Organic intimacy: emotional practices at an organic store

Abstract

The article tells the story of the rise and fall of the organic store Yggdrasill in Iceland. That story features humble founders, caring customers, dedicated staff, as well as anonymous investment funds, and it describes the conversion of organics from a niche market to mainstream consumption. Through an ethnographic account of everyday life at the organic store, the article analyzes how intimacy within the modern food chain is established through emotional practices. Staff and customers share feelings of reciprocity, not only towards organic producers, but also towards each other through acts of selling and buying organic products, forming intimate attachment and creating trust to counter the fears and anonymity of the modern food chain. Drawing on theories of affect and emotional practices and combining ethnography with narrative analysis, the article explores the role of emotions and how the doing of emotions makes organic food consumption meaningful within the industrial food system.

Customer Preferences for Organic Agriculture Produce in the Czech Republic: 2016 and 2019

“…Similarly, Lu and Chi [15] explored the respondents' perceived hedonic and utilitarian value of organic food purchase. Pétursson [16] focused on the impact of emotions and the sense of community and intimacy on organic produce purchases and Kim, Lusk and Brorsen [17] looked into another aspect of organic food purchases-the effect of social pressure, i.e., the need to demonstrate a certain social status to others. Nguyen et al [18], on the other hand, proposed a unique model of buying behaviour incorporating environmental concern and guilt, after investigating the key determinants of consumer choice to buy organic meat in an emerging market.…”

The U.S. Government's Program of Welfare for the Wealthy

“…We can suggest that the Shunrakuzen partnership is similar to the Teikei relationship. The company is a local supermarket that can bridge the gap, promoting direct interaction between farmers and consumers, and fostering intimacy (Pétursson 2018) and co-creating value (Prahald and Ramaswamy 2004) for organic markets through information provided to consumers in stores, product tasting, and agricultural experiences.…”

Pantry Memories

“…The concept has been widely used in various disciplines, such as ethnology/folklore, history, and anthropology, over the past few years and has been used to explore, among other things, the creation of intimate relationships between food producers and consumers (Pétursson 2018;, virtual violence in video games and taking selfies at a Holocaust memorial (Bareither 2017;, and voluntary work with refugees (Sutter 2017). Here, we might also add Scheer's historical analyses of the relationship between religion and emotions in modern German Protestantism (Scheer 2020).…”