Can consumers buy alternative foods at a big box supermarket?

ABSTRACT

While consumers in affluent countries are ever hungry for alternatives to the ‘Big-Food’ mainstream, critical scholars have raised serious questions about the meaning of ‘alternative’ food products. I explore scholarly critiques of alternative food, and argue against a binary approach that sees foods as either alternative or not alternative. Instead, I suggest the utility of taking a multifaceted, ‘family of issues’ approach that is both reflexive and materialist. The case of ethical meat is used to explore the myriad, often contradictory ideals contained within consumers’ search for alternatives to mainstream market options. Three cautionary lessons are put forward. First, the goal of producing myriad consumer alternatives is significantly hampered by the competing, and often contradictory demands of market forces. Second, the discourse of food alternatives uses a ‘win-win’ logic suggesting that consumer sacrifice or change is unnecessary; the challenge of reshaping, and even downgrading consumer expectations is a necessary, but tremendous challenge facing consumer projects for ecological and social change. Third, the search for eco-social alternatives cannot simply make consumers feel good about their purchases, but must address the material realities and limitations of niche markets, and the need for structural reform to the food system.

KEYWORDS:

• Alternative food
• consumers
• food
• markets and market limitations
• meat
• organics
• shopping for change

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to my academic collaborators for reading this commentary and offering many useful suggestions: Shyon Baumann, Kate Cairns, Emily Huddart-Kennedy, Mike Goodman, Norah MacKendrick, and Anelyse Weiler.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. President’s Choice®, or PC is an in-house label owned by Loblaws and associated with affordable, premium quality products. PC Organics is a specialised product line within the PC ‘family’, and is complementary with other offerings such as their ‘Free From’ line offering meats raised without antibiotics or hormones. See http://www.presidentschoice.ca/en_CA/familypage.html

2. The original letter penned by Peter Singer in 2005, and signed by numerous animal welfare groups, can be viewed here: http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/media/links/p17/public-letter.pdf