Growing, Cooking, Eating, Shitting Off-grid Organic Food

Abstract

Though research on back-to-the-landers, smallholders, organic farmers, community gardeners and eco-villagers is copious, extremely little knowledge exists on off-grid living. “Off-grid” refers to a home or community disconnected from regional electricity and natural gas infrastructures. Off-gridder dwellers not only generate power and heat but in general also practice relative self-sufficiency when it comes to food production. Drawing from ethnographic research conducted in Canada, this paper examines the practices of growing, cooking, eating and disposing of off-grid organic food. Off-gridders' practices present a counter-hegemonic idea of convenience which emphasizes the importance of food that is local, self-produced, sustainably-cooked and sustainably disposed of. We argue that off-gridders engage in acts of “deconcession,” that is, practices that respatialize and reconfigure food-based assemblages of materials, institutions, practices, representations and experiences by way of reduced reliance on the dominant system of distant food supply.

Keywords:

• food
• organic food
• taste
• energy
• convenience
• Canada
• off-grid

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Phillip Vannini

Phillip Vannini is Canada Research Chair in Innovative Learning and Public Ethnography and Professor in the School of Communication and Culture at Royal Roads University. He is author/editor of nine books, including Ferry Tales: Mobility, Place, and Time on Canada's West Coast (Routledge, 2012) and The Senses in Self, Society, and Culture (Routledge, 2012). School of Communication & Culture, Royal Roads University, 2005 Sooke Road, Victoria, British Columbia, V9B 5Y2, Canada ([email protected]).

Jonathan Taggart

Jonathan Taggart is a Vancouver-based photojournalist and PhD student at the Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainabilty at the University of British Columbia. He specializes in social documentary, editorial photography, visual advocacy and visual ethnography. His work has been published in such journals as Cultural Geographies, Environment & Planning A and Transfers. School of Communication & Culture, Royal Roads University, 2005 Sooke Road, Victoria, British Columbia, V9B 5Y2, Canada ([email protected]).