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14.3 Food and Cultural Identity

Learning outcomes.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Describe the relationship between food and cultural identity.
Contrast food prescriptions with food proscriptions.
Illustrate the connection between food and gender.

Food and Cultural Identity

Food travels across cultures perhaps more often and with more ease than any other tradition. Sometimes food carries with it related culinary practices (such as the use of chopsticks), and sometimes foods mix with existing culinary traditions to form new syncretic cuisines (such as Tex-Mex food, which evolved from a combination of Mexican and US Southwest food traditions). Like culture itself, foods are shared within and move between communities, adapting to changing circumstances and settings. Although it is adaptable, food is also tightly linked to people’s cultural identities , or the ways they define and distinguish themselves from other groups of people. As part of these cultural identities, the term cuisine is used to refer to specific cultural traditions of cooking, preparing, and consuming food. While urban areas tend to shift and adapt cuisine more frequently than rural areas, those aspects of cuisine most tightly linked to identity tend to change slowly in all settings.

In her research on Japanese food and identity, cultural anthropologist, and Japanese scholar Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney (1993, 1995) explores the sociocultural construction of rice as a dominant metaphor for the Japanese people. Using evidence from official decrees, taxation documents, myths, rituals, woodblock prints, and poetry, Ohnuki-Tierney traces the long history of rice cultivation in Japan. Introduced from China, rice agriculture began during the Yamato period (250–710 CE). While the Chinese preferred long-grain rice, the Japanese cultivated short-grain rice, which they considered the only pure form of rice. During this period, a series of myths connecting short-grain rice to Japanese deities emerged in folktales and historical documents—evidence of Japanese efforts to distinguish themselves from the Chinese, who also relied on rice as an important source of calories. Over the years, rice developed into a staple crop that Japanese landowners used as a form of tax payment, indicating strong connections between Japanese land, Japanese short-grain rice, and the Japanese landowning elite. By the early modern period (1603–1868), as Japan became increasingly urban and eventually industrialized, agricultural life declined. People moved off the land and into cities, and rice began to take on new meanings. Symptomatic of a cultural identity strongly rooted in national history, rice became an increasingly sacred symbol of Japanese identity—a cultural memory with a long history that consistently tied being Japanese to eating domestic Japanese rice. As Japan opened to interactions with Western nations, the Japanese continued to use rice as a metaphor for national identity: while the Japanese referred to themselves as “rice-eaters,” they referred to Western peoples as “meat-eaters.”

For years, Japan has had a ban on importing any foreign-grown rice, even California export rice, which is primarily the Japanese short-grain variety and available at a significantly lower price. In 1993, Japan suffered a growing season that was colder and wetter than normal and had a low-producing rice harvest. US rice exporters were able to negotiate a trade deal allowing some limited rice exports to Japan. Yet most of this rice remained in warehouses, untouched. Japanese people complained that it was full of impurities and did not taste good. Today, on average, Japanese people consume only about 160 grams of rice daily, half of what they consumed 40 years ago (Coleman 2017). Yet their cultural and symbolic connection with domestic Japanese rice remains strong. Japanese short-grain rice is still referred to as shushoku , “the main dish” (Ohnuki-Tierney 1993, 16)—the symbolic centerpiece, even though it is now more frequently a small side dish in a more diverse cuisine. Ohnuki-Tierney notes that rice plays a particularly important role in the Japanese sense of community:

Not only during ritual occasions, but also in the day-to-day lives of the Japanese, rice and rice products play a crucial role in commensal activities. Cooked white rice is offered daily to the family ancestral alcove. Also, rice is the only food shared at meals, served by the female head of the household, while other dishes are placed in individual containers. Rice stands for “we,” i.e., whatever social group one belongs to, as in a common expression, “to eat from the same rice-cooking pan,” which connotes a strong sense of fellowship arising from sharing meals. (1995, 229)

Although the meaning of rice has shifted during different historical periods—from a comparison between short-grain Japanese and long-grain Chinese rice to a way to distinguish rice-eating Japanese from meat-eating Westerners, then to a measure of the quality of what is grown in Japanese versus less desirable imported rice—the Japanese continue to hold a cultural identity closely connected with rice. Being Japanese means eating Japanese rice still today.

The relationship between food and cultural identity is readily apparent in Western societies. Most grocery stores have aisles containing goods labeled as “international foods” or “ethnic foods,” and large urban areas often include neighborhoods featuring a conglomeration of restaurants serving diverse cuisines. In Washington, DC, the neighborhood of Adams Morgan is famous for its ethnic restaurants. Walking down the street, one might smell the mouthwatering aroma of injera , a sour, fermented flatbread from Ethiopia, or bún bò hu? , spicy lemongrass beef soup from Vietnam. Think about your own town and nearby urban areas. Where do you go to try new foods and dishes from other cultures?

Food Prescriptions and Proscriptions

As with all cultural institutions, there are various rules and customs surrounding food and eating. Many of these can be classified as either food prescriptions , foods that one should eat and are considered culturally appropriate, or food proscriptions , foods that are prohibited and not considered proper. These food regulations are social norms that connect production and consumption with the maintenance of cultural identity through food.

In the previous section, you read about the importance of Japanese short-grain rice as a symbol of Japanese identity. For many Japanese people, short-grain rice is a food prescription, something that they feel they should eat. Food prescriptions are common across cultures and nation-states, especially in regard to special holidays. There are many examples: turkey on Thanksgiving in the United States, corned beef on St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland, special breads, and candy figurines on Día de los Muertos in Mexico, saffron bread and ginger biscuits on St. Lucia Day in Sweden, or mutton curry and rice on Eid al-Fitr in Muslim countries. Food prescriptions are also common in the celebration of commemorative events, such as the cakes eaten at birthday parties and weddings, or the enchiladas and tamales prepared for a quinceañera celebrating a young Latin American woman’s 15th birthday. Most of these occasions involve feasts , which are elaborate meals shared among a large group of people and featuring symbolically meaningful foods.

One interesting example is the food eaten to mark the Dragon Boat Festival (Dragon Boat Festival, also called Duanwu), held in China on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar year. There are various origin stories for the Dragon Boat Festival. In one of them, the festival commemorates a beloved Chinese poet and government minister named Qu Yuan (ca. 340–206 BCE), who fell out of imperial favor and died by suicide, drowning himself. According to the story, people threw sticky rice dumplings into the river where he had drowned himself in order to distract the fish so that they could retrieve his body and give him a proper burial. The most important Dragon Boat food is zongzi , a sticky rice dumpling with different fillings, but the feast also traditionally includes eel, sticky rice cakes, boiled eggs, jiandui (a wheat ball covered in sesame seeds), pancakes with fillings, and wine.

Food proscriptions, also called food taboos , are also common across cultures and contribute to establishing and maintaining a group’s identity. Often, these rules and regulations about what not to eat originate in religious beliefs. Two examples are the vegetarianism practiced by many Hindus, which is grounded in the spiritual principle of ahimsa (nonviolence in relation to all living things), and kashrut , a Jewish principle that forbids mixing meat and dairy foods or eating pork or shellfish. Sometimes food proscriptions are active for limited periods of time. For many Christians, especially Catholics, the 40 days of Lent, a period of religious reflection commemorating the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert, are a time when people give up certain foods or drinks to make a symbolic sacrifice. For many Catholics, this means fasting (withholding a measure of food) throughout the period and/or totally abstaining from meat on the special days of Ash Wednesday and Good Friday:

For members of the Latin Catholic Church, the norms on fasting are obligatory from age 18 until age 59. When fasting, a person is permitted to eat one full meal, as well as two smaller meals that together are not equal to a full meal. The norms concerning abstinence from meat are binding upon members of the Latin Catholic Church from age 14 onwards. (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops n.d.)

Muslims observe Ramadan , a month-long commemoration of the prophet Muhammad receiving the revelations of the Quran, by fasting every day from sunup to sundown. The Islamic fast entails a prohibition on food and drink, including water. Every evening after sundown, Muslims eat a large meal that include fruits, vegetables, and dates to rehydrate for the next day’s fast.

Some food prohibitions are customary and tied more to ancient cultural traditions than religion. Many food prohibitions pertain to meat. Among several East African groups, there is a prohibition against eating fish of any kind. This is called the Cushitic fish taboo because the prohibitions are found among many, but not all, cultural groups whose languages are part of the Cushite family, such as the Somali, Masaai, and Bantu peoples. Horsemeat was historically consumed infrequently in the United States until it was outlawed in 2005, primarily because of toxins in the meat related to the butchering process. Even before then, horsemeat in mainstream US society was a food prohibition. However, it is consumed throughout Europe, where there are butchers solely devoted to handling horsemeat.

An interesting case of food rules and regulations across cultures is cannibalism , the act of eating an individual of one’s own species. Although we do not usually think of human flesh as a menu item, in some cultures it is considered a kind of food, typically eaten as symbolic nutrition and identity. U.S. cultural and medical anthropologist Beth Conklin (1995) and Brazilian cultural anthropologist Aparecida Vilaça (2002) conducted research among the Wari’ of western Amazonia in Brazil and found that prior to evangelization by Christian missionaries in the 1960s, the Wari’ practiced two different types of cannibalism: endocannibalism , or eating members of one’s own cultural group, and exocannibalism , or eating those who are “foreign” or outside of one’s cultural group. Each form of cannibalism was associated with its own beliefs, practices, and symbolism.

