The Anthropocene is not only a period of rapid environmental transformation but also a prolific moment of values changes. While the temporality dimensions of this phenomenon are a challenge to social sciences inquiry, it also presents a great opportunity for new methodologies to emerge. The intergenerational knot can be a useful methodological frame for understanding social change through the discussion of different values across different generations because, at the same time, it evidences differences and disagreement; it also carries the potential of mutually influencing and multiplying new food consumption practices. The present article focuses on intergenerational discussions through the case study of meat consumption. The young generation analyzed usually prioritizes environmental impact when choosing what to eat, however, other factors exert more significant influence on the family food consumption, such as their experiences of food deprivation, their views of what a “better life” consists, and their experience of social mobility. Therefore, first-hand ethnographic data was collected from university students who negotiated between personal values and family narratives around their household meat consumption in Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil. The intergenerational knot becomes a useful methodological frame to understand values change in social and environmental transformation processes in an inclusive way.

Around the world, social movements are protesting against the corporate food regime (Friedmann & McMichael, 1989), denouncing the injustices associated with its structural dynamics of neoliberal capitalism, patriarchal domination, racism, coloniality, epistemic violence, and anthropocentric exploitation (Motta, 2021b; Holt Giménez & Shattuck, 2011; Holt-Gimenez & Patel, 2012). Many food movements are calling for a socio-ecological transformation and creating alternative forms to produce, share, prepare, consume and dispose of food, based on relations of care, solidarity and respect. In their heterogeneity, they provide a good analytical lens to explore the multiple and intersectional dimensions of food inequalities denounced and the directions of change desired by organized movements from civil society (Motta, 2021a). But which are the food movements that mobilize for a socio-ecological transformation of food politics in Germany? What are the main dimensions and intersections of inequalities addressed by them?

Based on an explorative mapping, this research identifies relevant food movements in Germany, their discourses and agendas. It takes as units of analysis food movements organizations with considerable collective actions and participation in social mobilization on a national scale during the last 5 years (2018-2023). Using an analytical framework elaborated in dialogue with theoretical and conceptual works on food movements, food inequalities, and dynamics of transformation in the food regime, the empirical data is presented along the categories: types of movements and activist discourses, time of emergence, juridical form, dimensions of food inequalities addressed, categories of intersectional inequalities considered, spatial locus of action (urban/rural), phases of the food system, sphere of social change most frequently targeted by the food movements. Based on the data, the dynamics of transformations are discussed.

Applying a qualitative and quantitative methodology which combined content analysis and coding, the research results in a mapping of the actors (Mayring & Fenzl, 2019; Saldaña, 2021). This working paper aims to give a first overview of food activism in Germany by assessing the actors in this field of social mobilisation and analysing their emancipatory potentials and limits.

The large-scale protest “We’re Fed Up!” organized by the My agriculture alliance has been taking place every year since 2011 at the start of the Green Week agricultural trade fair in Berlin. The alliance campaigns for sustainable and fair agriculture and food production and calls for a turnaround in agriculture and nutrition. “We’re fed up!” is one of the central case studies of the BMBF junior research group Food for Justice: Power, Politics and Food Inequalities in a Bioeconomy at the Heidelberg Center for Ibero-American Studies, Heidelberg University. The project investigates different axes of food inequalities, in various scales and spatialities, and their dynamics of reproduction and change in food politics. The case study “We’re fed up!” explores the key justice demands that mobilize citizens to denounce food inequalities and call for alternative food policies in different regions of the world. On January 20, 2024, researchers from Food for Justice conducted a survey with participants in the “We’re fed up!” protest with the support of volunteer interviewers. The collected data provides insights on the demographics of the protesters, their concerns, political attitudes, and how they contribute to supporting a different approach to agriculture through their consumption and lifestyle choices. This brief summary presents the methods and selected results of the survey.

