Gastronativism

Parasecoli coins and explains the concept of gastronativism" to help us better understand the ways food has become a powerful ideological tool in political debates, protests, and negotiations. The overarching goal is to demonstrate what gastronativism is, along with the social and political work gastronativism does by means of a wide array of examples from all over the world, with an emphasis on developments during the last decade. Parasecoli describes how globalization and neoliberalism together drivethe rise of gastronativism. He also points out that debates around food are rarely about food. The central role of food in everyday life, and its role in determining collective identities, help link it to a much deeper and more complex socio-economic dynamics. How is food used for political purposes? Food offers a unique perspective, because it connects very personal experiences to global systems. Because it is so intimate and emotionally powerful, food is the perfect prism through which to view nativism. Especially after the 2008 financial crisis, food has been used by those who feel they have been excluded or victimized by neoliberal globalization to express fears and resentment generated by changes wrought by globalization. As a reaction, there is among some a desire to go back to one's own food and culinary roots to anchor their identity. Hence gastronativism. This book poses questions about how neoliberal policies set the stage for a range of food movements to embrace local ingredients and encourageheritage recipes. This phenomenon can express itself in local and regional foods, agro-biodiversity, and artisanal know-how. It can support movements for equality, justice, and resistance against transnational corporations. It can also support groups that give local communities choices about what they produce, what they import, and what they consume. Other forms of gastronativism, however, are expressions of nationalist, supremacist, and xenophobic projects that want to maintain or increase inequalities,rendering immigrants, ethnic minorities, and underprivileged people as scapegoats to make up for fears of loss of social prestige, status, and economic well-being. Parasecoli explores both the exclusionary and the non-exclusionary forms of this global trend"--