The Wari’ belief system is based on the principle that only the Wari’ are real people. All non-Wari’ others, people and animals alike, are not humans and thus can be considered meat (Vilaça 2002, 358). When speaking of the practice recognized by anthropologists as exocannibalism, the Wari’ did not consider themselves to be practicing cannibalism at all; they saw non-Wari’ people as not fully human and classified them as a type of prey. Endocannibalism was understood differently. Endocannibalism among the Wari’ was practiced as part of the mourning process and understood as a way of honoring a Wari’ person who had died. Following a death, the immediate family of the deceased arranged for non-kin and relatives by marriage to dress and prepare the body by dismembering, roasting, and eating virtually all of it. Consuming the flesh of the deceased was considered the ultimate act of respect, as the remains were not buried in the ground but in the living bodies of other Wari’. Once eaten by non-family Wari’, the deceased could transform from humans into spirits and eventually return as prey animals to provide food for the living. For Conklin, this practice indicates mutualism , or the relationship between people and animals through the medium of food and eating:

For Wari’, ... the magic of existence lies in the commonality of human and animal identities, in the movements between the human and nonhuman worlds embodied in the recognition through cannibalism of human participation in both poles of the dynamic of eating and being eaten. (Conklin 1995, 95)

Cannibalism has been associated with many cultures, sometimes accompanying warfare or imperial expansion, as in the case of the Aztecs (Isaac 2002), and sometimes as a means of showing respect for and establishing kinship with the deceased (see Lindenbaum 1979 for an example in Papua New Guinea). Although there have been scholarly arguments around the nature and frequency of cannibalism (Arens 1979), there is increasing evidence that this was a practiced norm in many human societies. Some religions also incorporate symbolic cannibalism as a way of identifying with the deity.

Food can be deeply symbolic and plays an important role in every culture. Whether foods are prescribed or prohibited, each culture constructs meanings around what they define as food and the emotional attachments they have to what they eat. Consider your own plate when you next sit down to eat. What meanings are attached to the different foods that you choose? What memories do different foods evoke?

Food and Gender

While food itself is a material substance, humans classify and categorize foods differently based on cultural differences and family traditions. In many cultures, food is gendered, meaning some foods or dishes are associated with one gender more than with the other. Think about your own culture. If you were cooking a meal for only women or only men, would that influence the foods you chose to prepare? Although gender-specific food choices are stereotypes of male and female dietary preferences and every person has their own individual preferences, many social institutions and entertainment venues cater to gendered diets.

When the television show Man v. Food , a show devoted to “big food” and eating challenges, premiered on the Travel Channel in 2008, it had some of the highest ratings of any show on that channel. Many of the foods showcased are those stereotypically associated with men (burgers, potatoes, ribs, fried chicken), and the host participates in local food-eating competitions, highlighting regional cuisines around the United States. In this show, food functions as a sporting activity under extreme conditions.
Food delivery business GrubHub did a study of male and female ordering preferences in 2013–2014 at some 30,000 different restaurants in more than 700 US cities to “better understand takeout and delivery” (GrubHub 2018). In their results, they noted some significant differences between men’s and women’s ordering habits. Pizza was the most popular item for both men and women, but among other selections, women tended to order more healthy options, such as salads, sushi, and vegetable dishes, and men ordered more meat and chicken, with the most popular choices being General Tso’s chicken, chicken parmesan, and bacon.

Food historian Paul Freedman traced the emergence of gendered foods and gendered food stereotypes in the United States back to the 1870s, when “shifting social norms—like the entry of women into the workplace—gave women more opportunities to dine without men” (2019b). Freedman notes that there was a rapid development of restaurants meant to appeal to women. Many of these featured lighter fare, such as sandwiches and salads, and some were referred to as “ice cream saloons,” playing on a distinction between them and the more traditional type of saloon primarily associated with men (Freedman 2015). There was also growth in the recipe industry to provide women with home cooking options that allowed for quicker meal preparation.

Gendering foods, a practice often associated with specific life stages and rituals, is found across cultures and across time. In his study of marriage customs in the chiefdom of Batié in Cameroon, social anthropologist Emile Tsékénis notes that the marriage is formalized by an exchange of gendered foods between the couple’s polygamous families:

The groom offers raw “male” products (palm oil, plantain, and raffia wine) to the co-wives of the girl’s mother, while the co-wives hand over the palm oil to the girl’s father, and the girl’s side offers “female” products (yams, potatoes, and/or taro) to the husband’s side. (2017, 134)

This exchange of gendered foods between families mirrors the marriage ceremony and symbolically binds the couple’s families together.

Gendered foods are also common during puberty rituals in many cultures, especially for young women, as female puberty is marked by the beginning of menstruation, an obvious and observable bodily change. In the Kinaaldá , the Navajo puberty ceremony for young girls that takes place shortly after the first menstruation, the girl and female members of her family together cook a corn cake in a special underground oven. The corn cake, called an alkaan , is understood as a re-creation of the first corn cake baked by the Navajo deity Changing Woman. After baking this first corn cake, Changing Woman offered a piece of it to the sun in gratitude for food and life. By reenacting this ritual, the young girl marks her own journey toward the creation of life, as she is now capable of becoming a mother.

As we saw in Chapter 12, Gender & Sexuality, cultures may also celebrate foods that enhance sexuality. In some regions of Vietnam, there are restaurants that serve dog to male customers only, as dog meat is believed to enhance masculinity (Avieli 2011). Food contains and conveys many cultural beliefs. This can be compared to the joys attributed to chocolate in the United States, especially during the celebration of Valentine’s Day. Do you have similar beliefs about food and sexuality?

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Food as Culture: Cuisine, Food Customs, and Cultural Identity

Posted July 19, 2023 by Savannah Evans

Food is an essential part of every culture. It’s more than just a means of sustenance, but a way of expressing oneself, connecting with others, and passing on rich cultural heritage. Food is deeply ingrained in our cultural identity and serves as a representation of our heritage, history, and values. Here’s an in-depth look at food as culture .

Intangible Cultural Heritage

Food is considered a part of intangible cultural heritage, a way of life that is passed down from generation to generation. Traditional recipes, cooking techniques, and dining etiquette can reflect the values and beliefs of different communities and are all vital parts of cultural heritage. The UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list includes many dishes and food-related customs and traditions, including:

Al-Mansaf, a festive banquet in Jordan
Harissa from Tunisia
Traditional tea processing techniques and social practices in China
Culture of Ukrainian borscht cooking
Palov culture and tradition in Uzbekistan
Arabic coffee, a symbol of generosity in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, and the UAE

Traditional Food and Local Cuisine

Traditional food is an integral part of cultural identity. The food itself and the associated preparation techniques and social customs serve as a reminder of the past and provide a connection to historic and cultural roots.

In Italy, for example, food is not just about sustenance, but also about family, community, and tradition. Italians have a rich culinary history that dates back to ancient times, with important traditional dishes such as pasta and pizza. The Italian food experience centers not only on taste, but on sharing meals with loved ones, the pleasure of cooking, and pride in their culinary heritage.

Similarly, in Japan, food and cultural identity are closely tied. Japanese cuisine is known for its simplicity, elegance, and attention to detail. The preparation and presentation of traditional Japanese dishes like sushi, tempura, and ramen are considered an art form. Japanese food culture pays attention to the aesthetics and symbolism of food, and honors culturally rooted respect for nature and tradition.

Countries may also find their culture defined by a certain food— a national dish. A national dish is a culinary dish that is widely considered to be a country’s most representative or iconic food. It’s strongly associated with a particular country and its culture, and often has a long history and deep cultural significance. National dishes may have regional variations, but are generally recognized and enjoyed throughout the country. Examples of national dishes include sushi in Japan, paella in Spain, pizza in Italy, and hamburgers in the United States.

In these ways, food can define and perpetuate culture. Yet food customs and dining etiquette are not only important for preserving cultural identity, but also for promoting cultural diversity and understanding. Food can serve as a bridge between different cultures, allowing people to learn about and appreciate other ways of life.

In the US, immigrants have brought their traditional dishes and culinary practices with them, enriching American cuisine and creating a cultural melting pot. Foods such as pizza, tacos, and sushi have become staples of American cuisine, reflecting the diverse backgrounds of its citizens. This cultural blending can also lead to unique local cuisine and traditions, like the Cajun and Creole cuisines of New Orleans, Louisiana.

Dining Etiquette and Sharing Meals

Food also plays a significant role in social interactions and rituals. It is often the centerpiece of celebrations and gatherings, such as weddings, birthdays, and holidays. Traditional dishes are passed down from generation to generation, and family recipes are cherished and kept secret. The preparation and sharing of food can bring people together and create a sense of community and belonging.

In addition to fostering cultural preservation and belonging, cultural foods and traditional food customs can also promote good nutrition and health. Traditional foods are often made with fresh, locally sourced ingredients and prepared using traditional cooking methods that have been passed down for generations. As a result, they tend to be healthier and more nutrient-dense than processed or fast foods. Traditional diets are also typically rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, and healthy fats, which can help lower the risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and certain cancers.

To keep traditional food and dining etiquette alive, it is important to educate and pass down these practices to future generations. Schools and cultural organizations can offer cooking classes and workshops to teach traditional recipes and techniques. Families can share their recipes and cooking traditions with their children and grandchildren, ensuring that they are passed down to future generations. Traditional restaurants and markets can also play a role in preserving cultural heritage by promoting traditional dishes and ingredients.

Honoring Cultural Foods and Heritage Through Food Bank Services

Food Banks should pay special attention to the link between food and culture to ensure that everyone has access to fresh, healthy, and culturally significant food. Traditional foods and customs are an essential part of cultural identity and heritage, and should be accessible to keep cultural heritage alive and create a more diverse and inclusive society.

While traditionally viewed as providers of emergency sustenance, food banks like the SLO Food Bank are increasingly embracing the role of preserving and honoring cultural foods and heritage. Recognizing the vital role that food plays in cultural identity and comfort, many food banks now source a diverse range of culturally specific foods from different global cuisines.

This shift is not just about hunger alleviation; it’s about providing food that nourishes the body and the soul, acknowledging and respecting the cultural diversity of our communities. By doing so, food banks affirm the importance of cultural foods and heritage, fostering a sense of community and belonging among the recipients.

Here at the SLO Food Bank, we:

Source fresh foods from a variety of sources: We source food from wholesalers, USDA commodities, and more, while also rescuing food from local farms, households, and grocery stores. This wide network allows us to bring in the greatest variety of food so that we can offer food choice whenever possible.
Encourage choice-based services with Agency Partners: We work with our Agency Partners and Hunger Relief Network to encourage programs, meals, and pantries to offer a variety of choices, if possible, for neighbors to pick up foods that work best for their lifestyle and culture.
Share recipes and educational resources to support nutrition across global cuisines: Our seasonal recipes include a range of cultural dishes, such as Rice and Beans With Carnitas , Canned Salmon Sushi Rolls , and Shakshuka . We also offer information for nutrition education, including Spanish language resources . These offerings help us reach the breadth of our community and foster principles of inclusion and food justice.
Connect people with vital financial resources for food: We aim to connect our community with essential resources like CalFresh, which can support food budgets and empower people to partake in the meals and foods that connect them to their culture, heritage, and identity.

