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2 results

  • 23 - Eating Our Way to a Sustainable Future?

  • from Part VI - Food and Agriculture
  • Edited by Katharine Legun, Julie C. Keller, University of Rhode Island, Michael Carolan, Colorado State University, Michael M. Bell, University of Wisconsin, Madison
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Handbook of Environmental Sociology
    Published online:
    05 November 2020
    Print publication:
    03 December 2020, pp 390-410

  • Summary

    Our food choices have a tremendous impact on our minds, bodies, and the environment. Given this connection, many consumers are asking, how could we eat differently to ensure the integrity of the Earth’s natural systems? To address this question, the chapter first outlines how everyday food choices relate to the natural world, along with resource constraints in the food system. We then discuss the dominant ethical-eating discourse in Canada, the United States, and other Global North countries. After analyzing prominent themes in this consumer-centered ‘vote with your fork’ discourse, we consider the limitations of using market mechanisms to deliver goals like sustainability and social justice. This includes an acknowledgement of issues that often get overlooked within ethical consumer discourse, especially the minimal attention payed to low-wage, precarious workers on the front-lines of an unsustainable agricultural paradigm. The chapter ends with a brief discussion of food democracy, a concept that sheds light on fault lines in the current food system and offers principles for better meeting the needs of all forms of life.

  • Food democracy, health disparities and the New York City trans fat policy

  • Kimberly E Johnson
  • Journal:
    Public Health Nutrition / Volume 23 / Issue 4 / March 2020
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    16 December 2019, pp. 738-746
    • Article
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  • Objective:

    To investigate food democracy and health disparities in the New York City (NYC) trans fat policy process.

    Design:

    Texts from semi-structured interviews, public testimony and comments on the policy were analysed using categorization and thematic coding. A priori content analysis for themes of food democracy was followed by open, axial and selective coding for sub-themes on health disparities. Data and method triangulation and respondent validation were used to establish data dependability, trustworthiness and representativeness.

    Setting:

    NYC.

    Participants:

    Interviews from a purposive, snowballed sample of thirty-three participants included restaurateurs, scientists, health and consumer advocates, consumers and policy makers. Additionally, 261 pages of transcript from public testimony of fifty-three participants and a purposive sample of public comments on the policy from a pool of 2157 were analysed.

    Results:

    Principles of food democracy involving inclusive citizenship, access to information, collaborative participation and focus on collective good were well represented in the data. Additionally, sub-themes linked to health disparities included: government responsibility for fairer access to healthier foods; recognition that people made choices based on circumstances; concern for vulnerable groups; and outrage with a food industry viewed as unconcerned for public health.

    Conclusions:

    Principles of food democracy present in the successful process of adoption of the 2006 NYC trans fat policy addressed nutrition-related health. Food democracy is a contemporary food system and policy approach with potential for public health benefits in reducing nutrition-related health disparities.