Ethical Eating in the Postsocialist and Socialist World

Current discussions of the ethics around alternative food movements--concepts such as "local," "organic," and "fair trade"--tend to focus on their growth and significance in advanced capitalist societies. In this groundbreaking contribution to critical food studies, editors Yuson Jung, Jakob A. Klein, and Melissa L. Caldwell explore what constitutes "ethical food" and "ethical eating" in socialist and formerly socialist societies. With essays by anthropologists, sociologists, and geographers, this politically nuanced volume offers insight into the origins of alternative food movements and their place in today's global economy. Collectively, the essays cover discourses on food and morality; the material and social practices surrounding production, trade, and consumption; and the political and economic power of social movements in Bulgaria, China, Cuba, Lithuania, Russia, and Vietnam. Scholars and students will gain important historical and anthropological perspective on how the dynamics of state-market-citizen relations continue to shape the ethical and moral frameworks guiding food practices around the world.

AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Ethical Eating and (Post)socialist AlternativesJakob A. Klein, Yuson Jung, and Melissa L. Caldwell1. Homogenizing Europe: Raw Milk, Risk Politics, and Moral Economies in Post-Socialist LithuaniaDiana Mincyte2. The Moral Significance of Food in Reform-Era Rural ChinaEllen Oxfeld3. Placing Alternative Food Networks: Farmers' Markets in Post-Soviet Vilnius, LithuaniaRenata Blumberg4. Ambivalent Consumers and the Limits of Certification: Organic Foods in Postsocialist BulgariaYuson Jung5. Connecting with the Countryside? "Alternative" Food Movements with Chinese CharacteristicsJakob A. Klein6. Vegetarian Ethics and Politics in Late-Socialist VietnamNir Avieli7. Agroecology and the Cuban NationMarisa Wilson8. Gardening for the State: Cultivating Bionational Citizens in Postsocialist RussiaMelissa L. CaldwellAfterword: Ethical Food Systems, Between Suspicion and HopeHarry G. WestContributorsIndex