, and local authorities in promoting sustainability. Smart cities can play a crucial role in reducing food waste and transportation costs by promoting seasonal, locally sourced, and sustainable food options. This can be achieved through preserving traditional techniques and knowledge, as well as promoting shorter production and distribution chains. Community-run markets are an excellent way to provide consumers with healthy, high-quality food at fair prices, while also encouraging local economic development. To achieve a sustainable and smart city, it is essential to foster collaboration between governments, businesses, local communities, and consumers. This collaborative effort will promote a smart economy, smart mobility, smart environment, smart people, smart living, and smart governance. By working together, these stakeholders can create a more sustainable and resilient food system, which is essential for the health and wellbeing of both the city and its inhabitants.

Finding justice in the food movements

First paragraph: Justin Sean Myers’ Growing Gardens, Building Power: Food Justice and Urban Agriculture in Brooklyn docu­ments the emergence and development of urban agriculture in East New York. Using food as a lens, the book presents a detailed account of a commu­nity’s collective effort to confront its racialized history of segregation and disinvestment and simultaneously fight for food sovereignty and social justice. . . .

Social movements as agents of change: Fighting intersectional food inequalities, building food as webs of life

What does the diversity of social movements and food initiatives tell us about processes of social change? I argue that they offer a productive analytical lens to observe social change because they identify injustices and dynamics of inequalities in the food system and are actively engaged in transforming these. Alternative local food initiatives react to the environmental impacts of globalized food relations; food sovereignty movements highlight class inequalities and power asymmetries in the food system that affect people’s rights to culturally appropriate foodways; food justice movements denounce institutional racism; feminist movements fight persistent gender inequalities from food production to consumption; vegan movements defend animal rights. These are often mapped onto different world regions, with food justice movements more present in the US; food sovereignty movements louder in the Global South; feminist food movements more active in Latin America; and local food movements commonly in the Global North. This article brings together diverse strands of activism and research on social inequalities related to food under the conceptual umbrella of food inequalities. In addition to concept building, it contributes to a sociology of food studies by mapping the geopolitics of knowledge about social change behind the growing mobilization around food issues.

Relational proximity: The search for local food in China

ABSTRACT In the West, the local food movement began with the hope of constructing sustainable food systems, but the philosophy’s actual impact must be examined in specific sociocultural contexts. Focusing on the daily food practices of consumers in Guangzhou, China, this study explores how Chinese consumers define, understand, and experience local food, the characteristics of local food initiatives in China, and their multifaced impacts on social sustainability. The results show that Guangzhou consumers actively seek out local food and even become involved in the production, a highly effective strategy for addressing food quality challenges. Consumer perspectives on local food can be grouped into three categories: placed-based native food, culture-based hometown food, and value-based ecological food, with localness conferred by the pathways of visceral experience, cultural heritage, and value identity. The study argues that, theoretically, the definition of local food should transcend geographical boundaries and incorporate relational proximities among consumer bodies, places, cultures, and producers as robust parameters. Practically, consumer-led local food initiatives promote social sustainability at different levels by alleviating people’s diverse food anxieties and connecting various communities. They also demonstrate the possibility of solidifying the urban-rural nexus, but efforts to motivate broad public participation and institutional support are needed.

Dynamic Governance in increasing Millennial Participation Food Independent South Sumatra Movement Program (GSMP)

Appropriate measures to address food security at the local level can be designed and implemented, understanding people's perceptions and judgments about their food security, will have practical implications for designing better interventions to improve community food security. This study uses a qualitative methodology through interviews, and then the data is coded using Nvivo 12 Plus. To realize this, the Province of South Sumatra implemented the South Sumatra Self-Sufficient Food Movement through efforts to change the community's mindset from "buyers" to "producers" covering the cultivation of plants, fish, and poultry. However, its implementation is still experiencing many obstacles, including beneficiaries still focusing on their main activities to earn income so that the assistance received has not been utilized optimally, GSMP socialization has not been optimal for beneficiaries, field assistance related to plant and fish cultivation has not been optimal, as well as assistance provided services provided have not been fully adapted to field conditions and beneficiary skills. So, it is expected to be able to recommend solutions for implementing the South Sumatra Independent Food Movement Program (GSMP), especially in Palembang City. This study concludes that millennial participation in the South Sumatra Independent Food Movement is relatively high and is influenced by factors such as interest, knowledge, and community involvement. Thus, further efforts are needed to increase interest, knowledge, and community involvement in this program to achieve the goals of the South Sumatra Independent Food Movement.

