Political Energy and Political Evaporation: Evaluating the Practice of Shopping for Food System Change.

Local food movements rely on engaged farmers, gardeners, and shoppers to challenge the conventional food system through consumer-based tactics by advocating food systems change to reduce social injustice and environmental harm. While much literature engages in debate over the efficacy of such "lifestyle movements" to effect change, little analysis to date considers the rationale for and contexts in which lifestyle politics are used as an approach to address the socio-ecological impacts of conventional food production and consumption. Using interview data and participant observation collected from 57 leaders in eat-local initiatives in three Canadian cities, we analyze why leaders in the movement rely on consumer-based strategies to both initiate and sustain engagement from actors that might not otherwise engage in social movement mobilizations for food system change. We found that many "eat-local" leaders are aware of the political limitations of shopping for change tactics, but withhold explicit critiques of power in the food system from public debate. They do so in order to maintain a perception of optimism that they perceive as central to maintaining and increasing engagement of consumer actors in eat-local initiatives. This study advances research on informal participation in food movements by demonstrating how convivial engagement at the everyday level can sustain political participation and simultaneously obscure critical political talk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]