Social food movements

Social food movements aspire to make food production and consumption more sustainable, strengthen the local food sector, connect people through food and create more awareness about the food we eat but also revive the joy of it. Examples of initiatives that try to tackle unsustainability and injustice through a social food movement are the Slow Food movement and Veggie Thursdays, which are outlined below.

General introduction to approach

With regard to cultural aspects, food movements can trigger the (renewed) acknowledgement of specific food practices and traditions. They can give legitimacy to certain groups to exercise food practices that are part of their cultural identity, connected to the aim of defending the diversity of food heritage around the globe. Food movements might also include aspects of health, such as the wish to improve one’s personal health through a certain diet by eating ‘healthy’, or present a broader movement towards public health. This can be connected to the desire of building a supportive community, managing stress or doing physical exercise. Some social food movements might evolve with the ambition of changing certain habits concerning practices of eating on the individual, organisational or broader community level. Concerning aspects of leisure, the development of certain practices can be part of food movements, such as having fun with cooking, developing new recipes, enjoying the quality and flavour of food, hence developing a new appreciation and awareness of the food we eat.

The development of or participation in a social food movement can also involve environmental aspects. Changing one’s habits, taking up specific food choices or questioning certain food practices can be triggered by the motivation of contributing to an ecologically more sustainable environment (and food system). People might have the aim of fighting uniformity and raising awareness about the variety of animal and plant breeds (biodiversity). Political aspects are part of social food movements in the sense of creating awareness about power asymmetries in the food system, transforming people’s agency in food choices and pointing out the exploitation of people, the environment and animals in the global food system. A variety of actors is involved in food movements, such as citizens, consumers, farmers and local producers, people in the gastronomic sector, but also government officials, municipalities, associations and researchers.