Eco-gastronomy

Eco-gastronomy is an approach to alternative consumption that stresses the importance of the interaction between humans and food and the effect produced by that. It aims to get a healthier and more sustainable food and, at the same time, to reduce the impact on the environment, from the productive and the consumptive side.

The Latin term 'eco' refers to how organisms relate to their environment, while 'gastronomy', according to food philosopher Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, is the intelligent knowledge of whatever concerns man’s nourishment.

The fusion of these two words creates the concept of eco-gastronomy. The prefix eco, therefore, is useful to highlight the connections between "the art and appreciation of food" and every issue related to the process of food production and consumption, from the environmental care to the social and ethical concerns.

Ecogastronomy, indeed, "links food and humans, while bringing attention to the responsibility that all people have for the health and well-being of our food ways"

The concept of eco-gastronomy belongs to the field of food consumption that is rather criticized and contested as it involves a series of ethical issues, such as immediate versus delayed gratification, nature versus culture, necessity versus luxury, body versus mind, etc.

In this context there are a series of forms of critical and alternative consumption, associated by their critiques (generally deriving from the homogenization of capitalist mode of production) and their proposals of alternative lifestyles. A cohesive movement of alternative consumption doesn't exist, since every form of alternative consumption differs in its target and scope. What these phenomena have in common is the belief that consumers can, and should, use their power of choice to modify market relations, in order to make them fairer and more conducive to a good life for all.

More than a simple form of alternative consumption, eco-gastronomy is an approach that can be adopted in this context. The same attention is given both to the individual and to the community/nature side. Regarding the scope, the eco-gastronomic approach tries to find alternative forms of integration in the capitalist culture, based on the attention given to the quality of food and on the relations between humans and their impact on the environment.

The concept indeed is strictly related to that one of Slow Food. In fact, the term eco-gastronomy was coined by the non-profit organization's founder, Carlo Petrini. While the latter can be defined as a movement, eco-gastronomy has broader and wider connotations: rather than a simple movement, it is an approach that can be adopted in order to fulfill some form of alternative consumption. The Slow food movement is a perfect example of a form of critical consumption that has adopted, throughout the years, an eco-gastronomic approach.

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Wikipedia