This publication records the central ideas that emerged from the self-organized activity “Food and nutrition security policy at municipal level: context and opportunities”, held virtually at the 5th National Research Meeting on Food and Nutrition Sovereignty and Security (V ENPSSAN, 2022). Guaranteeing the Human Right to Adequate Food and the scope of public policies on Food and Nutrition Security (FNS) necessarily involve recognizing the central role of municipalities in implementing actions and building local dialogues, in an integrated manner with other public authorities and government areas, as proposed by the National FNS System. In the debate, reflections emerged on monitoring population food security/insecurity, definitions and concepts associated with public FNS policies, reports of municipal experiences, as well as opportunities for resuming and strengthening FNS policies in municipalities. The debate gave rise to reflections on monitoring population food security/insecurity, definitions and concepts associated with public FNS policies, reports of municipal experiences, as well as highlighting opportunities for resuming and strengthening FNS policies in municipalities. Eight potential approaches were identified to contribute to the field of research on FNS public policies in the municipal context: participatory governance; territorial diversity and the rural-urban relationship; institutionalization; civil society action; intersectionality; scales and different spatialities; interface with the socio-ecological agenda; and state capacities. Finally, it also identified issues and challenges for the effectiveness of municipal FNS policies. This document brings collective contributions to the different windows of opportunity currently facing the various social actors involved in municipal FNS policies. In this regard, we highlight the resumption of the public agenda guided and strengthened by the federal government (from 2023), the resumption of the national CONSEA, and the occurrence of municipal elections in 2024.

Der Ausbruch des Coronavirus wurde im März 2020 zu einer globalen Pandemie erklärt, was viele Länder dazu veranlasste, sich abzuschotten, um die Krankheit einzudämmen und die Belastung der nationalen Gesundheitssysteme zu vermeiden oder zu verringern. In dem Maße, wie Arbeit und Studium ins Internet verlagert wurden und die soziale Distanzierung zu einer Sicherheitsregel wurde, mussten sich auch die sozialen Bewegungen anpassen. Darüber hinaus haben die Lebensmittelbewegungen an Bedeutung gewonnen, da eines der ersten Anliegen darin bestand, die Lebensmittelproduktion und -verteilung auf der ganzen Welt trotz der Abschaltungen aufrechtzuerhalten. In diesem Artikel werden die Auswirkungen der Covid-19-Pandemie auf die Slow-Food-Bewegung analysiert und untersucht, wie sie die Organisation, die Agenda und die Aktionen der Bewegung verändert hat. Er stützt sich auf empirische Untersuchungen in zwei Ländern: Brasilien und Deutschland, und analysiert drei Phasen der Pandemie, von den ersten Auswirkungen im Jahr 2020 bis zu den Anpassungen und Kontinuitäten in den Jahren 2021 und 2022. Diese Arbeit basiert auf persönlicher und virtueller Ethnografie und ist Teil einer umfassenderen Untersuchung der Bewegung in beiden Ländern.

Ziel dieses Arbeitspapiers ist es, einen Beitrag zur entstehenden Debatte zwischen Stadt- und Ernährungswissenschaften zu leisten, indem die soziopolitische Dimension des Ernährungssystems und seines städtischen Kontexts in den Vordergrund gerückt wird. Geleitet von den allgemeinen Forschungsfragen des Projekts „Food for Justice: Power, Politics and Food Inequalities in a Bioeconomy“, ist diese Untersuchung Teil einer Fallstudie zur Lebensmittelpolitik in der Stadt Belo Horizonte. Sie befasst sich mit den sozialen Innovationen der agrarökologischen und der Wohnungsbau-Bewegung der Stadt sowie mit den Bewohnern von Izidora, den Bewohnern der so genannten „informellen Siedlung“, deren Engagement im Kampf um Wohnraum und das Recht auf Stadt zu bemerkenswerten Erfolgen bei der Bildung von Aktivistenkoalitionen und der Neugestaltung städtischer Randgebiete geführt hat. Auf der Grundlage der digitalen ethnografischen Feldforschung, die ich zwischen Januar und Dezember 2020 durchgeführt habe, analysiere ich den Kontext, die Nutzung und die Reichweite dieser sozialen Innovationen als Instrument zur Veränderung der Stadtentwicklung in den Randgebieten von Belo Horizonte.