Food Activism and Citizens’ Democratic Engagements: What Can We Learn from Market-Based Political Participation?

Abstract

Food democracy calls for a democratization of the production, distribution, and consumption of food. Researchers and lay citizens are showing a growing interest for initiatives associated with food democracy, yet the specific democratic ideals and involvements that make up food democracy have gained limited attention. Many forms of participation associated with food democracy are market-based, such as buying organic food or joining community-supported agricultural projects. Research shows that market-based logics influence multiple spheres of life and threaten democratic ideals. However, scholars working on political participation have not yet analyzed the influence of market-based logics across forms of participation. This article analyses the action repertoire of food democracy to assess the influence of market-based logics on different forms of food activism. It builds on four critiques of market-based politics to question the relationship between different forms of participation and the market. It addresses three research questions: Which forms of political participation do citizens use to democratize the food regime? Which conceptions of democracy relate to these different forms of food activism? Which critiques of market-based politics apply to different forms of food activism? The article highlights the widespread risk of unequal participation, crowding out, commodification, and state retreat across forms of participation used to democratize food regimes. This study provides insights into the types of democratic renewal being experimented with in the framework of food democracy as well as their limits.

Food Democracy for All? Developing a Food Hub in the Context of Socio-Economic Deprivation

“…The idea of ethical consumerism suggests that by 'voting with their fork' consumers will eventually transform the wider food system through their purchasing decisions. This assumption, however, has been heavily critiqued (Lorenzini, 2019): As Guthman (2011) argues, neoliberal incentive-based regulation, in contrast to state regulation, leads to higher prices for organic and local food by design, with those who can afford it being rewarded instead of unhealthy or unjust practices being forbidden. CFNs, therefore, run the risk of reinforcing a twotier system providing expensive, healthy and sustainablysourced food for those who can afford it, and cheap and low-quality food for everyone else (Levkoe, 2011).…”

Power to the people? Food democracy initiatives’ contributions to democratic goods

“…Behringer and Feindt ( 2019 ), in this respect, distinguish between two distinct articulations of food democracy discourse that have developed over time. A first articulation they refer to as “liberal food democracy” and has its roots in political consumerism, emphasizing the steering role consumers can adopt through their daily consumption choices (see also: Lorenzini 2019 ). The second articulation, labelled “strong food democracy”, departs from this market-based orientation and focuses on the emergence of citizen-led processes and initiatives through which participation and agonism are organized in alternative ways (see also the work on deep food democracy, e.g., Carlson and Chappell 2015 ).…”

Political consumerism and food activism

“…It includes political consumerism but goes beyond this form of action since it covers actions that establish long-term relationships between producers and consumers, as well as actions that aim to bypass the market. Food activism includes political consumerism, food collectives, and lifestyle politics (Lorenzini, 2019). Political consumerism, in this case, means either refusing to buy or buying specific food for political reasons.…”