THE CONNECTION OF SLOW FOOD PRINCIPLE WITH COMMUNITY- BASED TOURISM IN THAILAND: INVESTIGATING GENERATION Y PERCEPTION

The slow food movement, a new gastronomic trend, arisen as a striking response to negative impacts of globalization with three principles of “Good, Fair and Clean. Community-based tourism covers a variety of local culture, especially local food products, services, and experiences. As the generation Y cohort represents a significant market for tourists, this article aims to explore the connection between slow food principle and community-based tourism, and evaluate slow food attributes that need to be improved related to Gen Y perspective. A questionnaire was used to collect data with 385 respondents. Five steps of the importance-performance analysis were evaluated to acquire reliability and validity issues. The findings imply the slow food principle associated with CBT food-related activities with high level of perceived importance and performance. The results of IPA reveal that the quality of food in CBT destination needs to be urgently managed to establish a memorable experience. A collaboration among CBT enterprises, government, private sector, and marketers to strengthen public awareness about slow food could be one of steppingstone toward sustainable development and healthy food culture.

Food in motion: Lively display of freshness or last spasms of living beings?

The movement of food may suggest the food is very fresh but may also indicate the source of food is still alive. In this study, we explore the responses that different kinds of food movements can evoke among consumers. In an online study, we presented participants with 14 videos in which a food product changed shape or moved, before or while being eaten. They rated their emotional responses to the food (disgust, fear, fascination), their tendency to empathize with the beings in the video, characteristics of the movements, and how they experienced the food. Most foods that moved in the videos elicited more disgust than expected for those food items. Many product aspects that elicited disgust also evoked empathy, while fascination showed opposite patterns. Products elicited empathy and disgust when they seemed to be alive and potentially harmful, and their movements were twitchy. Participants empathized mainly with larger animals, while disgust was particularly high for smaller animals like maggots in cheese and crawling coconut worms. People became fascinated with foods they found safe, nutritious, and that looked attractive, while the food movements were subtle and looked natural with the food. These results showed that the movements of foods that appeared to be alive were different from what was considered natural for the food, and so they also evoked different emotional responses.

Impact of neoliberalism on the socioeconomic life and food system of Kondh tribes of Rayagada, Odisha

The paper focuses on how the neoliberal economy is changing the agriculture and traditional food system of the Kondh tribes of Odisha, India. As Kondhs’ culture and the ritual system moves around agriculture, its increasing commercialization has led to changes in the larger socioeconomic structure. The paper discusses the immediate impacts of neoliberalism on the Kondhs’ youths and rising materialism. Widespread cultivation of Bt. Cotton and GM seeds in the region are one of the ways to trace the impact of the neoliberal market system. Most commercial exchanges performed by Kondhs and nontribal middlemen are a site for multiple negotiations and terms for trading, in which Kondhs most loose, both ecologically and economically. The paper uses ethnographic data and experiences to discuss socioeconomic distress among Kondhs, changing from barter to a cash system. It concludes by discussing if local NGOs and food movements can become a solution.

‘It Was Just the Club from Nowhere:’ The Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Gastro-Politics of Black Domestic Women, and Liberation Theology Futures

This article posits Georgia Gilmore and the “Club to Nowhere”—a crucial fundraising arm of the Montgomery Bus Boycott—as a critical vector in a larger tradition in the U.S. In Black movements for Black liberation, food and food production are engaged as a communal pedagogy for constructing agency, behavioral reform, economic power, resistance, and sustainable social transformation. While Montgomery preachers made speeches, activists strategized, and male leaders debated the place of women in the Black liberation project, Gilmore and her cadre of Black women domestics secured thousands of dollars to fund the movement by selling soul food staples. Through their labor, “The From Nowhere” transformed the socio-political and epistemological positionality of Black domestic women into a valuable intellectual resource for generating a movement for social change. Consequently, Gilmore reminds contemporary and future liberation theologians that interrogating and re-envisioning our epistemologies is essential to sustainable revolutionary social praxes. Working at the juncture of history, ethics, and critical theory, I look to Gilmore and “The Club from Nowhere” for historical reflection on the intersections of food, race, gender, and the future of liberation theologies.

The evolution of organic food certification

The surge in the development of the organic food movement is in response to mass industrial food production, prioritizing productivity and economic profit across the global food supply chain, the cost of individual human health, the nutritional value of products, environmental degradation, and climate change. In recent decades, bio-certified food has become especially important to farmers, consumers, and policymakers as a viable transition away from high-input, intensive farming methods to a more humane and sustainable food system. However, to create value and a point of distinction in the marketplace, a robust and valid operation system to verify organic standards throughout the supply chain is of utmost importance. In this study, we conducted two separate surveys. The first survey targeted active organic farmers from three countries. Based on the data obtained, we confirm, similar to other investigations, that the current system of bio-certification is not reliable with a certain degree of probability. The second survey consulted highly specialized experts in organic systems from around the world to identify how the bio certification system should be transformed. The results indicated that the average probability of unregistered violations can be 35.4% according to self-reporting by organic farmers. This together with results that found that 96.12% of experts believe that the organic certification procedure needs to change provides increasing evidence and justification for an overhaul of the certification system.

