Feeding the melting pot: inclusive strategies for the multi-ethnic city

Abstract

The need for a shift toward healthier and more sustainable diets is evident and is supported by universalized standards for a "planetary health diet" as recommended in the recent EAT-Lancet report. At the same time, differences exist in tastes, preferences and food practices among diverse ethnic groups, which becomes progressively relevant in light of Europe's increasingly multi-ethnic cities. There is a growing tension between current sustainable diets standards and how diverse ethnic resident groups relate to it within their 'culturally appropriate' foodways, raising questions around inclusion. What are dynamics of inclusiveness in migrant food practices? And what does this mean towards the transition to healthy and sustainable food? We study this question among Syrian migrants with different lengths of stay in the Netherlands. Our theoretical framework is based on practice theories, which emphasize the importance of socio-material context and of bodily routines and competences. We use qualitative methods, combining in-depth semi-structured life-history interviews with participant observation. Our findings indicate that inclusiveness takes different forms as migrants' food practices and the food environment change. Regarding health and sustainability in food practices, understandings and competences around particularly fresh food change over time among both short-and long-term migrants, replacing making things from scratch with seasonal products with buying more processed products and out-of-season vegetables and fruits. We conclude that the performances of food practices and their configurations in food environments and lifestyles are dynamic and cannot unequivocally be interpreted as in-or exclusive, but that a more nuanced understanding is required.

Multi-Objective Optimization of Nutritional, Environmental and Economic Aspects of Diets Applied to the Spanish Context

“…Although increased attention has been paid to sustainable diets, it is still unclear how the different components of sustainable diets must be defined, measured, and prioritized to achieve optimal results [ 38 ]. Hence, the search for optimal sustainable diets implies simultaneous optimization of their environmental, economic, health (nutrition), and other socio-cultural dimensions [ 39 ], and partial optimization should be avoided [ 40 , 41 ]. The intrinsic relations among these different aspects may result in opposing objectives and, therefore, only trade-offs can give the best solutions.…”

Sustainability in times of disruption: engaging with near and distant futures in practices of food entrepreneurship

“…Practices change and continuously evolve because the actors that perform them adapt to ever changing circumstances, therefore they contain ‘the seeds of constant change’ (Warde, 2005: 141). Moreover, disruption and social upheaval can cause immediate enforced de- and re-routinization of practices (Brons et al, 2020; Spaargaren and Oosterveer, 2010). A discontinuity of social life requires adaptation to the ‘new normal’, which in turn incites changes in performances that could over time result in a reconfiguration of practices.…”

City-Region Food Systems and Second Tier Cities: From Garden Cities to Garden Regions

“…Almere, being a migrant city, provides ample evidence of this. For instance, the food consumption practices of Syrian migrants demonstrate the reciprocal relation between cultural habits and the food environment [53]. These migrants even established connections with local food producers, like dairy farmers, to accommodate their cultural dietary preferences of Syrian fresh cheese.…”