Alternative Food Networks: Knowledge, Practice, and Politics (Routledge Studies of Gastronomy, Food and Drink)

Farmers’ markets, veggie boxes, local foods, organic products and Fair Trade goods – how have these once novel, "alternative" foods, and the people and networks supporting them, become increasingly familiar features of everyday consumption? Are the visions of "alternative worlds" built on ethics of sustainability, social justice, animal welfare and the aesthetic values of local food cultures and traditional crafts still credible now that these foods crowd supermarket shelves and other "mainstream" shopping outlets? This timely book provides a critical review of the growth of alternative food networks and their struggle to defend their ethical and aesthetic values against the standardizing pressures of the corporate mainstream with its "placeless and nameless" global supply networks. It explores how these alternative movements are "making a difference" and their possible role as fears of global climate change and food insecurity intensify. It assesses the different experiences of these networks in three major arenas of food activism and politics: Britain and Western Europe, the United States, and the global Fair Trade economy. This comparative perspective runs throughout the book to fully explore the progressive erosion of the interface between alternative and mainstream food provisioning. As the era of "cheap food" draws to a close, analysis of the limitations of market-based social change and the future of alternative food economies and localist food politics place this book at the cutting-edge of the field. The book is thoroughly informed by contemporary social theory and interdisciplinary social scientific scholarship, formulates an integrative social practice framework to understand alternative food production-consumption, and offers a unique geographical reach in its case studies.

Business & Money

Goodman, David

DuPuis, E. Melanie

Goodman, Michael K.

Economics

Routledge

Geographies of Food: An Introduction

Food is pivotal to the human experience. Its production and preparation occupies the waking hours of millions of people, and structures the domestic spaces and routines of everyday life. Around the world, from local community groups to inter-governmental summits, people are discussing the future of food in the face of threats from climate change, population growth and natural resource depletion. This textbook provides a comprehensive introduction to the contemporary geographies of food. It begins by exploring the relationship between food, place and space and then examines the contemporary food 'crisis' in all its dimensions, as well as the many  solutions which are currently being proposed. Drawing on international case studies, this text examines the complex relationships operating between people and processes at a range of geographical scales, from the shopping decisions of a mother in a British supermarket, to the crop choices made by a farmer in West Africa; from high-level political negotiations at the World Trade Organization, to the strategies of giant agri-businesses whose activities span several continents. Including a range of lively pedagogical features and case studies, this textbook is accompanied by a companion website with additional teaching and learning resources.

Kneafsey, Moya

Maye, Damian

Holloway, Lewis

Cookbooks, Food & Wine

Bloomsbury Academic

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