Weed-fed Pigs: Food Sovereignty in the Blind Spot

Implicit everyday forms of food sovereignty can be explored to reveal the diversity of the movement. For example, the ways in which elderly villagers raise pigs on weeds in central China share some features with the “quiet food sovereignty” of Russia. Small-scale pig rearing is largely invisible to outsiders, so identifying it relies heavily on weeds as indicators. Bounded by age in rural southwest Hubei, the small space of raising weed-fed pigs emerged in a blind spot between discourses on modern technological agriculture and concerns for food safety. In the 1990s, elderly villagers continued feeding pigs on local plants instead of using industrial fodder in order to retain the authentic taste of pork, which continues to have social value. The practice took on added significance as a form of self-protection from food-safety issues in the 2000s. It provides a moral buffer for elderly villagers sandwiched between the conflicting values of modern scientific and technological farming supported by the state policy of “Increasing Agricultural Prosperity with Modern Sci-tech” and emerging organic or green food movements motivated by urban people's desire for safe foods and state agenda on developing rural tourism. Despite the ecological, material, health, and social benefits of operating in this small space, their implicit food sovereignty goes unnoticed. Because raising weed-fed pigs functions invisibly, it remains in the blind spot of mass food discourses in China.

Compromise in the making of urban agroecology: grassroots initiatives and the politics of experimentation in Madrid, Spain

ABSTRACT In some cities, food movements are mobilizing around agroecology, using the materiality of their lived environment and their social interactions to put their vision of future food systems into practice. These initiatives unfold in contexts where resources are often limited, forcing trade-offs between activists’ visions of agroecology and what they can do in the immediate future. Drawing on documentary research, 26 semi-structured interviews, and over 100 hours of observation, we examine the evolution of agroecology in Madrid, Spain, focusing on the deployment of three initiatives. We find that to cope with precarity, some activists adapt their practices by adopting scaling-up strategies that involve increasing the number of participants and collaborating with the City of Madrid. However, the political dimension of the simple acts like gardening or procuring agroecological food becomes less clear, raising questions and spurring debate within the social movement. The compromises made and the reflexive stance on what is gained and what is lost, we argue, ultimately are testament and contribute to agroecology’s political vision and goals, albeit in ways that are perhaps quite different from those initially envisioned.

Farm to Food Bank: Exploring the Ties between Local Food Producers and Charitable Food Assistance☆

AbstractThis research explores the dependencies between community food security and local food movements. We use a mixed methods approach that includes: analysis of 2.97 million pounds of food bank donations from 296 organizations, network analysis of the local food system with 77 farms and 439 market connections, and 24 interviews with food bank donors and staff. We find strong ties between the food bank and local food producers, particularly producers that are organic and sell directly to the public. Nearly half the donating farms also sold to local markets; and together supplied the majority of locally produced food (296,090 pounds) distributed by the food bank. Yet, both movements operate within capitalist systems, even when the food is decommodified. Producer motivations for donating are not purely based on social responsibility to feed the hungry but also acknowledge the financial and marketing benefits of donating in terms of receiving tax credits, participating in procurement programs, and improving public relations. Our findings suggest that research and policy focused on local food systems or food security should consider such ties and their implications for growing or maintaining resulting practices.

Understanding polycentrically organized movements: An analysis of the Slow Food and Fair Trade movements in Europe

ABSTRACT The Slow Food movement and the fair trade movements have in the past been described as lifestyle movements and defined and understood in terms of their lack of explicit political commitments. In this article we consider the extent to which this view is still true today, drawing on the concept of polycentricity to describe and reflect on the activities of these polycentrically organized movements. The theoretically informed discussion we provide offers a nuanced account of each movement and its effort to engage in different kinds of activities in different contexts that all contribute to advancing its vision. We argue that while activities typical of lifestyle movements are still common in both movements, their overall orientations are more explicitly political than they perhaps once were. While some political activity is local and intended to bring about fairly limited reforms, both movements seek more transformative change at the national and EU levels.