The accessibility of culturally specific foods plays a key role in the preservation of heritage and the expression of identity. Food is often deeply intertwined with traditions, customs, and memories, and can serve as an important touchstone for individuals navigating multicultural landscapes. Food access is not just a matter of nutrition and physical health, but also a vital component of cultural continuity, community belonging, and personal identity. Here at the SLO Food Bank, we are committed to providing that access and supporting the rich cultural diversity and health of the community we all call home.

About the SLO Food Bank

We at the SLO Food Bank believe that everyone has the right to nutritious food. That’s why we work hard to ensure access to fresh food for everyone in our community. We structure our programs in a few different ways to make fresh produce more accessible and affordable for those who need it. We also promote food assistance programs like CalFresh , while also hosting food distributions in the most rural areas of our county, where a grocery store may be more than 50 miles away.

With our network of community partners in San Luis Obispo, we strive to alleviate hunger and to build a healthier community. If you’re in the area, check out our Food Locator to find food sources near you, or support our cause through volunteer opportunities or donations , if you are able to give. With reliable access to wholesome food, we are all healthier, happier, and more productive members of our communities. Donate today to help us bring health and happiness to San Luis Obispo County!

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Role of Food in Cultural Studies: Globalization and Exchange of Food Essay

While globalization is gradually and rapidly conquering our world, making even the most reserved and locked up cultures and countries come out to the public arena, share, interact and participate, many conflicts are being caused by the clash of cultures, backgrounds, cultural differences and preferences.

Exchange of food is one of the types of interactions between cultures, it helps people with various backgrounds and up-bringing become more familiar with each other’s way of living, as a result the clash between cultures becomes less possible, as food is a great way to learn about unknown places bit by bit.

Boundaries in the modern world are slowly being erased and due to this cultural interactions become inevitable. Unfortunately, in human society something new is not always recognized as something positive or good, many people have problems adapting to changes, instead they fight and get stressed. Sharing food is one of the initial stages of getting to know unfamiliar cultures, it helps a person get prepared for further interactions with the new culture and gradually learn to interact with this culture without a conflict.

Practically thinking, national cuisine represents the essence of the culture. Traditional food of all countries and nations brings knowledge about its people’s history, social development, spiritual beliefs, geographical location, health, lifestyle and many other factors. Food serves as a significant base for developing balance in interactions between the representatives of different cultures; it helps find understanding and appreciation of each other’s values, this is why sharing food is an important aspect of an introduction to a new culture.

The rate of violence in the modern world is quite high, conflicts happen for many reasons and the ways of prevention of conflicts are varied. Cross-cultural issues and misunderstandings are a common problem of the contemporary world. The improvement and maintenance of cross-cultural interactions could be accomplished though food sharing, because food represents the essence of a culture, learning about a nation’s traditional meals equals to becoming more familiar with an unknown culture.

Intercultural communication is a necessary process in the modern world; this process is complicated and has many aspects. Because traditional foods are carrying the knowledge about their nation’s background, history and lifestyle, sharing food is an important stage of cross-cultural interaction aimed at bringing the representatives of various cultures closer in order to avoid conflicts and misunderstandings.

To my mind, these thesis statements view food as a significant aspect of contemporary life and reveal the functions of food that never occur to most people. I present food as a type of “social glue” between different cultures. I think the most effective statements are the ones that enumerate the food’s multiple meanings for the society.

Understanding Cross-Cultural Management Interaction
Cross-Cultural Communication in Tourism
Immigration, Cultural Encounters, and Cultural Clashes
Cultural Diversity and Social Attitudes
Food as a Means of Cross-Cultural Interaction
Yemen's History and Intercultural Analysis
Cultural Awareness Among the Arab Youth
Hmong Culture Aspects
Chicago (A-D)
Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2020, April 2). Role of Food in Cultural Studies: Globalization and Exchange of Food. https://ivypanda.com/essays/role-of-food-in-cultural-studies/

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Food and Culture

Updated 25 October 2023

Downloads 48

Category Food

Food and Culture: The Interconnection

As commonly stated that we are what we eat, this statement is very true to the fact that food and our culture are interconnected. People of different cultures consume a diverse variety of foodstuffs, and this is because most of the foods are indigenous and were introduced to us by our families who acquired them from the immediate family. For this matter, food goes with culture, for instance, those in Asia like the Chinese and Japanese consume some reptiles and even dogs that are weird delicacies in some continents. The act of food consumption goes with identity and conformity to cultural customs. In my case, I think culture plays an influential role in what we consume on a daily basis. The essay supports the argument that food has many effects on our culture and shapes our future. The outcomes of culture on food can be seen in the eating habits of Africans, Europeans, Asians, and the Americans with diverse cultures and so are the foods that they eat.

Personal Connections to Food and Identity

On a personal level, we grow up feeding on meals belonging to our cultures. That act becomes part of our identity and defines who we are. I sometimes connect food that I used to consume when young to pleasant memories and warm feelings tying me to my family, holding personal and special value for me. The family food has become the meal that acts as comfort food that I try to find during my low times due to stress and frustrations. For instance, when I was young and fell sick, I could not eat foods such as rice, and so my mother would prepare soups that were easy to consume on my bed. With time, I became familiar with the taste and smell of the soup. So today whenever I feel sick or exhausted due to daily stressors I find myself in dire need of the soup my mother used to give and from the back of my mind, I feel convinced that it is the only thing that can bring comfort at that particular time.

The Role of Food in Cultural Identity

On a larger level, food has got different meanings and plays a critical role in our culture. Traditional food is passed down from one offspring to another. The generation-to-generation passing of food is a means of expressing cultural identity. In African tradition, different cultures determined what was to be eaten on the many occasions. Like during circumcision and dowry, a few selected dishes were to be eaten (Anderson, 28). Today, these practices still take place on occasions. Also in most western states, foods such as chocolate act as valuable gifts to a person and the individual offered the gift would portray a different reaction from a gift of rice or cabbage (Anderson, 31).

Food and Culture on a National Level

Continents and nations are mostly associated with various diverse foods. For instance, a country like Italy is known for pasta and pizza (Paul, 82). However, this does not say that Italians do not eat other dishes, but food plays a significant role in Italian culture. Also in nations, food varies depending on the method of preparation and the food types. For example, in the United States, some citizens prefer to consume potatoes and beef, which are not eaten regularly in the country. In the southern part of The US, boiled corn is a delicacy for most families (Paul, 84). Such meals are not national delicacies and would not be preferred by many but just a few individuals that identify with the taste.

The Influence of Food on Cultural Change

Food has its role deeply embedded in the culture with the existence of local food eating habits. These habits may sometimes change with time as immigrants come with various eating cultures and somehow influence the inhabitants to alter their feeding patterns. The similarity in the food pattern fosters the connection of individuals with a similar ethnic origin. For instance, most immigrants use food as their identity. Thus, this enables them to blend easily with people of the same origin in the foreign country and helps in retaining their cultural identity and pride. With this kind of migration, food practices and eating patterns also migrate as food is always exported and at the same time imported. The imported food may have a positive influence on the inhabitants of the new country, and they may consider adopting the pattern if it is a good one, and as such food plays a role in culture change. Food has greatly influenced the eating culture of most citizens in the developing world to the extent that they have now shifted to consumption of what was earlier considered to be Western meals and culture. Since people and food are mobile, I find it difficult to characterize a nation by the food it consumes.

Cultural Beliefs and Symbols Associated with Food

Notwithstanding, products that are edible in one country or continent might be inedible in another state or continent. Even though the food is always selected based on its nutritional or the physical need, what most families eat have cultural beliefs that the given society attaches to it. A good example is whereby both the animal and plant sources contain sufficient nutritional requirements for proteins, beef, beans, dog meat, lizard, and caterpillars are all protein sources for the body. Due to the societal beliefs and symbols attached to these sources, they are not available for consumption in many families and societies. It is another proof that food plays a vital role in our culture.

Food and Religious Beliefs

Food effects on the culture of Muslims and Jews are widespread and can be based on their religious beliefs. Worldwide Muslims desist from eating during Ramadhan, a period that Muslims believe that the Qur'an was brought to Mohamed, the founder of the religion. Muslims, at this moment, fast during the day and eat before and after sunset (Anderson, 44). On the other hand, the Jews also have some Jewish traditional rules called the "Kosher" diet where they follow some procedures in the preparation of animal products according to spiritual health purposes (Anderson, 44). Many other religions also have their food effects on the religious culture like the Hindus, Buddhists, and the Jainists who are mainly vegetarians (Anderson, 44). Desisting from taking meat serves the purpose of honoring the law, which requires one not to harm other living beings.

Food, Culture, and Mealtime Habits

Food plays a crucial role in the world as far as culture is concerned. Even amidst the society with the similar origin and similar food habits, the feeding pattern is not the same. Conversations at the time of meals have variations depending on the place. While some families consider mealtime the best time to converse and have a pleasant time chatting together, some families outlaw the act of engaging in conversation, arguing that table manners need to be observed during meal times, which involves no talking.

The Significance of Food in Cultural Celebrations

Food effects on culture have different degrees of importance. For instance, in Samoa, various family cultural celebrations center on eating. When performing celebrations, the wealth and prosperity of the host family depend on the amount of food offered during the ceremony. This act is also evident in many African cultures where the riches of a given family are measured by the many cows slaughtered during ceremonies such burial, weddings, and even during the rite of passage (Paul, 92). Food goes hand in hand with traditions, which vary from one place to another. It is different even in a society sharing same cultural origins; feeding patterns are not similar. Families have variations in the daily routines on traveling, holidays, and the presence of guests. Women eat differently from men. Meals are taken according to age groups (Paul, 93). However, in many places, food is associated mostly with friendship gratitude and hospitality.

