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.

Shapes, sizes and applications

Slow Food

Slow Food is a global grassroots organisation, founded by the Italian journalist Carlo Petrini and a group of activists in Bra (Italy) in 1986. The movement grew with the development of several national branches in Germany, Switzerland, the United States, Japan, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Brazil, Kenya and South Korea. Originally, Slow Food started as a countercultural movement to fast food (such as McDonald’s). The movement builds on a shared vision and common identity. Slow Food is based on the idea of connecting the cultivation of taste with local traditional gastronomy and regional biodiversity, criticising the globalised and delocalised food production and fighting the disappearance of local food cultures and traditions. The Slow Food movement seeks to refresh people’s interest in the food they eat. It is based on the three principles of good (relating to pleasure, quality, flavour and healthiness of food), clean (referring to a production which does not harm the environment) and fair (about accessible prices for consumers and fair conditions and salary for producers). With the introduction of the Good, clean and fair model during the celebration of Terra Madre in 2004, the movement gained worldwide popularity. Since its foundation, the movement’s discourse broadened to issues such as global warming, animal welfare, food waste or indigenous rights. The aims, values and activities of the movement have evolved enormously over time and reach from community activities of local convivia to national organisations and the establishment of an international network. Hence, informally the Slow Food movement might be described as “instrumental branch of a more diffused movement.”

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