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Identifying as a vegan is a public declaration of one's identity morals and lifestyle. Veganism is more than a diet; it is a philosophy and ethic. However, not all vegans hold the same norms and values. The differences are often determined by the reasons why one chooses to become a vegan. Using Goffman's theory of impression management and the presentation of sell; this qualitative study examines how sixteen self-defined ethical vegans negotiate contradictions in their ethics and behavior The vegans construct a sense of authenticity through accommodating strategies when they feel inauthentic. This is a two-prong process. They present a narrative of themselves in relation to the "other"—those they define as health vegans—and in relation to other ethical vegans. Through these narratives, this paper explores how these vegans negotiate the difficulties of living in an animal-based consumer-driven society in a manner that preserves their ethics. Additionally this paper observes how they cope when their behavior contradicts their identity as authentic vegans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper insists that the writing of Michael Pollan be analyzed with respect to its popularity among members of the liberal professional middle class. I understand Pollan's writing as lifestyle instruction, a technology of the self in Foucault's sense, offering readers tips for cultivating a more ethical relationship with food. While Pollan's advice often aligns with imperatives of neoliberal citizenship, his widespread uptake within this class formation is more reflective of ambivalence about neoliberalism than simply another instantiation of it. Pollan's work is productive of classed technologies of the self and an ethical, albeit highly ambivalent, form of neoliberal citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The way people produce, exchange and consume food in Cuba is underwritten by cultural and political economic rules as well as economic self-interest. These "rules" are not just formed from the top down, but also from the bottom up, though, as I will explain in this paper norms established by what I call the national moral economy often give cultural form to local practices of food provisioning. Despite extreme scarcities in the early 1990s and continuing difficulties obtaining food in the present dual economy Cubans often frame farming and household provisioning in terms of the national moral economy. The latter is, in turn, structured by values that have developed in Cuba over time such as asceticism and hard work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]