Bloomsbury Food Values in Europe

What can a focus on approaches to food practices in Europe tell us about the communities and cultures that exist there? Krista Harper and Valeria Siniscalchi show how food becomes a marker of identity and resistance to social exclusion, and food values become tools for transforming power dynamics, in a range of European countries. Through the comparison of local food, food justice and other food-centred movements across Europe, the book explains how these forms of mobilization express ideologies as well as economic and political objectives. The chapters use ethnographic detail to focus on the differences between "new" and "old" values carried by individuals and groups in relation to food in Portugal, Greece, Latvia, Moldova, Denmark, the UK, Italy and France. Contributors analyze food values, as expressed in daily life and livelihoods, through specific practices of production, exchange and consumption. Topics covered include Prague's urban agricultural scene, the perception of poverty in Moldova, and organic food cooperatives in Catalonia.