Food Culture, Consumption and Society

Food Culture, Consumption and Society

Food Culture, Consumption and Society Paolo Corvo University of Gastronomic Sciences, Italy

Paolo Corvo 2015 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6 10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2015 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-56100-1 ISBN 978-1-137-39817-8 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9781137398178 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

With thanks to Giovanni Bove and Beatrice Morandina, the translators of the book.

Contents Acknowledgements viii 1 Introduction 1 2 Food Culture and Society 25 3 Crisis and the New Patterns of Food Consumption 52 4 Problematics of Food 88 5 Food, Environment and Quality of Life 110 Bibliography 154 Analytic Index 165 vii

Acknowledgements Writing a book requires time, energy and resources. It is sometimes necessary to be on one s own to focus on this task, and it is during these moments that one thinks of all the people within both professional and personal spheres who have helped in this endeavour. I am grateful to my translators Beatrice Morandina and Giovanni Bove, who have painstakingly and patiently worked on translating my text. Without their invaluable assistance and hard work, I couldn t have completed this book. I look forward to many more such collaborations. I am grateful to all the authors who have written manuals on food and nutrition as their work has always been a rich source of information. I would like to especially thank my colleagues Lotte Holm and Berit Kaae, University of Copenhagen (during my visiting professorship in 2014), and Jon Sundbo, Roskilde University, who have given me the benefit of their counsel. The seminars held at their universities and the conversations we have had have contributed to my formulations on various topics discussed in this book. I ll always remember their excellent hospitality and I hope we have many more opportunities to work together. My studies on food also owe much to the lectures organised by the Food Study Group of the British Sociological Association, which I belong to, and which is excellently directed by Hannah Lambie- Mumford and Rebecca O Connell. The originality of the themes and the quality of the lecturers have been essential inspiration for my research. Thanks to the profitable approach of the Università di Scienze Gastronomiche, Bra-Pollenzo, where I have been teaching and researching since 2007, I have had the opportunity to study aspects such as holistic vision of food and interdisciplinary perspectives. I would like to thank President Carlo Petrini, Rector Piercarlo Grimaldi and all my colleagues (particularly Michele Fino, pro-rector, Nicola Perullo and Andrea Pieroni) for their constant encouragement to deal with food in an innovative way and in a spirit more attentive towards the most delicate and complex problems. My exchanges viii

Acknowledgements ix with them have helped fill some of the many gaps in my knowledge of food and have deepened my methodological evaluations. These associations have and will continue to enrich me at professional and personal levels. I am particularly grateful to Filomena Maggino and Giampaolo Nuvolati for welcoming me to AIQUAV (Associazione Italiana per gli studi sulla Qualità della Vita), endorsing my competencies and supporting the creation of the Food and Life Quality Department. Many thanks also to my friends and colleagues at the department for their help in creating a real multidisciplinary environment which made the study of the holistic dimension of food possible. I would like to thank Andrew James, Senior Commissioning Editor at Palgrave Macmillan, for believing in me and for suggesting that I write a book on food and consumption. Thanks also to Harriet Barker, Commissioning Editor for Sociology at Palgrave Macmillan, who constantly and diligently followed the many stages in the book s progress. I hope the quality of the final product meets with your expectations. I wish to thank my dearest friends, who have always been by my side in these years and who have encouraged me to press on with this work. I could have never written this book without their help. I am deeply indebted to my brother, Daniele, for all his support and for being a support through the process of writing this book. Finally, I owe thanks to my readers who share with me the same interest in food and its dynamics. I do hope you find my work useful. Please send your questions, suggestions and feedback to p.corvo@ unisg.it.