scholarly journals ‘If I could afford an avocado every day’: Income differences and ethical food consumption in a world of abundance

2021 ◽  
pp. 146954052110510
Author(s):  
Anna Sofia Salonen

This study explores how ethical food consumption is framed in the accounts of ordinary people living in affluent societies, with a particular focus on income differences. Research on ethical consumption often associates ‘ethical’ with the consumption of certain predefined products. This study leaves the question of the content of ethical consumption open for empirical investigation. Further, instead of focusing only on the moment of purchasing, this study considers how people with different income levels relate to both food consumption and waste. The analysis draws from qualitative interviews with 60 people living in Canada and Finland. The analysis identified the techniques, subjects and norms through which the question ethical food consumption is posed by the informants and how they framed these issues with regard to income. The findings underline that ethical consumption is a socially constructed, contested and even internally contradictory discourse. Differences in income do not only mean differences in the role that money plays in food choices but also in what kind of consumption people consider worth pursuing. Further, differences in income dictate differences in how people are morally positioned vis-à-vis abundance. For people with a higher level of income, moral blame is asserted on wasteful consumption habits. For the people with a low income, in turn, it is ethically condemnable to refuse to rejoice at the abundance around us. The findings indicate that even in a society where the rhetoric of choice is prominent both as a right and as an obligation by which people ought to display ethical agency, the ethics of choice is tied to the resources available for consumption. People with a severely low income occasionally enjoy the trickling down of abundant treats and surprises. However, for them, occasional indulgence causes not only pleasure but also trouble.

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Moore ◽  
Maya Vadiveloo ◽  
Karen McCurdy ◽  
Alison Tovar

Abstract Objectives Less healthy snack food consumption has increased in young children, yet little is known about snack food consumption during infancy. This qualitative study explored how low-income mothers define snacking and factors that influence snack food consumption during infancy. Methods A purposive sample of low-income mother-infant dyads (N = 8) were recruited from Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and childcare centers in Rhode Island. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted when infants were approximately 6-months of age to explore the mother's definition of snacking and factors that influence when and what snack foods are offered to infants. Interviews were audio recorded, verbatim transcribed, and a thematic analysis was conducted. Results Mothers were on average 27.3 years old (SD = 4.9), 62.5% identified as White, 25.0% as Multiracial, and 12.5% as African-American/Black. Mothers defined snacking as small feedings that help infants feel full between milk-feedings and exposes them to a variety of new flavors. Most mothers (75%) reported that they had offered snack foods to their infant by around 5 months of age, and 25% reported that they had decided not to offer snack foods due to concerns about choking (n = 1) and healthfulness (n = 1). Despite reporting that snack foods offered to infants should be healthy, most mothers (75%) expressed concerns about offering vegetables and fruits due to choking and reported offering snack foods that easily dissolve in the infant's mouth (e.g., puff and melts). Conclusions Preliminary results suggest that mothers believed snack foods were an important part of infant feeding to ensure adequate caloric intake, exposure to new flavors, and a healthful diet while reducing choking risk. Given that many mothers will introduce snacks during infancy, it is critical to promote developmentally appropriate, healthy snacks. Future studies should explore other environmental factors that influence snack food consumption during infancy. Funding Sources This work was supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, [Hatch/Tovar/1001894].


Agro Ekonomi ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Bernard B de Rosari ◽  
Sri Widodo ◽  
Masyhuri Masyhuri

The analysis intended to identify the various food consumption of the people of East Nusa Tenggara is carried out by using the data from Susenas in East Nusa Tenggara Province in 1996. There are 500 households included in the analysis those are classified according to income level (low, middle, high) and residence (rural, urban).The estimation of the consumption function is using Maximum Likelihood Method (MLE). Results of the analysis reveals that expenditure allocation for foodstuffs is 63% and 37% for non-foodstuffs. High-income people combine rice and corn to meet their carbohydrate needs while low-income people rely on corn. Protein sources including fish and meat are not affordable by the people of East Nusa Tenggara


Author(s):  
Jason Knight ◽  
Mohammad Gharipour

How can urban redevelopment benefit existing low-income communities? The history of urban redevelopment is one of disruption of poor communities. Renewal historically offered benefits to the place while pushing out the people. In some cases, displacement is intentional, in others it is unintentional. Often, it is the byproduct of the quest for profits. Regardless of motives, traditional communities, defined by cultural connections, are often disrupted. Disadvantaged neighborhoods include vacant units, which diminish the community and hold back investment. In the postwar period, American cities entered into a program of urban renewal. While this program cleared blight, it also drove displacement among the cities’ poorest and was particularly hard on minority populations clustered in downtown slums. The consequences of these decisions continue to play out today. Concentration of poverty is increasing and American cities are becoming more segregated. As neighborhoods improve, poorer residents are uprooted and forced into even more distressed conditions, elsewhere. This paper examines the history of events impacting urban communities. It further reviews the successes and failures of efforts to benefit low-income communities.