In Conclusion

We must embrace origin through our cultural cousins and also be aware and stay informed of other traditions by further tasting what they offer regarding food. It is very basic to put in mind that every dish possesses distinctive attention from its culture of origin and is very important to those preparing the cuisine. Food and culture are deeply connected, and we should treat them as such.

Works Cited

Anderson, Eugene Newton. Everyone eats: understanding food and culture. NYU Press, 2014.

Fieldhouse, Paul. Food and nutrition: customs and culture. Springer, 2013.

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6 Local Food Movements: Differing Conceptions of Food, People, and Change

Samantha Noll is Assistant Professor in The School of Politics, Philosophy, and Public Affairs at Washington State University. She is also the bioethicist affiliated with the Functional Genomics Initiative, which applies genome editing in agriculture research, and the Center for Reproductive Biology. Dr. Noll is the co-author or editor of two books, including a Field Guide to Formal Logic (Great River Learning, 2020) and the Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of the City (Routledge, 2019). She publishes widely on food justice and food sovereignty, local food movements, and the application of biotechnologies in food production. She is also the author or co-author of more than 30 other publications, in journals ranging from Environmental Ethics to Pragmatism Today. She is currently working with scholars from several disciplines on various projects that engage with ethical considerations at the intersection of philosophy of food, environmental ethics, and emerging technologies.

Ian Werkheiser is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas-El Paso.

Published: 11 January 2018
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Books and articles supporting a local food movement have become commonplace, with popular authors such as Wendell Berry, Barbara Kingsolver, and Michael Pollan espousing the virtues of eating locally. At the same time, others have critiqued the local food movement as failing to achieve its stated ends or as having negative unintended consequences. This chapter provides a general analysis of local food movements, specifically separating this complex phenomenon into three distinct sub-movements. During this analysis, the chapter pays particular attention to how sub-movements conceptualize people, food, and the roles that individuals, communities, and political institutions play when trying to bring about change. It argues that understanding these sub-movements is necessary for understanding and interacting with both local food’s supporters and its detractors.

Introduction

The “local food” movement has been growing since at least the mid-twentieth century with the founding of the Rodale Institute. Since then, local food has increasingly become a goal of food systems. Today, books and articles on local food have become commonplace, with popular authors such as Barbara Kingsolver 1 and Michael Pollan 2 espousing the virtues of eating locally. Additionally, local food initiatives, such as the “farm-to-fork,” “Buying Local,” and “Slow Food” have gained a strong international following with clearly visible impacts on the food industry and policy. The numbers of local farmers’ markets, community-supported agriculture projects, and community gardens have been on the rise steadily since 1994. 3

Local food is viewed by some as providing an alternative and challenge to the corporate-led, industrialized, global food system by reconnecting food with environmental health and sustainability, social justice concerns, and the importance of place. 4 Proponents of local food often argue that people in industrial agriculture systems (systems that produce food on a large scale for global distribution with the labor of a minimum number of workers) lose control over what they eat to governmental agencies and large corporations. 5 The wide range of food choices that individuals could potentially make are effectively reduced to shallow choices concerning brands in a supermarket. Buying food in this type of food system ensures that people lose knowledge of the community and daily aspects of food, such as how to produce and process it and what the ingredients are. 6 One way that has been suggested to address these issues is creating alternative food systems, such as those that focus on local production and distribution, those that utilize a shorter supply chain, or those that emphasize community control. 7 Many see this as a valuable strategy that could help individuals and communities regain their ability to better understand and have power over the food they eat and the systems that produce it. 8 Additionally, some local food supporters argue that creating and supporting local food production systems is a step toward cultivating something larger—a “regenerative food system” 9 of vibrant local communities and ethical relationships between people and the environment, and local and global communities. Local food systems of this sort—“multidisciplinary, multisectoral and intergenerational, and address[ing] social, political, economic and environmental factors” 10 —are envisioned as being a central part of radical social transformation generally.

Some critics, on the other hand, are much less hopeful about the local food movement’s progressive possibilities. 11 One set of critiques finds local food unable to seriously challenge or build an alternative to the dominant industrial, capitalist food system. Instead, local food emphasizes individualist and consumerist solutions to problems in the food system. 12 As corporations like Walmart embrace “local” as a desirable label, and one that is significantly easier to achieve than “organic,” the local food movement ends up supporting the industrial, capitalist status quo. 13 To the extent that local food projects operate outside of the market as charity, such as free food hubs or free community gardens, local food projects can be viewed as being complicit in the erosion of the social contract and safety net, “neoliberal in their outcomes or reformist at best.” 14 While liberalism will be discussed in detail later, here “neoliberalism” should be understood as a smaller subset of liberalism that primarily accepts the position that an unregulated market system is the best way to distribute goods. 15

Another set of critiques finds local food unable to reform society to be more just or sustainable, as some supporters claim as a goal. If local food activists are working to reform the global food system along lines of social justice, they might actually make international problems of development, poverty, and equity worse by redirecting money and support to local producers at the expense of desperately poor international producers. 16 If local food activists are trying to reform the food system to be more environmentally sustainable, there are significant questions about whether “food miles” are the best measure of environmental impact, either because food production can be more ecologically sustainable in a global system, or because the money saved from efficiencies of scale and comparative production advantage would free up more money that could be better spent in addressing environmental problems. 17 In these critiques, local food advocates are portrayed as misguided, well meaning, but ultimately selfish consumers who are purchasing the identity of environmental and social justice.

This disagreement about the potential of local food movements is an important one to address as those interested in food justice decide how best to be effective given few resources and working against such a deeply entrenched system. As Laura DeLind asks, “Are local food and the local food movement taking us where we want to go? Or are we hitching our wagons to the wrong stars?” 18 In this essay, we argue that both advocates and critics of local food are partially correct because while local food is often understood as a unified trend, it is more accurate to see the term signifying various sub-movements: the individual-focused sub-movement or IF, the systems-focused sub-movement or SF, and the food community-focused sub-movement or CF. These movements can be characterized in part by their disparate food-related goals, including supporting local farmers, providing access to fresh food in urban areas, or supporting democratic ideals in food and food systems. In addition to these goals, people supporting local food movements often hold rich, and differing, conceptualizations of what local food is. 19 Many actors within this large umbrella see food as a diet, an economic strategy, a social movement, a fashionable solution to the problems in the industrial food system, or some combination of these and other conceptions of food and locality besides. These different understandings lead to a different understanding of the purpose of local food, different goals, and different values.

In this essay, we will explore these sub-movements and argue that they can be analyzed by the different ways in which members understand people and food. For each sub-movement, we pay particular attention to connections between conceptions of the self, political structures, and definitions of food, as each of these impact the structure and goals of sub-movements. Food is intimately bound up in our lives and different sub-movements highlight or downplay various connections between self, society, and environment. We also discuss the political implications of each sub-movement, and then discuss critiques that have been levelled against local food, which we see as best being understood as a critique of one or another of the sub-movements rather than the movement as a whole. Our hope is that this strategy will help readers better understand the local food movement as a whole and illustrate the individual sub-movements’ strengths and weaknesses.

Individual-Focused Sub-Movement

The individual-focused sub-movement, or IF, is the most well-known sub-movement under the umbrella of “local food.” 20 Indeed, this sub-movement is well-represented in public discourse and is often considered the “face” of local food. DeLind captures this point eloquently when she states the following concerning the “locavore” phenomenon, which is part of IF:

Locavores and would-be locavores (theoretically the public-at-large) are told repeatedly through popular films (e.g., Supersize Me, Fast Food Nation, King Corn, Fresh, Food, Inc.), and books (e.g., Omnivore’s Dilemma, In Defense of Food, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle ) and media features (e.g., PBS, NYT, Yes!, Mother Jones, Business Week) that they—as individuals—can effect change one vegetable, one meal, and one family at a time. It suggests that what is wrong with the world (from monocultural practices, to obesity, to global warming) can be addressed through altered personal behavior. 21

What sets IF apart from other sub-movements are a few key concepts. In the IF discourse: (1) food is a product that is purchased; (2) people are individual consumers of food; and (3) change happens when food purchases as individual choices have cumulative impacts on health, lifestyle, environment, animal welfare, farmworkers, the local community, and so on. 22 When looked at through the lens of IF, individual food purchasing choices directly translate into the enjoyment of organically raised and freshly picked food, health benefits for family, interactions with farmers and other community members dedicated to local food production and consumption, and a greater understanding of the local environment and seasons. IF is an intersection of local food and “lifestyle” politics, such as the “green living” movement or recycling, as it is built on the shared assumption that the best way to bring about positive change is through economic processes driven by individual consumer choices. 23

According to advocates of IF, this sub-movement has far-reaching effects, in addition to personal benefits. 24 For example, proponents of IF have argued that buying locally can help stem environmental damage, as local food is shipped shorter distances and often grown using less and fewer petrochemicals (if the crops are organic). From an economic standpoint, local food supports smaller, local businesses and growers rather than large corporations, and therefore builds more resilient local economies. 25 Socially, local food builds relationships with neighbors through community-supported agriculture projects and farmers’ markets. 26 From the perspective of public health, eating a local diet reduces the amount of processed food eaten and helps people become more mindful of their food choices. 27 Consumer choices also impact large retailers, as companies, such as Wal-Mart, increasingly find it in their best interest to market and sell local produce in their stores. 28 IF’s emphasis on the power of consumer choice to be manifested at a local, national, or more global level, allows efforts to be felt at multiple scales. Thus, one can be concerned with self-interested small choices and at the same time have confidence that there are larger benefits of one’s actions.

