Eating local in a U.S. city: Reconstructing “community”-a third place-in a global neoliberal economy

Abstract

Eating local in a U.S. city:Reconstructing "community"-a third place-in a global neoliberal economy

Production for consumption: Prosumer, citizen‐consumer, and ethical consumption in a postgrowth context

“…Practices of ethically and environmentally conscious consumption increasingly include alternative food networks with shorter supply chains. These supply chains intend to cut out the middleperson and provide a much more direct connection and closeness between the ethical consumer and the sustainable producers, through farm‐gate sales, farmer's markets, community‐supported agriculture, food cooperatives, and fair trade products—even though much of this closeness might be an imagined one on the customers' side (Luetchford ; Nonini ; Okura Gagné ; Pratt ).…”

The Unbearable Lightness of the Cosmopolitan Canopy: Accomplishment of Diversity at an Urban Farmers Market

“…Most New York farmers’ markets accept EBT cards as payment, but they generally not only cater to the cultural consumption preferences of the affluent but also signal through products available, modes of display, and physical layout that it is a space for that segment of the population. The large number of immigrant and working‐class customers disrupted this more typical habitus of farmers’ markets and their image as affluent white spaces or spaces of food tourism and politically minded consumption (Alkon ; Alkon and Vang ; Gagné ; Slocum ; Zukin ). I found concern about freshness, sustainability, and food safety among some low‐income and immigrant customers, as well as among middle‐class whites.…”

“…In a related and recurrent episode, Amy prepared free samples of healthy dishes, and was puzzled when many customers hesitated to take the samples, or rejected them altogether. As a volunteer, I was often involved in distributing the samples, and I found that saying “it's free” was much more effective than Amy's “would you like some squash?” Free samples, common in affluent settings, neighborhoods, and commercial spaces, are far less common of an experience for working class people (Gagné ; McClain and Mears ). There was a gulf in understanding around the cultural practice of handing out free samples, and the paternalistic intent to educate locals about healthy cooking did not always work.…”

Revolution, Occupation, and Love: The 2011 Year in Cultural Anthropology

“…Brad Weiss (2011) and Nana Gagné (2011), for instance, explore a range of questions concerned with place‐ and meaning‐making as they relate to the making of the “local” within the “local foods movement.” Taking up the follow‐the‐food‐commodity genre of critique (popularized by Pollan [2007], among others), Weiss (2011) examines the experiential qualities of “taste” and “place” as they are cultivated and embodied in the production, circulation, and consumption of pasture‐raised pork in North Carolina. Weiss (2011) is particularly interested in how a “place's tastes”—a taste, in this case, for quality pork—is “carefully crafted through a range of venues in a process attuned to the materiality of ecosystems, landscapes, animals, and meat; built through social relationships among farmers, craftsmen, and activists; cultivated in the educational mission of menus and market tastings, and, so, suffused in place” (441).…”