Author(s):  
Mesran Mesran ◽  
Suginam Suginam ◽  
Surya Darma Nasution ◽  
Andsyah Putera Utama Siahaan

Community Health Insurance is one of the government programs for the people of Indonesia in obtaining treatment services at Puskesmas. The program is very helpful for people who are low income and live below the poverty line. Indicators for the government in providing this service consists of 10 (ten) criteria that are House Ownership Status, Floor Area per Household Member, Type of Floor of House, Type of Wall House, Lighting House Used, Fuel Used, Frequency Of Eating In A Day, Ability Buy meat/chicken/milk in a week, Employment of head of household, Education of head of household. In the application, of course, has constraints in deciding who the participants who get the Jamkesmas service. With the application of one of Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) able to overcome obstacles faced by government. Some methods of MCDM such as Simple Additive Weighting(SAW), Weighted Product(WP), Weighted Sum Model(WSM) can solve this problem. By applying the WSM is relatively easy and fast, is believed to be able to get the best results.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tina Fetner ◽  
Athena Elafros ◽  
Sandra Bortolin ◽  
Coralee Drechsler

In activists' circles as in sociology, the concept "safe space" has beenapplied to all sorts of programs, organizations, and practices. However,few studies have specified clearly what safe spaces are and how theysupport the people who occupy them. In this paper, we examine one sociallocation typically understood to be a safe space: gay-straight alliancegroups in high schools. Using qualitative interviews with young adults inthe United States and Canada who have participated in gay-straightalliances, we examine the experiences of safe spaces in these groups. Weunpack this complex concept to consider some of the dimensions along whichsafe spaces might vary. Participants identified several types of safespace, and from their observations we derive three inter-related dimensionsof safe space: social context, membership and activity.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Nuah Perdamenta Tarigan ◽  
Christian Siregar ◽  
Simon Mangatur Tampubolon

Justice that has not existed and is apparent among the disabilities in Indonesia is very large and spread in the archipelago is very large, making the issue of equality is a very important thing especially with the publication of the Disability Act No. 8 of 2016 at the beginning of that year. Only a few provinces that understand properly and well on open and potential issues and issues will affect other areas including the increasingly growing number of elderly people in Indonesia due to the increasing welfare of the people. The government of DKI Jakarta, including the most concerned with disability, from the beginning has set a bold step to defend things related to disability, including local governments in Solo, Bali, Makassar and several other areas. Leprosy belonging to the disability community has a very tough marginalization, the disability that arises from leprosy quite a lot, reaches ten percent more and covers the poor areas of Indonesia, such as Nusa Tenggara Timur, Papua, South Sulawesi Provinces and even East Java and West Java and Central Java Provinces. If we compare again with the ASEAN countries we also do not miss the moment in ratifying the CRPD (Convention of Rights for People with Disability) into the Law of Disability No. 8 of 2016 which, although already published but still get rejections in some sections because do not provide proper empowerment and rights equality. The struggle is long and must be continued to build equal rights in all areas, not only health and welfare but also in the right of the right to receive continuous inclusive education.


Author(s):  
Elizabeth Shannon

Study abroad begins long before students leave their own shores. The moment that children enter daycare, nursery school, or kindergarten for the first time, they are in foreign territory, and all their antennae are out, testing, absorbing, learning. They begin to develop the first of their many multiple identities. They are no longer "Johnny" or "Sarah" whom everyone knows and loves at home, but Johnny or Sarah whom no one knows nor initially cares about, and they have to figure out what kind of a new identity they will develop so the danger zone becomes as safe as home.  Leaving familiar surroundings- the sounds, smells, safety, and food of home- and realizing, quite abruptly, that they must learn to adapt to the demands and needs of strangers, is the first and the most challenging "trip abroad" they will ever take. They will use the same set of skills, more mature, more polished (we hope) when they arrive on a foreign campus and move in with a host family or into an international dormitory.  Learning to make the journey with ease, whether it is on the first day of school or the day a plane drops one in a foreign field, is a necessary accomplishment. We have to make friends out of our peers; we have to gain the respect of our teachers; we have to develop curiosity and concern about the people around us. The stranger they seem, the more there is to learn. To fear diversity is to fear life itself. As the world becomes smaller and more integrated, the more crucial this accomplishment grows. 


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lindsey Haynes-Maslow ◽  
Stephanie B. Jilcott Pitts ◽  
Kathryn A. Boys ◽  
Jared T. McGuirt ◽  
Sheila Fleischhacker ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The North Carolina Healthy Food Small Retailer Program (NC HFSRP) was established through a policy passed by the state legislature to provide funding for small food retailers located in food deserts with the goal of increasing access to and sales of healthy foods and beverages among local residents. The purpose of this study was to qualitatively examine perceptions of the NC HFSRP among store customers. Methods Qualitative interviews were conducted with 29 customers from five NC HFSRP stores in food deserts across eastern NC. Interview questions were related to shoppers’ food and beverage purchases at NC HFSRP stores, whether they had noticed any in-store efforts to promote healthier foods and beverages, their suggestions for promoting healthier foods and beverages, their familiarity with and support of the NC HFSRP, and how their shopping and consumption habits had changed since implementation of the NC HFSRP. A codebook was developed based on deductive (from the interview guide questions) and inductive (emerged from the data) codes and operational definitions. Verbatim transcripts were double-coded and a thematic analysis was conducted based on code frequency, and depth of participant responses for each code. Results Although very few participants were aware of the NC HFSRP legislation, they recognized changes within the store. Customers noted that the provision of healthier foods and beverages in the store had encouraged them to make healthier purchase and consumption choices. When a description of the NC HFSRP was provided to them, all participants were supportive of the state-funded program. Participants discussed program benefits including improving food access in low-income and/or rural areas and making healthy choices easier for youth and for those most at risk of diet-related chronic diseases. Conclusions Findings can inform future healthy corner store initiatives in terms of framing a rationale for funding or policies by focusing on increased food access among vulnerable populations.


BMC Nutrition ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Cornelsen ◽  
Pablo Alarcon ◽  
Barbara Häsler ◽  
Djesika D. Amendah ◽  
Elaine Ferguson ◽  
...  

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