Case Study in the Individual-Focused Sub-Movement

A common example of the IF sub-movement is the farm-to-table (or farm-to-fork) phenomenon, as it primarily focuses on bringing about change by “voting with your fork,” or through consumer choice, and thus shares some of the key commitments of IF. Farm-to-table refers to a trend in local food where individuals are ideally concerned with all stages of food production, such as harvesting, processing, packaging, storage, sales, and consumption. Proponents argue that fresh, local food is healthier, better for the environment, and more economically sustainable than food shipped from thousands of miles away. Farm-to-table usually manifests itself on the ground in the form of restaurants catering to the demand for local food by purchasing, processing, and delivering local food products to consumers. Such restaurants will often have seasonal menus that showcase crops currently being harvested in the area. They also may be attached to an individual farm or provide customers with a list of the farms they purchase food products from, or host dinners on the farm itself. In this way, the farm-to-table trend can be seen as an extension of the local food movement into the food service industry. Indeed, some of the most vocal supporters of the farm-to-table phenomena are restaurateurs and chefs, such as Alice Waters, Stephanie Izard, David Kinch, and others. 29

This trend can be understood as part of the IF movement in part because advocates of the farm-to-table phenomena often cite the works of prominent voices in IF, such as Michael Pollan, when defending their desire to showcase local crops. In addition, this trend accepts the key conceptions of people, food, and change built into the IF. Indeed, the farm-to-table trend can be understood as making it easier for people to adopt an IF lifestyle, as the labor-intensive activities of purchasing, processing, preparing, storing, and serving local produce is now largely performed by the food service industry. In addition, it can be understood as the manifestation of the impact that IF has had on the food industry, as farm-to-table chefs have moved away from the “food as art” trend, to instead embrace the philosophy that the flavors of local ingredients should be center stage. 30 Generally, farm-to-table chefs showcase traditional farmhouse cooking, emphasizing seasonality, the freshness of ingredients, and simple preparations. 31

Politics in the Individual-Focused Sub-Movement

In addition to farm-to-table’s advocacy of IF, an important reason why this sub-movement has been successful has to do with its compatibility with liberalism—a compatibility largely due to shared commitments and conceptions concerning food, purchasing decisions, and the people making those decisions. Liberal philosophers, such as John Rawls 32 and Ronald Dworkin, 33 argue that the locus or the appropriate place of justice is the social institution or structure of society. The central questions for liberalism concern whether or not a law or other political authority is justified in limiting a citizen’s personal liberty 34 and whether or not goods are being justly distributed. 35 Key commitments include the conception of individual people as rational agents 36 and the understanding of goods like food as products to be justly distributed. 37 It should also be noted that several liberal philosophers accept what is called “the principle of neutrality”—a principle that mandates that the just distribution of goods needs to be independent from any conception of a good life, such as living a religious life or other lifestyle. Like the IF movement, most liberal political philosophies would conceptualize food as a product and food purchases as individual choices made by autonomous rational agents operating in a market. 38 In a liberal framework, the local food movement could be seen as a lifestyle or conception of the good life. 39

This compatibility has far-reaching implications for IF, as liberal ideals form the bedrock of political life in the West, as foundational rights, such as freedom of religion, freedom of the press, free speech, free trade, and private property rights are all supported by liberal ideals. 40 This philosophy continues to permeate political life, as fundamental liberal tenets are embedded in Western political structures and debates often focus on (directly or indirectly) answering the central questions posed by liberalism. IF’s compatibility then can at least partially explain why this sub-movement has been so successful, as initiatives stemming from this movement (such as trade agreements, policy changes, certifications, standards, and the distribution of goods) can be relatively easily incorporated into a political and economic structure that accepts liberal ideals. 41

When IF is conceptualized as part of lifestyle politics, this sub-movement can be understood as one that advocates another conception of the good life that people can choose (or not choose) to live. If they do so, then they need resources (such as food) to realize this vision and thus need a liberal state to ensure that they can obtain these resources. 42 For example, if Mary wants to know her farmer, eat only locally produced food, and support community-supported agriculture projects, then she could be justified in using her money to purchase the resources necessary to live this lifestyle. 43 Here, if Mary adopts the local food lifestyle for personal or health reasons, she may not necessarily hold a position that criticizes others for living other lifestyles that support industrial food systems. Having the freedom to choose between lifestyles is part of what it means to live in a state that accepts liberal tenets, such as the principle of neutrality. 44 IF’s conception of local food as one lifestyle among many and other shared commitments help to incorporate this sub-movement into extant political structures. 45

IF’s vision of local food is also compatible with extant economic structures, leading to large companies catering to this new consumer base, happy to provide the product of local food, often using labels (such as local, natural, organic, sustainable, etc.) as product attributes. Companies like Stonyfield Organic, Ben and Jerry’s, and Chipotle have used large distribution chains to make their initially locally produced products available to a larger market. IF initiatives thus often use current supply chains, policy structures, and social avenues to advance local food and incorporate it into extant institutions. 46

Critiques of the Individual-Focused Sub-Movement

This sub-movement is not without its critics. Prominent concerns stem from IF’s implied conceptualization of people, food, and the roles that individuals, communities, and political institutions play when trying to bring about change. For example, the conception of people as individual purchase decision-makers has both positive and negative consequences. As already discussed, the definition has potentially positive consequences, as it helps the IF sub-movement integrate into existing political structures. However, it can also have the effect of limiting our identities and our options for enacting change. DeLind argues that this definition of people as consumers who want to “vote with their dollars” and who value “choice” does not reflect the robust range of personal identities as “residents, poets, bus-drivers, grandmothers, and neighborhood activists.” 47 Derrick Jensen, writing about a similar sub-movement within environmentalism, says that a focus on individual choices of what to consume is problematic because it “fundamentally accepts capitalism’s redefinition of us from citizens to consumers, such that the ‘political acts’ of the simple living ‘activists’ are not the acts of citizens, with all the responsibilities citizenship implies, but are explicitly the acts of consumers.” This redefinition, Jensen argues, “Gravely reduces our range of possible forms of resistance.” 48 In other words, the myopic definition of people as individual consumers closes off potential avenues of change that would be made available if we accepted a more robust definition of the self—a definition that made room for the multifaceted identities of people as neighbors, citizens, and residents of various communities. In addition to limiting our sense of selves, this has the effect of “letting us off the hook” from the difficult work of addressing problems at the system-wide level, while feeling good that we are changing things literally one meal at a time.

These conceptions can be inadequate when addressing some food system issues. For example, lack of access to fresh foods in urban areas, or what is commonly (if inaccurately) known as “food deserts,” could be understood as a consequence of personal choice. Specifically, if people in urban areas do not buy particular items (such as fresh fruit and vegetables), then stores will no longer stock these items. This will result in the lack of these items in the area, and the solution would be consuming better food-stuffs. However, this would be a profoundly inaccurate analysis, as it overlooks injustices along racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic lines. In actuality, structural obstacles, such as the lack of supermarkets in areas are “practical impediment[s] to healthful food purchase[s] and a symbol of . . . neighborhoods’ social and economic struggles.” 49 Wealthier neighborhoods in urban areas have three times more supermarkets than poorer areas and residents without reliable access to transportation are often forced to shop at small stores with limited selections and higher prices. 50

In addition to IF’s problematic conceptualization of people as individual consumers, the sub-movement’s definition of food as a product or commodity to be distributed has also garnered critique. 51 While the conception of food as a commodity contributes to the success of IF, critics argue that this definition misses other key aspects of food, such as the role that food plays in building community and strengthening ties between people. 52 In addition, “food-as-product” can be more easily co-opted by dominant groups in the business of distribution and production when labels such as “locally grown,” “natural,” “organic,” and “sustainable” are reduced to selling points. 53 This is what DeLind labels the “Walmart Trend,” as large companies use their massive purchasing power to provide “local” produce to their significant consumer base. DeLind 54 and other critics argue that this trend is problematic, as it makes local farmers dependent on regional chains, fixes prices that may not be sustainable at the local level, and potentially co-opts labels. For instance, what does the term “local” signify? Is a local product one that was produced 50 miles away or one produced 250 miles away? Is it one produced in the state where it is being sold, in the region, or in the country? The Walmart trend potentially reduces these labels to commodity attributes, or features used by multinational companies to increase the price of products, and not as designations of particular qualities. The distorting effects of the large purchasers, critics argue, can actually harm local food systems and small-scale farmers. 55

The Systems-Focused Sub-Movement

The systems-focused sub-movement (SF) is best captured by those discourses on local food that occur at policy levels, particularly at international organizations such as the FAO and the World Bank. While SF initiatives often focus on a wide range of food-related goals, these movements largely focus on bringing about change at the level of policy, rather than the level of the individual. In this discourse, bolstering local food systems are seen as a policy option with many advantages, both by policymakers and activists. The United States has a long history of using policy to support both small-scale and large-scale food systems. Various policy tools, such the US Farm Bill, have historically been justified with the argument that such bolstering will provide local and national benefits, such as providing national food security and economically supporting local farming communities. 56 Today, policy and funding priorities include a wide range of goals, such as increasing yield, improving sustainability, combatting climate change, protecting biodiversity, and so on. While all of these priorities are not focused solely on local food systems, many do, and these policies illustrate how change at the policy level is an effective tool to impact food systems. For this reason, SF movements largely focus on working within existing systems to bring about change at the level of policy.

Thus, while IF could be understood as the overlap of local food with lifestyle politics, SF can be seen as the overlap of local food initiatives with movements to improve food policy. Some of the most prominent of these campaigns are those that accept the shared goal of increasing food security—defined as “a situation that exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.” 57 For many policymakers and large organizations working on food security, it is considered vital for achieving food security that people be integrated via trade to a global food system because this allows local areas to compensate for local problems such as crop failure or drought. At the same time, local food is also important for food security because it economically supports local farming communities, provides an easily accessed source of culturally appropriate food, and potentially allows local areas to compensate for problems in international trade, such as exchange rate fluctuations or changing markets for cash crops. Note that this can only be achieved (SF proponents would argue) by pursuing policy changes that support and protect local systems of production.

Another of the advantages to local food in an SF framework is that it can be a way to get people engaged with food policies and other important political and economic institutions affecting them. Engaging in local food may lead to conversations with the producer about costs and benefits of the federal organic certification procedure, or to a new concern for the quality of food being served to students in schools, or to an interest in the costs and benefits of trading food between countries, or to activism around environmental damage to the land, or a host of other issues. Thus, for SF, local food both helps to address some of the problems in our food system directly and acts as a kind of boundary object bringing together a host of wider justice concerns that can lead to activism. 58 SF, then, is built on the following key conceptions: (1) food is a necessary good produced, distributed, and otherwise impacted by large systems; (2) people are citizens or at least important stakeholders of those systems; and (3) change happens at the level of those systems through political and macroeconomic action around the issues of food. The main differences between SF and IF rest on SF’s definition of food as always embedded in institutions, and the subsequent strategies for handling food-related issues, as IF largely focuses on change at the individual level and SF focuses on bringing about change at the level of policy.

