A taste of ethical consumption at a slow food festival.
This paper examines the motives and experiences of attendees at a Slow Food festival to gain an understanding of how people engage with ethical consumer projects. Slow Food is a global social movement aimed at promoting food that is regionally, ethically, and sustainably produced, and convivially consumed. The movement uses culinary tourist events, such as food festivals and farmers' markets, to promote its philosophy and attract new members. There have been no empirical studies of ethical consumption using a Slow Food event as a case study. This study uses an ethnographic approach and a framework of virtue ethics to explore the views of people attending a major Slow Food festival in the city of Melbourne, Australia. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in situ with 33 participants (19 consumers and 14 stallholders) to discover their rationales for attending the festival, and their perspectives on ethical consumption. Transcripts were coded and thematically analysed, resulting in three themes reflecting varying degrees of public virtues (altruistic motivations) and private virtues (personal wellbeing): the quest for virtuous lifestyles through ethical consumption, the importance of co-production, and the challenges of putting ethical consumer projects like Slow Food into daily practice. The findings reveal the manner in which virtue ethics affects foodways and highlights the contingent and challenging nature of practising ethical eating.
Menzies Health Institute of Queensland, Griffith University, Building G40 Gold Coast Campus, Southport, Queensland, 4222, Australia. Electronic address: lauren.williams@griffith.edu.au.
Lauren T
LT
Williams
Faculty of Education and Arts, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia.
John
J
Germov
Faculty of Education and Arts, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia.
Sascha
S
Fuller
School of Humanities and Social Science, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia.
Maria
M
Freij
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D001315:Australia; D002648:Child; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D004032:Diet / Q000941:ethics*; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D005523:Food Supply / Q000941:ethics*; D006693:Holidays; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D010684:Philosophy; D028722:Virtues; D055815:Young Adult
Alternative food networks; Culinary tourism; Food habits; Foodways; Slow food; Virtue ethics