The ontological politics of freshness: Qualities of food and sustainability governance

Freshness is a key feature of contemporary food systems, however its industrial production as a quality of food carries adverse consequences. Accordingly, this paper approaches freshness as a matter of concern. Drawing on extensive fieldwork across sites of food production and consumption in the UK and Portugal, we identify four enactments of freshness. The analysis zooms in on the specific case of plastic food packaging and uses these enactments to consider a series of questions about realities and the relationships between them. Since packaging is an issue that readily overflows to encompass a broader suite of propositions about food, we argue that freshness is a suitable focus around which to assemble hybrid forums to debate future possibilities. Joining a body of recent work that brings relational-materialist sensibilities to bear on sustainability governance, we demonstrate that these ideas are not exhausted by a concern with the ways in which existing ontologies are brought together in policy. To conclude, we suggest that attention to the multiple ontologies of qualities complements and extends approaches that focus on objects by offering a conduit that brings understandings of markets into discussions of ontological politics.

Automated summary

This paper discusses the importance of freshness in food systems and identifies four enactments of freshness through extensive fieldwork in the UK and Portugal. The analysis focuses on plastic food packaging and uses these enactments to consider questions about realities and relationships. The authors argue that freshness is a suitable focus for creating hybrid forums to debate future possibilities and suggest that attention to the multiple ontologies of qualities complements discussions of ontological politics.