Kasvisruokaa kouluun -kokeileva tutkimus ruokavaliomurroksen tukenaVegs to school -experimental research for sustainability transition Mitigation of climate change urges to reduce our meat consumption. This necessitates new eating practices and ways of thinking about food. In this paper we discuss how experimentative research can participate in making such changes. We introduce notions of pragmatic tinkering, speculative thinking and ethical discussion and evaluate their contribution to understanding of change in everyday practices. We investigate their prospects in relation to our experiments with sustainable school dining. In these experiments we introduced a free vegetarian choice to school meals and engaged pupils in their development. The results highlight the dynamic nature of change in everyday practices. The notion of tinkering highlights the small adjustments needed to reconcile the different goals in school dining. Our results stress that the practical adjustments easily uphold the conventional practices. Speculative thinking is needed in challenging them. In our experiments, the engagement of pupils opened places for hesitation, and eventually also to new ways of thinking about school food. The pupils also challenged our experiments. They reminded how eating is entangled to our shared cultural meanings on food, but also to our identity and understandings of gender. In future, experimentative research should build settings, which allow them becoming more multiple as well. JohdantoKasvisruokapäivät aiheuttivat kiivasta keskustelua, kun ne otettiin käyttöön Helsingin kouluissa vuonna 2007 ja puolustusvoimissa vuonna 2018. Niitä kritisoitiin ideologisin perustein tehtynä ja valinnanvapautta rajoittavana "pakkotuputuksena" (Junnilainen 2011; Lombardini & Lankoski 2013; Miikkulainen ym. 2018). Kritisoijat myös epäilivät saavatko lapset ja nuoret kasvisruoasta riittävästi proteiineja ja muita tarvittavia ravintoaineita. Suomalaiset käyttävät paljon julkisia ruokapalveluita. Ne tarjoavat meille lämpimän lounaan niin päiväkodeissa, kouluissa, oppilaitoksissa, armeijassa, työpaikoilla kuin vanhusten kotihoidossakin. Suomi on Ruotsin ohella yksi harvoista maista, joka tarjoaa maksuttoman kouluruoan kaikille oppilaille. Tämä velvoite on kirjattu lakiin perusopetuksesta. Sen mukaan kaikille koululaisille on järjestettävä päivittäin tarkoituksenmukaisesti ohjattu, täysipainoinen ateria (Perusopetuslaki 31 §). Kouluruokailu on nähty pitkään keskeisenä terveysvalistuksen ja hyvien ruokailutapojen oppimisen välineenä. Uusimmat ravitsemus-ja kouluruokailusuositukset ohjaavat lisäämään a. Helsingin yliopisto, Suomen ympäristökeskus, minna.kaljonen@ymparisto.fi, b. Suomen ympäristökeskus, taru.peltola@ymparisto.fi, c. Suomen ympäristökeskus, marita.m.kettunen@helsinki.fi, d. Suomen ympäristökeskus, Helsingin yliopisto, marja.salo@ymparisto.fi, e. Suomen ympäristökeskus, eeva.furman@ymparisto.fi
Reducing meat consumption has become a key concern in attempts to respond to climate change. We explore possibilities to empower collectives of people to reflect on their eating preferences by organizing protein demonstrations for Finnish students aged 10-16. We analyze the protein demonstrations as public experimentsspecific arenas allowing people to experience alternative foods and deliberate on sustainable eating. Video recordings of the demonstrations revealed two key interactive modes that were crucial in this undertaking. Tasting as an embodied form of interaction allowed the students to share their experiences about the foods while playful interactions created a more inclusive and informed setting for engagement. Unlike conventional public engagement methods, the protein demonstrations enabled participants to share their emotions and feelings and to express their doubts and concerns about the idea of sustainable eating. The project revealed tensions between visceral experiences and socially constructed ideas of eating that might otherwise remain unaddressed. The protein demonstrations were thus a means of systematically producing conditions that enabled the elements influencing dietary transition to be made visible and discussed. Addressing these elements is crucial in achieving long-term and internally motivated changes in unsustainable eating preferences.
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