Dumpster Diving for a Better World

Food waste is a major challenge in affluent societies around the globe. Based on theories of protest and a mixed methods design combining qualitative, experimental, and survey research, we study the motives for, frequency of, and public support for dumpster diving in Germany. We find that dumpster diving as an unconventional daily protest action is related to more general protest against capitalist societies. It is motivated by both altruistic and egoistic concerns. The perceived legitimacy of violence and self-identity explain the frequency of dumpster diving. A factorial survey experiment with activists and the general public reveals strong similarities between the views of activists and those of other citizens in strong support of dumpster diving. This study demonstrates the usefulness of combining different empirical methods to study food activism.

The role of farm-to-table activities in agritourism towards sustainable development

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the role of farm-to-table (FTT) activities in agritourism towards sustainable development based on three agritourism farms in Brunei. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on qualitative data using semi-structured interviews with 23 participants involved in the management of the farms. In-depth interviews are considered the most appropriate approach to gain the unexplored perspectives of the agriculture community at the three agritourism farms. Findings The study found that FTT activities imparted in agritourism contribute towards sustainable development economically, socially and environmentally. FTT leads to the establishment of small medium and micro enterprises, which, in turn, creates employment for the local people. It also plays a part in preserving the ethno-culinary heritage of indigenous food, promoting food localism and sustainable agriculture. These findings suggest that FTT activities play an important role in revitalizing the local community. The outcome of this empirical research may enable planners to better formulate regional policy based on a balanced approach taking into account the three dimensions of sustainability towards agritourism development. From a theoretical standpoint, this study adds value to the literature by identifying the contributions of FTT activities towards sustainable development emphasising on the consumption of local ethnic food and food localism. Originality/value The contributions of agritourism for local farms has not been extensively discussed especially in Brunei’s local agriculture industry. This study will provide evidence that FTT activities contribute towards a moderate form of food activism; one that re-forges the disrupted linkages between people, nature and cultural heritage.

Peasants’ Transnational Mobilization for Food Sovereignty in La Vía Campesina

This paper examines how small farmers and landless rural workers have developed new modes of food activism at the transnational level. It explores in particular how the international peasant movement La Vía Campesina advocates and seeks to build – through the concept of the “food sovereignty” – an alternative frame for food production and distribution enabling communities and people to determine at the local/national level their own food systems. Based on a multi-sited fieldwork including participant observations and interviews with organizations’ members from three different countries involved in La Vía Campesina (France, Brazil and India), my study analyses the various and unstable definitions of the concept of “food sovereignty” in the movement. It examines the process of adding new meanings to its definition according to its circulation across different scales and specific cultural and geographical contexts, its attempted legal translations, and its local reconfigurations in sometimes nationalistic and protectionist ways. The aim is first to show how the demand for “food sovereignty” has emerged at the international level so as to reframe politically global food relations and compete with a more technical response to world hunger promoted by global institutions - the notion of “food security”. The paper then traces the various strategies used by La Vía Campesina’s activists to legitimize and promote their cause, trying to make small-scale farmers “visible” – both in international and national public arenas – and recognized as those assuming a leading role in food production throughout the world. Finally, it addresses the way the food sovereignty framework catalyzes social mobilization across borders by constituting transnational interests and provides to marginalized social agents in the countryside a conceptual frame for making sense of the process of dispossession from the means of production they have been undergoing since the early 1980s.

Il denaro invisibile. Circolazione, calcolo e valori negli spazi economici dell'attivismo

L'articolo analizza, da una prospettiva antropologica, il ruolo del dena-ro in alcune mobilitazioni e sperimentazioni economiche nel campo del food activism. In particolare, attraverso il caso dei sistemi di panieri (associazioni per l'approvvigionamento di verdure e prodotti alimentari freschi) nella città di Marsiglia, l'autore esamina le ragioni dell'apparente invisibilità del denaro e mostra come, ripensando il cal-colo, lo scambio e la produzione, gli individui ridefiniscano i valori so-ciali ed economici del cibo e con essi gli spazi di produzione e di di-stribuzione. Attraverso la solidarietà, lo scambio sociale e il giusto prezzo, il denaro acquisisce un ruolo politico, oltreché economico.

Stirring up lessons for food activists [Book review]

The book Stirrings examines the anti-hunger efforts of the food movement in the latter part of the 20th century for lessons in their suc­cesses and failures, as well as relevance to the modern food movement in America. Its six chap­ters examine four food nonprofits’ responses to hunger and its causes in urban New York City (NYC). The diversity of these case studies allowed for multidimensional analyses and insights of how groups of people can work to challenge policy pri­ori­ties and change social values that cause hunger. The context of the case studies is established in the introduction by recounting the history and politics of the awareness of hunger and poverty in Amer­ica, the “land of plenty and wealth” during the 1960s, and the subsequent federal government anti-hunger and welfare programs (e.g., War on Poverty and food stamps programs). This context also includes the drastic reductions of these pro­grams, first by the austerity budget measures of the mid-1970s and then by the rise of neoliberal gov­ernment policies starting in the 1980s. This infor­mation is intended to inform the reader of the raison d’etre for the rise and diversity of food activism movement described in this book. . . .