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Abstract
Sustainable food initiatives have increased over the past decade; however, they remain a fringe lifestyle and have failed to become part of the dominant North American food culture. In this article, through an examination of several popular texts that aim to educate the public about sustainable eating, we argue that a main cause of this failure is the lack of a critical examination of the underlying relations of power that inform discourses about sustainable eating initiatives. We identify and discuss four dominant discourses apparent in the texts: sustainable food initiatives are empowering for those involved in them; people engage in unsustainable eating practices because they are uneducated; recipients of sustainable food initiatives are passive; and sustainable eating is affordable for all. We conclude by positing the need for texts that promote sustainable food initiatives to go beyond the rhetoric of participation and empowerment, and to address the complex issues that account for the lack of adoption of increasingly necessary sustainable food initiatives.
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Notes on contributors
Meghan Lynch
Meghan Lynch is a PhD student in Health Behavior Sciences in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. University of Toronto, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, 155 College Street,Toronto, ON, M5T 3M7, Canada ([email protected]).
Audrey Giles
Audrey Giles is an associate professor in the School of Human Kinetics at the University of Ottawa. University of Ottawa, School of Human Kinetics, 334 Montpetit Hall, 125 University Avenue, Ottawa, ON, K1N 6N5, Canada ([email protected]).