Systems-Focused Sub-Movement Case Studies

While perhaps not as prevalent in the popular imagination as IF, SF has had profound impacts on food policies within and between many countries. For example, J. I. Rodale (1898−1971) is commonly considered to be one of the founders of both the local food and the organic farming movements. 59 Since the 1940s, the Rodale Institute has provided scientific information used to support the local food movement’s proposals for adopting “non-chemical” farming methods and resources. In addition, this research was instrumental for SF and organic food advocates to successfully lobby for the Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA) in 1990. The OFPA authorizes the USDA to administer a National Organic Program that now makes it possible for local growers and producers to obtain organic certification and adhere to crop production, livestock, processing, and packaging standards. While these standards (and Rodale’s research) can be applied to both small-scale and large-scale production, they provided the political and economic foundation necessary for local food production to increase. Here we see that several important goals for these actors, such as the environmental impacts of organic farming or the increased economic sustainability of farming communities, are pursued by a national policy to promote local food and thereby to change the system.

In an international context, the FAO (Food and Agriculture Association of the United Nations) supports local food systems as a useful component in achieving the goal of food security in various contexts. The FAO does not stress the resiliency and insulation to trade as much as the “wealth multiplier” of investing in agriculture: “The multiplier is most significant where any incremental income generated is spent on labour-intensive, locally produced non-tradable goods and services, (for example, where basic food is the main consumer expenditure item) and where production in the commodity generating the increase in income is labour-intensive.” 60 Both the FAO and Rodale examples stress how the SF sub-movement conceptualizes food as a product that can be bought and sold in a market or distributed by organizations such as the FAO (which engages in famine relief). Either way, food is something always embedded in and impacted by larger institutions. 61 For people working in an SF frame, the complexity of institutions makes it difficult to make change unless institutions, policy, and infrastructure are also changed, necessitating an emphasis on advocacy and policy.

Politics in the Systems-Focused Sub-Movement

Like IF, one could argue that an important reason why this sub-movement has been so successful has to do with its compatibility with dominant political philosophies, such as liberalism, and with the larger political structure influenced by these philosophies. It would certainly be possible to promote local food using SF’s assumptions about food as public good and people as active members of society while disagreeing with their assumptions about change (Marxism springs to mind as amenable to this approach). However, SF as currently practiced comes from much more mainstream politics; indeed, as pointed out, the primary supporters of this sub-movement are the large international institutions of the current political structure. Typical goals of local food movement activists include the institution of certification policies (organic, non-GMO, etc.), farm-to-institution programs that bring local food into schools and other large institutional actors, food hubs, and so on. These are often characterized as reforms aimed at improving the current system.

Before discussing common critiques of SF, it is important to note that SF is not vulnerable to some of the critiques leveled at IF. This is because as SF promotes advocacy and policy changes, it promotes engagement in political structures rather than simply making better “choices.” As Ian Werkheiser and Samantha Noll argue, “when food is defined as being inherently institutional rather than as a product, companies have a harder time co-opting the movement. If the intention is to pass laws to make the practices of megamarts illegal, it’s difficult for that to be offered in Wal-Mart’s grocery aisles.” 62 At the same time, a common goal in SF local food movements is to use policy and regulation changes to guard against co-opting. For example, Rodale Institute has been instrumental in creating specific organic standards that now help to ensure that products labeled “organic” in supermarkets are indeed organically grown.

Critiques of the Systems-Focused Sub-Movement

Like IF, the SF movement is not without its critics. Given that we are taking SF to be the overlap of local food with reforms to the food system, it is not surprising that most of these critiques argue that one of these two elements is a poor addition to the other. Some people working on local food (particularly from a CF framework, as will be discussed) are concerned with SF’s focus on extant policies and institutions. These critics argue that the strategy of using international institutions and political systems as vehicles for change leads SF advocates of local food to be committed to those systems, and often far too optimistic about reforming their problematic commitments and assumptions. Many of these critics, such as William Schanbacher 63 and Hannah Whittman et al., 64 argue that the commitments built into institutions devoted to promoting food security and SF may necessarily undermine actions aimed at alleviating the global food crisis, as well as undermining actions aimed at improving the lives of poor food producers and their communities.

Relatedly, if local food initiatives are bound to institutions with the ultimate aim of maximizing food production, as was historically one of the main goals of US food policy and agricultural research, there is also the possible consequence of environmental degradation in addition to the social degradation just discussed. For example, a large-scale approach to achieving food security that utilizes local food initiatives to stabilize shortages during market fluctuations may include GMOs, intensive use of chemical fertilizers, and Green Revolution technological developments. 65 In this context, even if the quantity of food is increased locally, the overall productivity of land and ecosystems in that context may be harmed. Food policy is only one factor influencing how food is produced and applied in specific contexts. As such, particular policy changes may have unintended environmental consequences. Whether food systems can be reformed from within by incorporating local food, or will instead blunt or pervert the goals of SF, as critics contend, is an open question. It is at least possible that the larger systems, such as those supporting globalization, may be seen by SF as the means to support local food while at the same time they are erasing local food systems already in place. 66

On the other side of this overlay of local food and institutional reform, some people who are motivated to reform the food system through policy changes to make it more just, efficient, environmentally friendly, and so on think that local food is at least insufficient to this task, and perhaps actively harmful. For example, writers like Peter Singer, Jim Mason, and Mark Navin critique local food initiatives for opting out of the international trade that many export food producers in Third World countries now depend on to survive. 67 One kind of policy Navin addresses is the promotion of local food via trade barriers and agricultural subsidies. Navin argues that these policies must be constrained by “three duties of international ethics—beneficence, repair and fairness” 68 and that on these grounds developed nations should not limit the importation of food from less developed countries (with the converse not being true). 69 For Navin, food policies can promote development of poor rural societies and thereby improve the lives of people in those countries, and we have several duties to aid them. Thus, efforts to promote local food are permissible only to the extent that they support or at least do not interfere with those duties, something that he believes at least some local food efforts (such as trade embargoes or tariffs) do not meet.

Community-Focused Sub-Movement

The final sub-movement discussed in this essay is the community-focused sub-movement (or CF). While CF can be firmly placed under the umbrella of local food, it is markedly distinct from either of the preceding sub-movements, as CF employs definitions of “food” and “people” that diverge farther from either of the previous sub-movements than those do from each other. 70 In some ways, IF and SF hold similar definitions of these two key concepts. Both accept the view that food is some kind of interchangeable commodity, and people are autonomous individuals acting in a way that is concomitant with liberal political ideals, whether as consumers or citizens. In contrast, CF movements are often directly critical of liberal political theory, and their conceptions of food and people reflect this. CF uses the following conceptions: (1) food is an essential part of culture and is co-constitutive of community and personal identity; (2) people are members of their community, co-constituted with their community and its practices, particularly those around food; and (3) change happens when communities resist larger institutions oppressing them and build alternatives to those institutions through solidarity and mutual aid with other individuals and communities. 71 Where IF can be seen as the overlap of local food with lifestyle politics, and SF can be seen as the overlap of local food with mainstream food system reform campaigns (such a food security initiatives), it is possible to see CF as an overlap of local food with community-based food justice movements, such as food sovereignty. That term will be discussed more later, but for now it is enough to know that food sovereignty values communities having meaningful control over the food systems that affect them. In this context, food should be understood as a touchstone or rallying point for communities that perceive larger food systems as a threat to cultural identity, traditional practices, and local systems of production and distribution. 72 Indeed, this final point is not surprising, as food sovereignty historically grew out of “peasant movements” in South Asian and South American contexts, with the shared aim of protecting local foodways. Given these assumptions, the value of local food is that locality allows communities to have meaningful control over their food practices in a way that strengthens and preserves their community and individual identities.

CF movements often grow out of critiques of industrial food production methods, market-based initiatives, and food security programs. As such, political action, culture, and food are intertwined. Annette Desmarais captures this key aspect:

This place-bound identity, that of “people of the land,” reflects the belief that they have the right to be on the land. They have the right and obligation to produce food. They have the right to be seen as fulfilling an important function in society at large. They have the right to live in viable communities and the obligation to build community. All of the above form essential parts of their distinct identity as peasants. 73

CF movements challenge the definitions at the heart of IF and SF and actively create new food systems, such as indigenous rights movements, farming collectives, or small-scale guerilla gardening campaigns. 74

Community-Focused Sub-Movement Case Study

Although perhaps the least-well-known sub-movement, CF initiatives are part of the food landscape around the world, and CF has had a profound influence on oppressed and marginalized communities of subsistence food producers and transnational organizations of those communities. For example, Amerindian tribes’ response to the contamination of salmon in the Columbia River is an excellent illustration of how different definitions of food and people can lead to markedly different responses to food-related issues. For thousands of years, tribes living around the Celilo Falls maintained a special relationship with the salmon in the Columbia River and harvested them for ceremonial, commercial, and subsistence purposes. 75 While today tribes in this region continue these practices, the salmon are contaminated by pollutants in the water. According to a study by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the fish contain high levels of dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and mercury and are thus unsafe to eat, as consuming them will greatly increase a person’s chance of developing cancer. 76 Despite these health risks, tribal members have resisted the push to replace the contaminated salmon with processed foods, including canned fish, and many still harvest salmon from the river. If one accepts IF and SF’s commitments concerning food and people, then the substitution of one food commodity with another food commodity of equal nutritional values (wild caught salmon for canned salmon, for example) could be an acceptable way to mitigate the contamination issue. However, the contamination of the Columbia River salmon is more complicated, as humans in this region have a historical relationship to the salmon that cannot be replaced. In this context, the salmon is not simply a commodity but has personal and cultural significance. 77 As Catherine O’Neil says:

Fish, especially salmon, are necessary for the survival of the native peoples of the Pacific Northwest, both as individuals and as a people. Fish are crucial for native peoples’ sustenance, in the sense of a way to feed oneself and one’s family. Fish are also crucial for subsistence, in the sense of a culture or way of life with economic, spiritual, social, and physical dimensions—a way to be Yakama, or to be Tulalip. 78

This is a clear example of how CF’s commitments concerning food transcend the simple characterization of food as product and people as consumers, as, in the case of the Columbia River salmon, personal and cultural identity are intertwined with the processes of harvesting and consuming food. When viewed from this position, the tribal member’s refusal to replace the contaminated fish with canned foods becomes clear. Although they may physically survive (though perhaps with worse nutrition) given the substitute, it would do profound damage to their individual and community identities. At worst, such substitutes risk the survival of the individual but the death of the community, something which many people who value their communities understandably reject as an option. 79

In addition, this case study illustrates how the CF sub-movement addresses food-related issues from a holistic perspective, as solutions proposed by the tribes included strategies to mitigate the source of the contamination for the health of the people, river, larger ecosystem, and economic viability of the fisheries. This reinforces William Schanbacher’s claim that food sovereignty movements and thus CF “considers human relationships in terms of mutual dependence, cultural diversity, and respect for the environment” and is, therefore, a key component of these initiatives. 80 When faced with food-related issues, the strategy for CF is strengthening relationships within and between communities and ecosystems by building alternative food systems, rather than changing consumer behavior or working within existing institutional frameworks.

