HOW FOOD FEARS FRAME CRITICISMS OF THE FOOD SYSTEM. A CASE STUDY OF CUSTOMERS OF FARMERS’ MARKETS
HOW FOOD FEARS FRAME CRITICISMS OF THE FOOD SYSTEM. A CASE STUDY OF CUSTOMERS OF FARMERS’ MARKETS

Summary/Abstract: The article investigates food fears in the context of the everyday food practices of customers of farmers’ marketsin Małopolska Voivodeship, Poland. The qualitative analysis of 15 individual in-depth interviews mostly concernstopics of negative evaluation and narratives justifying the exclusion of specific products, food practices andinstitutions of the food chain. In particular, the study focuses on ways of defining food fears, such as chemicalsin food, processed food, suspicious appearance and freshness of products and concerns associated with theplace of purchase. An in-depth analysis of these topics reveals broader criticism of the food system within thenarratives of the research subjects. This concerns redefinitions of relations between economic order and socialinstitutions, removing particular cultural meaning from it, fragmentation and distancing of the production processfrom consumption, a lack of transparency in the food chain, and the associated ignorance. The diagnosisresulting from the interviews is expressed as food fears: it has ramifications connected to the engagement andpractices of avoidance or minimisation of food threats and strategies of resistance. The analysis employs MaryDouglas’s structuralist theory of defining through negation and Peter Jackson’s food anxieties theory, as wellas concepts of ignorance, distrust and social embeddedness of economic practices.

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