Food activists, consumer strategies, and the democratic imagination: Insights from eat-local movements

TLDR

Scholars remain divided on the possibilities and limitations of conceptualizing social change through a consumer‑focused, “shopping for change” lens. The study investigates how eat‑local activists diagnose the industrial food system and the roles they envision for participants in sustainable food movements. The authors conduct a case study of eat‑local activism, using 57 activist interviews and participant observation in three Canadian cities. The study finds that while eat‑local activists possess sophisticated diagnostic frames and a politically thick democratic imagination, their prescriptions for change remain individualistic and market‑oriented, limiting the movement’s potential for broader eco‑social transformation.

Abstract

Scholars remain divided on the possibilities (and limitations) of conceptualizing social change through a consumer-focused, “shopping for change,” lens. Drawing from framing theory and the concept of the democratic imagination, we use a case study of “eat-local” food activism to contribute to this debate. We ask two questions: first, how do activists in the local food movement come to diagnose and critique the conventional industrial food system? and second, what roles do they envision for participants in the sustainable food movement? We address these questions by drawing from activist interview data (n = 57) and participant observation of the eat-local movement in three Canadian cities. Our findings illuminate a mixed picture of possibilities and limitations for consumer-based projects to foster social change. On the one hand, the diagnostic frames presented by food activists suggest skills in critical thinking, attention to structural injustice, and widespread recognition of the importance of collective mobilization. This framing suggests a politically thick democratic imagination among eat-local activists. In contrast, when it comes to thinking about prescriptions for change, activist understandings draw from individualistic and market-oriented conceptualizations of civic engagement, which indicates a relatively thin democratic imagination. These findings demonstrate that despite the sophisticated understandings and civic commitment of movement activists, the eat-local movement is limited by a reliance on individual consumption as the dominant pathway for achieving eco-social change.