Politics in the Community-Focused Sub-Movement

As the case study illustrates, CF largely does not share IF and SF’s commitments concerning food and people. For CF, food is not a product, and people are not atomistic individual consumers. Food (and especially food practices) is deeply intertwined with personal, spiritual, and community identity. In addition, while political action can happen at the level of the individual, for CF, change happens at both the community level when a community decides to adopt new practices and at the intra-community level when oppressive systems are resisted by the creation of new, alternative ones. Thus, CF is the most radical of the local food sub-movements, as it does not simply want to change individual’s buying habits or the internal workings of governmental institutions and policy tools, but challenges the status quo itself. This radicalism and CF’s commitment to more robust definitions of food and people are two reasons why such initiatives may be incompatible with existing political structures, as their mandates cannot be easily fit into the very structures they hope to dismantle, such as the industrial food system and the trade policy and food certifications that make this system possible. This has led to the creation of alternative food systems as an act of political resistance. Much more natural fits for CF than liberalism are subaltern politics such as anti-colonialism and communal anarchism.

Critiques of the Community-Focused Sub-Movement

Due to the incompatibility with mainstream political discourse, CF has the potential to bring about the most change but has also had the least impact on the dominant food system. In addition, recommendations coming from CF initiatives are more holistic and thus have a tendency to be (1) vaguer than those coming out of IF and SF, (2) ask more of those involved, and (3) more difficult to achieve, as personal and cultural identity are bound up with food. 81 For example, let us look at an accepted definition of “food sovereignty” from the Declaration of Nyéléni. In this document, food sovereignty is defined as follows:

Food sovereignty is the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems. It puts the aspirations and needs of those who produce, distribute and consume food at the heart of food systems and policies rather than the demands of markets and corporations. . . . It ensures that the rights to use and manage our lands, territories, waters, seeds, livestock and biodiversity are in the hands of those of us who produce food. Food sovereignty implies new social relations free of oppression and inequality between men and women, peoples, racial groups, social classes and generations. 82

This definition of food sovereignty clearly includes a wide array of social justice issues in the broader discussion of food-related changes and thus asks more of participants and seeks wide-reaching changes. As Cornelia Flora claims, food sovereignty mandates include a plethora of social justice movements “From the Zapatistas to the women’s movement.” 83 Including such a wide array of issues under the umbrella of food sovereignty often make it difficult to determine exactly what specific changes need to be made to the existing food structure beyond its dismantling. However, these issues may be inevitable, as culture, personal identity, and food practices are intertwined. For this reason, it is difficult if not impossible to separate food issues from wider social justice issues. 84

Nevertheless, while these restructurings may be necessary, such sweeping changes could be difficult to bring about, as food systems, trade policy, food-related practices, and various political structures are complicated. For example, the process of changing certification practices, such as those aimed at ensuring that food production is more environmentally friendly or sustainable, is often arduous and time-consuming. These changes coupled with the lofty goal of bringing about “new social relations free of oppression and inequality between men and women, peoples, racial groups, social classes and generations” would be even more difficult to achieve. This is especially the case when CF focuses on creating new structures rather than adopting SF’s strategy of working to bring about change from within institutions. Thus, these wide-ranging goals coupled with CF’s incompatibility with existing political structures limits the effectiveness of these initiatives to bring about change on the large scale.

As CF sub-movements primarily focus on bringing about just structures at the level of communities, one might think that this problem can be avoided, as change at the local level could eventually impact larger structures. However, to the extent that CF is right about the co-constituted nature of community and individual identity with food practices, and the concomitant importance of those practices for those communities and individuals, CF’s proposed changes face a sharp hurdle in convincing communities that are not already practicing the goals of food sovereignty to change. As Derrick Jensen says, “If your experience—far deeper than belief or perception—is that your food comes from the grocery store (and your water from the tap), from the economic system, from the social system we call civilization, it is to this you will pledge back your life. . . . You will defend this social system to your very death.” 85 The same energy that motivates Amerindians along the Columbia River to defend the salmon may motivate their neighbors to defend the industrial agriculture poisoning the river, absent a difficult change to the latter’s community and individual food practices.

Local food movements have increasingly become a part of urban and suburban landscapes since at least the mid-twentieth century and greatly impacted how we produce, process, and consume food today. Organic certification programs, the farm-to-table movement, and an increase in urban agriculture hubs are just some of the changes that we have seen to US food systems within the last twenty years. However, all local food movements are not the same. “Local food” should be understood as an umbrella term that encompasses a wide range of social and political initiatives. In this essay, we provided a general analysis of local food movements, specifically separating this complex phenomenon into three distinct sub-movements. Additionally, we have highlighted how different conceptions of food and people, and the different values of locality and strategies that follow from these conceptions for these sub-movements. These definitions along with various commitments often determine whether the sub-movements are compatible with existing political structures and thus their overall impact on both domestic and international food systems. Our hope was not to conclusively argue for one sub-movement over another, but rather to help readers better understand local food as a whole and illustrate the individual sub-movements’ strengths and weaknesses. This understanding is important if participants in the broader local food movement are to work together across sub-movements without, on the one hand, obscuring differences that might lead to confusion, wasted energy, or conflict, or, on the other hand, missing similarities and shared goals that can be pursued in cooperation. None of the sub-movements within the sprawling local food movement are going away anytime soon. It is imperative for anyone passionate about food systems, their community, and eating to better understand the unique commitments and concepts employed by other people who share their passions.

Acknowledgments

This essay draws on and expands some of the ideas in Ian Werkheiser and Samantha Noll, “From Food Justice to a Tool of the Status Quo : Three Sub-Movements within Local Food,” Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 27, no. 2 (2014): 201–210.

Agyeman, Julian , and Jesse McEntee . “ Moving the Field of Food Justice Forward through the Lens of Urban Political Ecology. ” Geography Compass 8, no. 3 ( 2014 ): 211–220.

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Werkheiser, Ian. “ Food Sovereignty, Health Sovereignty, and Self-Organised Community Viability. ” Interdisciplinary Environmental Review 15, no. 2/3 ( 2014 ): 134–146.

______. “Individual and Community Identity in Food Sovereignty: The Possibilities and Pitfalls of Translating a Rural Social Movement.” In Routledge Handbook on Food Ethics , edited by M. Rawlinson . New York: Routledge, 2017 .

Werkheiser, Ian , and Samantha Noll . “ From Food Justice to a Tool of the Status Quo: Three Sub-Movements within Local Food. ” Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 27, no. 2 ( 2014 ): 201–210.

Whittman, Hannah , Annette Desmarais , and Nette Wiebe . Food Sovereignty: Reconnecting Food, Nature and Community . Oakland, CA: Food First Books, 2010 .

Wolin, Sheldon S. Politics and Vision: Continuity and Innovation in Western Political Thought . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006 .

Barbara Kingsolver , Camille Kingsolver , and Scott Hopp , Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (New York: Harper, 2008) .

Michael Pollan , A Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto (New York: Penguin Press, 2009) .

Charles Levkoe , “Towards a Transformative Food Politics,” Local Environment 16, no. 7 (2011): 687‒705 .

Laura B. DeLind and Jim Bingen , “Place and Civic Culture: Re-Thinking the Context for Local Agriculture,” Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 21, no. 2 (January 2008): 127–151 ; Julie Guthman , “Bringing Good Food to Others: Investigating the Subjects of Alternative Food Practice,” Cultural Geographies 15, no. 4 (January 2008): 431–447 ; Julie Guthman , Agrarian Dreams: The Paradox of Organic Farming in California (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2004) ; John H. Vandermeer and Ivette Perfecto , Breakfast of Biodiversity: The Political Ecology of Rain Forest Destruction (Oakland, CA: Food First Books, 2005) .

Nancy J. Turner and Katherine L. Turner , “‘Where Our Women Used to Get the Food’: Cumulative Effects and Loss of Ethnobotanical Knowledge and Practice,” Botany 86, no. 2 (2008): 103–115 .

Kenneth Dahlberg , “Regenerative Food Systems: Broadening the Scope and Agenda of Sustainability,” in Food for the Future: Conditions and Contradictions of Sustainability , ed. Patricia Allen (New York: Wiley, 1993), 75‒103 ; Laura B. DeLind , “Place, Work, and Civic Agriculture: Common Fields for Cultivation,” Agriculture and Human Values 19, no. 3 (2002): 227‒224 ; Melanie Dupuis and David Goodman , “Should We Go ‘Home’ to Eat?: Toward a Reflexive Politics of Localism,” Journal of Rural Studies 21, no. 3 (2005): 359–371 .

DeLind and Bingen, “Place and Civic Culture” ; Phil Mount , “Growing Local Food: Scale and Local Food Systems Governance,” Agriculture and Human Values 29, no. 1 (2011): 107–121 .

Dahlberg, “Regenerative Food Systems.”

Alethea Harper , Annie Shattuck , Eric Holt-Gimenez , Alison Alkon , and Frances Lambick , Food Policy Councils: Lessons Learned (Oakland, CA: Food First, 2009), 9 .

