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Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies
  • The Reinvention of Food: Connections and Mediations
(Re)establishing the Normal
Yuson Jung
Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies, Vol. 14 No. 4, Winter 2014; (pp. 52-59) DOI: 10.1525/gfc.2014.14.4.52
Yuson Jung
Wayne State University
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Abstract

In the dominant American discourse, alternative practices of consuming ethical foods are often positioned against cheap, highly processed, freely traded, and poor-quality industrially produced foods. This article discusses the different forms and meanings of “alternative” food practices and asks whether consuming organically and locally produced, or fairly traded, foods are the only “alternative” food practices that can claim moral authority and assert one’s ethical adherence. By examining the discourses and practices of everyday food provisioning among resource-constrained consumers in postsocialist Bulgaria and postindustrial Detroit, the article explores the meanings of “good” food, and suggests that “alternatives” do not always translate as foods that are exceptionally moral and pure owing to intrinsic superior values. These comparative case studies complicate a familiar, stereotypical dichotomy between a morally compromised global industrialized food system and an ethical alternative to the status quo that presumes moral purity. The meanings of “good” foods vary in different social and economic contexts, and “alternative” foods therefore can be those that have the power, or promise, to (re)establish a sense of “normal” provisioning opportunities. Recognizing these different forms and meanings of “alternatives” will allow us to envision future food production and consumption practices in more nuanced ways so that an industrialized food system and “alternative” food systems are not cast in mutually exclusive terms.

  • food provisioning
  • normality
  • ethical foods
  • alternative food practices
  • Bulgaria
  • Detroit
  • © 2014 by The Regents of the University of California

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Vol. 14 No. 4, Winter 2014

Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies: 14 (4)
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(Re)establishing the Normal
Yuson Jung
Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies, Vol. 14 No. 4, Winter 2014; (pp. 52-59) DOI: 10.1525/gfc.2014.14.4.52
Yuson Jung
Wayne State University
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(Re)establishing the Normal
Yuson Jung
Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies, Vol. 14 No. 4, Winter 2014; (pp. 52-59) DOI: 10.1525/gfc.2014.14.4.52
Yuson Jung
Wayne State University
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Search for this author on this site
  • View author's works on this site
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