Materially Constituting a Sustainable Food Transition: The Case of Vegan Eating Practice

Abstract

Informed by several intellectual turns and sub-areas of sociology this article explores veganism as a practice and argues that its nascent social normalisation can be partly explained by specific modes of material work with food performed by vegan practitioners. Based primarily on interview data with UK-based vegans the research identifies four modes of material constitution – material substitution, new food exploration, food creativity and taste transition – which are of particular importance in strengthening links between the elements of the practice. The article argues that these are significant for offering an explanation for the recent growth of vegan practitioners in UK society and that they are also of value to the broader endeavour of understanding sustainable food transitions and intervening for more sustainable food policies.

The Vegan Food Experience: Searching for Happiness in the Norwegian Foodscape

“…The presence of the latter indicated that veganism may slowly become more visible in the mainstream culture. These findings suggested that vegans might represent some of the stereotypes and challenges indicated in the literature [27,33,35,[39][40][41][42], as commented on in the study about the vegan foodscape by Bertella [51]. This aspect will be presented in the next section, which turns to the investigation at the individual level.…”

“…Differently from Twine's study, the current study focused on the broader experiential aspects of food as experienced by vegans. Based on studies concerning ethical eating [28][29][30][31] and vegetarianism/veganism [32][33][34][35], this study viewed the vegan food experience as possibly leading not only to a sense of integrity, personal identity-construction, self-development, and meaningfulness as suggested by Twine [27], but also to sensuous gratification, enjoyment and conviviality, serenity, and elitism.…”

“…Food experiences can nevertheless involve some negative emotions, such as dissatisfaction and boredom [39] and, in the case of vegans, some of these negative emotions might derive from the alternative aspect of their experiences in relation to the specific context. In particular, adherence to veganism is often a public declaration of an ethical position, which might lead to some difficulties in social situations [27,33,35,39]. Cole and Morgan [40] used the term "vegaphobia" to describe the way the dominant discourse about veganism tends to depict vegans in negative and disparaging terms.…”

“…With regard to the possible enjoyment of sharing food with others, this was mentioned by several interviewees and referred to in the context of either having guests over for dinner or being invited to eat with friends who knew and respected their vegan choice. This suggested that, within limited groups, vegans might not face the social challenges outlined in the literature [27,35,42] Two interviewees reported, differently from the people mentioned above, that the enjoyment of food preparation had a marginal position in their everyday lives. One interviewee said: "Preparing food is just something I do.…”

Assessment of ingredients and nutritional value of vegan products in Latvian market

“…Meat alternatives are regarded as a help to people in transition, if they find it difficult in the beginning to radically abstain from all varieties of meat products. They make the vegan lifestyle seem less restrictive (Twine, 2018). Consequently, major local food companies, such as 'Nuteko', 'Skriveru majas saldejums', 'Spilva', 'Valmiermuiza', 'Terapija', etc.…”