Humane dog food? caring and killing in the certified humane dog food value chain

The marketing of dog food influences pet-owners to nurture the ‘carnivorous’ nature of the dog, keeping animal-based protein central to the industry. Alas, dog food has a significant impact on welfare. Consumers are aware of this impact, shifting the industry towards alternative pet food movements such as Open Farm, the first certified humane food. This article examines the material and discursive practices through which ‘humaneness’ is constituted as a quality within the humane pet food supply chain and how it reinforces embedded animal hierarchies. By reviewing the marketing and history of commercial dog food production, I show how ‘caring’ for the carnivorous dog lays the framework for killing. I use Open Farm's transparency tool to trace the value chain and compare it with the imagery, discursive claims, and material practices found within the Global Animal Partnership standards. I argue that instead of questioning animal-based protein, humane certification creates an alternative in which the pet owner could still ‘care’ for the wildness of their domesticated dog while simultaneously ‘caring’ for farmed animals. Thus, it reinforces the hierarchies of the industry. Additionally, the validity of the humane claims depends on the animals’ charisma and proximity to humans. In other words, marketing in the humane dog food supply chain creates animal–animal positionalities, in which the animals’ care or killability is mediated through the humans’ supply chain and marketing. However, as I show with interview data, the hierarchies are fragile and must be continuously reinforced, as animals can slip into different positions. Their proximity to humans alters their positionality and their killability.

The Land Remains: A Midwestern Perspective On Our Past and Future by Neil D. Hamilton

Reviewed by: The Land Remains: A Midwestern Perspective On Our Past and Future by Neil D. Hamilton Jim Feldman Neil D. Hamilton, The Land Remains: A Midwestern Perspective On Our Past and Future. North Liberty, IA: Ice Cube Press, 2022. 344 pp. $24.95 (paper). In this expansive memoir, retired law professor Neil D. Hamilton draws insights from a career of teaching, research, and public service to discuss how American relationships with the agricultural landscapes of the Midwest have changed over time and how they must continue to evolve in the search for more sustainable social, economic, and ecological practices. Several themes run throughout the book: the tensions between public and private good; the outsized power of market forces; the need for a holistic perspective on land, water, and conservation; the disconnect between most citizens and the land; and the value of law and policy to guide conservation decisions. One of Hamilton's most valuable contributions is an update to Aldo Leopold's recognition that conservation requires more than just good public policy. Progress also demands the commitment of private landowners to better management and the willingness of citizens to recognize their own connections to the land. From this angle, he routinely defends small farmers, whom he sees caught between ruthless corporations and a disinterested and disconnected public. Hamilton draws on a tremendous range of sources. These include his childhood memories, family and local histories, and his own landownership decisions on an Iowa farm. To this he adds conversations with experts from industry, academia, and the farming community as well as the collected wisdom of key conservation figures from both the past and the present. He quotes well-known scientists and agricultural leaders and more obscure conservation figures such as Ding Darling and John Lacey. Hamilton employs a folksy writing style to blend these sources into chapter-length [End Page 210] discussions of ongoing conservation issues such as soil health, water quality, land trusts, and the better food movement. Although Hamilton spends considerable time documenting the poor state of current conservation affairs, the last third of the book takes a more hopeful approach. He suggests that all of us can contribute to the better food movement, and that consumers demanding better food will lead to improved land management. He explains how land trusts can protect both the economic interests of landowners and the health of the land. He concludes with the recognition that better land management provides a road map for addressing other intractable but interconnected problems: crises in mental health, social justice (rooted in historically inequitable access to land), and climate change. Facing these complicated issues, Hamilton suggests, requires a new perspective: "You can't ignore economics and still hope to make a better world … [You] have to recognize and harness economic forces … This is where the societal and economic necessity of addressing climate change becomes so significant. Taking positive steps on the land to address climate change provides the vehicle for integrating markets, money and economics into all the various efforts to create a better food and farming system" (315). Viewing the issues this way, Hamilton suggests, provides the chance to turn challenges into opportunities. Hamilton has much to say, and he draws a range of expansive conclusions about our connections to the land. Yet he rarely gets straight to his point, and the organization of the book can be hard to follow. In each chapter, he offers sections written from the first-person perspective of "The Back Forty" on his family farm ("The Back Forty on Lines, Boundaries, and Names"; "The Back Forty on Land, Law, and Imagination"). The goal of allowing the land to speak for itself is a worthy one, but these sections simply extend Hamilton's own ideas. The mixed-methods approach of blending observation, interview, and literature review makes for a comprehensive discussion but adds to the sense of disorganization. The title of the book promises "a Midwestern Perspective." What such a perspective might entail remains an emerging subject of scholarly and popular conjecture. Hamilton does not address this question, and his midwestern perspective has a decidedly Iowan slant that might not always translate to other regional issues and ideas. Wisconsin's dairy...