Hoiva ruokahävikin vähentämisen arkisissa käytännöissä

Abstract

Hoiva ruokahävikin vähentämisen arkisissa käytännöissäCare in everyday practices of reducing food waste This article explores the ways through which care manifests in everyday food waste reduction practices. The article is positioned within a more than human approach, which emphasises blurred ontological and epistemological boundaries among and across (assemblages of) humans, nonhumans, things and issues (re)forming sociomaterial worlds. Drawing empirical insights from (n)ethnographic materials that have been generated in an ongoing research project focusing on consumers as active reducers of food waste, the article discusses three overlapping ways (labour/work, affect/affection and ethics/politics) through which we care for and live with food waste in both research and everyday life. Labour/work entails hands-on relations with food (waste), wherein food is understood as an active participant in the reduction practices. In affective practices, food waste reduction is closely attached to our bodies (and other bodies) as well as the senses of sight, touch and smell. Through ethico-political doings, food waste reduction becomes a collective issue, encompassing, for instance, gendered division of labour. The article argues for understanding food waste as a matter of care and maps out the consequences of such understanding for environmental-political agency.

Towards a circular economy in food consumption: Food waste reduction practices as ethical work

“…Thus, the reason for avoiding food waste is not the biblical virtue of frugality but instead the current ecological crisis that forces people to observe their consumption behaviour. However, it is not enough to be aware of the problem; concrete and material actions must be taken to modify consumption (Koskinen et al., 2018; see also Evans, 2011; Southerton and Yates, 2015). Unfortunately, awareness does not often easily translate into action, as the following quotations on coffee consumption illustrate,In the morning, I realize, I always make 2.5 cups of coffee.…”

‘If I could afford an avocado every day’: Income differences and ethical food consumption in a world of abundance

“…The woman continued: ‘I just know that if I had more money I would have the best of intentions, but you’re hurried and then something goes on sale and you buy too much of it’. Wasting food is not merely a matter of carelessness (Evans, 2014; Koskinen et al, 2018). As this woman points out, food waste happens regardless of ‘the best of intentions’, if and when she can afford to waste food.…”

“…Johnston et al, 2011; Varul, 2016; Oke et al, 2020). This narrow view of ethical food consumption tends to privilege upper (or) middle-class ideals of what constitutes good consumption (Johnston et al, 2012: 1092, 1104), foster divisions between activists and ordinary consumers (Grauel, 2016; Kennedy et al, 2018), and create confrontations between individualised consumption and respectable civic engagement (Soper, 2007). Not all consumers necessarily agree on the contents of ethical eating.…”

“…Saving food from being wasted is considered an emotionally satisfying and morally respectable act (e.g. Koskinen et al, 2018: 24; Lehtonen and Pyyhtinen 2020: 198), whereas waste-producing food practices cause shame (Lang and Heesman, 2015: 224). Nonetheless, there are many structural and temporal factors that contest individual efforts to avoid food waste (Evans, 2011, 2014; Lehtokunnas et al, 2020; Mattila et al, 2019).…”