Julian Agyeman and Jesse McEntee , “Moving the Field of Food Justice Forward through the Lens of Urban Political Ecology,” Geography Compass 8, no. 3 (2014): 211–220 ; Laura B. DeLind , “Are Local Food and the Local Food Movement Taking Us Where We Want to Go? Or Are We Hitching Our Wagons to the Wrong Stars?” Agriculture and Human Values 28, no. 2 (2010): 273–283 ; Levkoe, “Towards a Transformative Food Politics” ; Nathan McClintock , “Radical, Reformist, and Garden-Variety Neoliberal: Coming to Terms with Urban Agriculture’s Contradictions,” Local Environment 19, no. 2 (October 2013): 147–171 .

DeLind, “Local Food and the Local Food Movement” ; Levkoe, “Towards a Transformative Food Politics”

Agyeman and McEntee, “Moving the Field of Food Justice.”

McClintock, “Radical, Reformist, and Garden-Variety Neoliberal,” 1.

See Vandermeer and Perfecto’s 2005 book titled Nature’s Matrix: Linking Agriculture, Conservation and Food Sovereignty for a detailed critique of neoliberal impacts to food systems. Additionally, “reformist” here should be understood as the support of gradual reform rather than abolition or revolution.

Mark Navin , “Local Food and International Ethics,” Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 27, no. 3 (2014): 349–368 .

Edward L. Glaeser , Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier (New York: Penguin Press, 2011) .

DeLind, “Local Food and the Local Food Movement.”

Ibid .; Paul B. Thompson , From Field to Fork: Food Ethics for Everyone (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015) .

Ian Werkheiser and Samantha Noll , “From Food Justice to a Tool of the Status Quo: Three Sub-Movements within Local Food,” Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 27, no. 2 (2014): 201–210 .

DeLind, “Local Food and the Local Food Movement,” 276.

Ibid .; Pollan, A Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto .

Werkheiser and Noll, “From Food Justice to a Tool of the Status Quo.”

Kingsolver, Kingsolver, and Hopp, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle ; Pollan, A Defense of Food ; Thompson, From Field to Fork.

DeLind, “Place, Work, and Civic Agriculture”; Thomas A. Lyson , Civic Agriculture: Reconnecting Farm, Food, and Community (Medford, MA: Tufts University Press, 2004) .

Judith V. Anderson , Deborah I. Bybee , Randi M. Brown , Donna F. McLean , Erika M. Garcia , M. Lynn Breer , and Barbara A. Schillo . “5 a Day Fruit and Vegetable Intervention Improves Consumption in a Low Income Population,” Journal of the American Dietetic Association 101, no. 2 (2001): 195–202 . McCormack et al., “Review of the Nutritional Implications of Farmers’ Markets and Community Gardens,” 399– 408.

Pollan, A Defense of Food .

Carlo Petrini , Slow Food: The Case for Taste (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003) .

John Rawls and Erin Kelly , Justice as Fairness: A Restatement (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001) .

Ronald Dworkin , “Do Liberty and Equality Conflict?” in Living as Equals , ed. Paul Barker (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 39–59 .

Rawls and Kelly, Justice as Fairness .

Michael J. Sandel , Liberalism and the Limits of Justice (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982) .

Samantha Noll , “Liberalism and the Two Directions of the Local Food Movement,” Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 27, no. 2 (2013): 211–224 .

Rawls and Kelly, Justice as Fairness ; Sandel, Liberalism and the Limits of Justice .

DeLind, “Local Food and the Local Food Movement” ; Noll, “Liberalism and the Two Directions of the Local Food Movement.”

Kathleen G. Donohue , Freedom from Want: American Liberalism and the Idea of the Consumer (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003) ; Sheldon S. Wolin , Politics and Vision: Continuity and Innovation in Western Political Thought (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006) .

Noll, “Liberalism and the Two Directions of the Local Food Movement.”

Will Kymlicka , “Liberal Individualism and Liberal Neutrality,” Ethics 99, no. 4 (1989): 883–905 .

However, the argument primarily focuses on IF as a lifestyle political choice. Other IF supporters could very well hold a more critical view of liberalism, as one could question whether the industrial food system violates tenets of liberal philosophy other than the principle of neutrality and whether effects of the industrial food system, such as environmental impacts, should be addressed prior to questions of just distribution. Mark Michael addresses this latter point concerning environmental impacts in the article “Liberalism, Environmentalism, and the Principle of Neutrality,” Public Affairs Quarterly 14, no. 1 (2000): 39‒56 , where he explores whether environmental philosophy is compatible with liberalism and, specifically, the principle of neutrality.

However, it should be noted here that compatibility with liberalism does not guarantee that initiatives will be successful, as there are many reasons why movements fail. Compatibility here should be understood as simply one factor that could increase the odds of success.

Derrick Jenson , “Forget Shorter Showers: Why Personal Change Does Not Equal Political Change,” in The Derrick Jensen Reader: Writings on Environmental Revolution , ed. K. Lierre (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2012), 426 .

Carolyn C. Cannuscio , Eve E. Weiss , and David A. Asch , “The Contribution of Urban Foodways to Health Disparities,” Journal of Urban Health 87, no. 3 (2010): 381–393 .

Kimberly Morland , Steve Wing , Ana Diez Roux , and Charles Poole , “Neighborhood Characteristics Associated with the Location of Food Stores and Food Service Places,” American Journal of Preventive Medicine 22, no. 1 (2002): 23–29 .

Here it should be noted here that DeLind makes a distinction between what she calls the “Pollan trend” and the “Walmart trend” when making this critique. While proponents of IF, such as Pollan, often hold the view that food is something that can bring people together, the Walmart trend includes the critique concerning how local food is being commoditized with the express purpose of selling more products. While food “experts” may hold a wide range of views, their popularity increases the demand for “local” products and thus contributes to the rise of the second trend, as locavores looking to eat locally may look for these items in their local grocery store.

Charles Rosenberg , No Other Gods: On Science and American Social Thought (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997) .

Ian Werkheiser , “Individual and Community Identity in Food Sovereignty: The Possibilities and Pitfalls of Translating a Rural Social Movement,” in Routledge Handbook on Food Ethics , ed. M. Rawlinson (New York: Routledge, 2017) .

William D. Schanbacher , Politics of Food: The Global Conflict between Food Security and Food Sovereignty (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2010) .

Hannah Whittman , Annette Desmarais , and Nette Wiebe , Food Sovereignty: Reconnecting Food, Nature and Community (Oakland, CA: Food First Books, 2010) .

Navin, “Local Food and International Ethics” ; Peter Singer and Jim Mason , The Ethics of What We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter (Kutztown, PA: Rodale Books, 2007) .

Navin, “Local Food and International Ethics” ; Singer and Mason, The Ethics of What We Eat .

Navin, “Local Food and International Ethics,” 350.

Ibid. , 359‒361 .

Werkheiser and Noll. “From Food Justice to a Tool of the Status Quo.”

It should be noted here that proponents of IF, such as Kingsolver and Pollan, endorse some CF rhetoric around food. However, their strategies and underlying assumptions differ. For example, Pollan argues that consumers can “vote with their forks” and Kingsolver argues that we should move away from an industrial model of food production, but this is viewed as a choice made by many individuals. Werkheiser, “Individual and Community Identity in Food Sovereignty.”

Michel Pimbert , Toward Food Sovereignty (London: National Resources Group, 2008) .

Annette Aurélie Desmarais , “The Power of Peasants: Reflections on the Meanings of La Vía Campesina,” Journal of Rural Studies 24, no. 2 (2008): 139 .

Schanbacher, Politics of Food .

Lori Lambert , “Salmon and Contamination in the Columbia River,” Enduring Legacies: Native Case Studies (Olympia, WA: Evergreen State College, 2008), https://www.evergreen.edu/tribal/docs/salmon and contamination oct 2009.doc ; Esme Murdock and Samantha Noll , “Beyond Access: Integrating Food Security and Food Sovereignty Models for Justice,” in Know Your Food: Food Ethics and Innovation , ed. Helena Rocklinsberg and Per Sandin (Wageningen, The Netherlands: Wageningen Academic Publishers, 2015) .

Lambert, “Salmon and Contamination in the Columbia River.”

Catherine O’Neill , “Variable Justice: Environmental Standards, Contaminated Fish, and ‘Acceptable’ Risk to Native Peoples,” Stanford Environmental Law Journal 19, no. 3 (2000): 5 .

Ian Werkheiser , “Food Sovereignty, Health Sovereignty, and Self-Organised Community Viability,” Interdisciplinary Environmental Review 15, no. 2/3 (2014): 134 .

Schanbacher, Politics of Food , 11.

Cornelia Butler Flora , “Schanbacher, William D: The Politics of Food: The Global Conflict between Food Security and Food Sovereignty,” Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 24, no. 5 (June 2010): 545 .

Derrick Jensen , Endgame , vol. 2: Resistance (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2006) .

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There were two moments in the paper where broad claims felt unsubstantiated and seemed to contradict information given in the thesis (final sentence of the Intro): the first was that "The only unique function" is drinking during concerts; this will need to be explained: what makes the rest of the food culture "not unique"--is it due to shared ...
Food Science Graduate Theses and Dissertations
Theses/Dissertations from 2022. Effects of Cognitive Style on Food Perception and Eating Behavior, Thadeus Lyndon Beekman. The Impact of Dietary Protein Supplementation as Part of a Time Restricted Feeding Eating Pattern on Sleep, Mood, and Body Composition in Adults with Overweight or Obesity, Rebecca L. Bowie.
Comparison Contrast essay based on the outline Thesis Statement:
Comparison Contrast essay based on the outline Thesis Statement: U.S. culture and Albanian culture are different in two ways: hospitality and food, but both cultures have the same religion. 1stBody Paragraph: Topic Sentence Firstly, hospitality between the U.S. and Albanian culture is completely different. 2 nd Body Paragraph: Topic Sentence Secondly, another difference between the two ...
Fast Food Frenzy: An Examination of the Industry's Success and its Toll
This thesis is an in-depth study of America's fast food industry. It explores changes in the American lifestyle that result from fast food and weighs the conveniences and consequences of that life. Fast food history reveals an extensive climb to the success and popularity presently attached to it.